Part 297. The battle continues at York

The next few days will witness the continuation of the battle for inclusion in the Church of England.  Yes, it's the General Synod seeking to make some progress.  The arguments have been rehearsed to the point of exhaustion.  The opposing sides have formed umbrella bodies to organise their respective strategies to promote their ideas and snipe at the opposition.  The two bodies are:

The Alliance.

About us  

The Alliance is an informal partnership of leaders from networks within the Church of England including the Church of England Evangelical Council, Church Society, the HTB Network, Living Out, Myriad, New Wine, ReNew and The Society; who are represented on the Church of England's General Synod by groups including the Evangelical Group on General Synod, Global Majority members, the Catholic Group on General Synod, and by members of the House of Bishops.

Together we exist to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ afresh in each generation to the people of England. We want to play our part in achieving this vision of revitalising the Church of England. We long to see a church that is younger and more diverse; one which is growing as missionary disciples live out their calling as followers of Jesus in all of life. And this is why together, we have written a number of letters to Archbishops, Bishops and office holders of the Church of England concerning the direction of travel that the Church of England has been taken on, and the poor governance that has resulted in us finding ourselves where we now are - with a Church of England that is divided right down the middle over Prayers of Love and Faith.

Letters

We have written several letters, setting out the unintended consequences of the proposed changes and the issues they raise in terms of Western elitism (ignoring the views of the Global South) and unlawfulness (failing to follow the canons of the Church of England which are designed to preserve

Join with us

The Alliance includes the leaders of a number networks within the Church of England:

Catholic Group on General Synod, Forward in Faith, the Society, the Global Majority reps on General Synod, HTB Network, New Wine, Church of England Evangelical Council, Evangelical Group on General Synod, ReNew, Church Society, Living Out and MYRIAD.

We are inviting clergy and lay leaders to join with the Alliance.

Support us in prayer, keep up to date with our news, be a voice for our cause in your church and give financially if you are able.

We will listen to you, keep you updated on our activity and seek to represent your needs as we work to secure the best way forward.

Together for the Church of England 

About us

Together is a new organisation, bringing together members of General Synod, a wider network of Church of England members, and working with other partner organisations to form a single campaign around two fundamental objectives:

*To unite those seeking to remove all discrimination in the Church of England, especially where it is embodied in the formal and legal structures of the Church.

*To work for a Church of England in which people of differing convictions live together in unity.

We formed in early 2024 with support from a wide range of partners and are setting up diocesan networks to create a space for those who support our aims to work together and encourage each other. We seek to work with the governance processes of the Church of England, enabling people to have a voice on issues of inclusion and belonging.

As a national Church for the whole of England, we believe that there should be no discrimination on grounds of ethnicity, disability, sex, gender, gender identity, sexuality, mental health, neurodiversity, marital status, socio-economic background or economic power. Christ is for all and we are called to dismantle the barriers we construct that exclude people unnecessarily. The focus for Together is particularly on the formal and legal structures within the Church, and we support our many partners in challenging the cultural, sometimes subconscious discrimination that prevent people participating fully in the life of the Church.