Church deserves better than closed-door talks

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/images/issue2.pdf 

E D I T O R I A L
Church deserves better than closed-door talks
Same-sex discussion requires openness

Leanne Larmondin
EDITOR

Organizers of the meeting of General  Synod took two Wednesday afternoon “conversations” about the contentious matter of same-sex blessings behind closed doors – excluding members of the media, but still allowing observers of all stripes to hear the discussion.

A strange choice.

The decision was made by members of the meeting’s agenda committee – a group of members and officers of General Synod. The chair, Barbara Burrows, and the General Secretary, Archdeacon Michael Pollesel, explained to Anglican Journal staff that they wanted Synod members to receive information and discuss the matter in a “safe space.” Similar conversations about the Windsor Report, financial development and church governance, though, were not closed to the media.

(The conversations were added to the agenda to introduce members to complex issues before they are debated in plenary.) There was reason to hope that the church had matured to the point of being able to trust that its members were sophisticated enough to engage sexuality issues in an open fashion. Members of the Council of General Synod – the church’s governing body between meetings of General Synod – held the same  conversation as recently as last March with the media present.

Surely, after two decades of church conversation about sexuality, those charged with making crucial decisions about their church at its highest level ought to have enough confidence in their convictions to consider such an in-camera session unnecessary and counterproductive.

This decision can only be attributed – and may possibly add – to an atmosphere of fear and apprehension. But the church has important decisions ahead of it and its decision makers must face them with forthrightness and courage.

A “private” conversation in a group as large as 100-150 is absurd. The wider church was shut out of one of synod’s most important conversations yesterday. The church deserves better.

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