General Synod (Monday)

General Synod raises questions. One in my mind as I participated in three services yesterday, in three different churches, in which "unaccountably", General Synod received zilch mention in the intercessions, is "what relevance does GS have to the weekly life of Anglican congregants?"

Another question is, "will General Synod be courageous and make hard decisions in areas of our life for which no decision will be a decision to maintain dysfunctionality, low achievement, smoothing the pillow of the things which are dying before our eyes, etc?"

For one of those areas - which I intentionally do not name here - it looks like GS might do the right thing and make the hard decisions! Here is Bishop Kelvin Wright on one aspect of what was a superb and joyful Sunday for him (as you can read in his whole post):

"There are several areas of dysfunction in our church's national life that we have been putting enormous effort, intelligence and ingenuity into ignoring for decades now. Not so much an elephant in the parlour as a whole herd complete with matriarchs, calves, rogue bulls and an elaborate camp following of poachers and game wardens. Today in discussion, some of them were named and identified with refreshing candour and the honesty which is the only precursor to real change; so, for the second time in the day I surprised by joy. Earlier, during the opening eucharist, the Gospel read in the church had been the story in John 5 of Jesus healing the man at the pool of Beth-zatha. In that story Jesus begins his healing by asking the one question without which healing is impossible: "Do you want to be healed?" This is the question we in the Anglican Church must hear and answer. Do we want to be healed? Or are we so happy in the comfort of our dysfunction that we will, albeit in slow motion, die like an octopus? To answer it, of course we must admit our need of healing."

I am not sure what "several areas" means, but it must mean at least one area of particular dysfunction which many are concerned about. Perhaps by the end of the week it will be appropriate to name that area. But if you are desperate to find out before then, all is not lost!