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Synod gets stuck in factionalism, but stumbles into a reasonable compromise on safeguarding reform - and in between manages to unban gluten-free Communion wafers

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Tim Wyatt
Feb 14, 2025
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Hello! This week’s Critical Friend is all about the General Synod of the Church of England, of which I was privileged/doomed to attend this week.

Read on to find out how the synod got stuck into safeguarding reform but did not go quite far enough for some survivors. Then, the synod banned before speedily un-banning gluten-free Communion wafers in church. Next, read about how we are finally getting round to asking the real questions about the Prayers of Love and Faith. And at the end, how we allowed factionalism to torpedo a probably quite necessary conversation on how we can appoint new bishops at a time of bitter division.

There’s also a link to my latest podcast: Should Christians fear our new social media overlords in the age of Trump?

Click the button below to get The Critical Friend sent to your email inbox for free every Friday morning, and I would really appreciate it too if you could sign up as a paid subscriber - it’s just £5 a month or £50 a year and comes with all sorts of l…

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