General Synod -- What Happened:

The full agenda for the February group of sessions may be found on the main Church of England web site: www.cofe.anglican.org

Monday

The Synod sessions opened formally at 5pm on Monday with prayers, introductions welcomes and so forth. Appointments were approved and a motion from Ely Diocese to change the rules governing who may minister eucharistic services was passed in an amended form (see GS MISC 763B).

Tuesday

Tuesday's session saw the presentation of a report on the Church's role in Higher Education, emphasising the importance and diversity of HE Chaplaincy. The proposed motion was passed with amendments calling upon the Government and HE insitutions to explicitly recognise "that Higher Education is properly concerned with a broad understanding of education and with the development of the whole person".

Looking ahead the Board of Education has now been requested "to prepare a resource guide on good practice for Chaplains and lay Anglicans working in universities and colleges".

This was followed by the presentation of the second phase in the Review of Clergy Terms of Service. While the press represented this in negative terms - 'the end of a job for life', the changes were stimulated by the DTI's discussion document on Employment Status in relation to Statutory Employment Rights. The objective is to offer clergy regular and secure employment rather than to take it away.

An amended version of the original motion accepting the report's commendations was passed expressing "grave reservations" about the transfer of parsonage houses, churches and church yards to the relevant Diocesan Board of Finance as "benefice property".

Wednesday

Wednesday focused on the prospect of Women Bishops. First the Bishop of Rochester presented the report Women Bishops in the Church of England? (GS 1557; reader's guide also available).

The afternoon debate included the approval of revisions to the new Common Worship Ordinal and consideration of the most recent follow-up to the Hind report (Formation for Ministry within a Learning Church) looking at alternative sources of funding for married ordinands. Debate was adjourned at 7pm.

Thursday

Two key debates were scheduled for Thursday. The first considered The Windsor Report -- a report produced by Archbishop Robin Eames and a committee on behalf of the Anglican Communion which looks at the way the homosexuality debate has divided the church and how further division can be avoided.

The debate focused on the House of Bishops' response, confusingly entitled The Windsor Report (GS 1570). Several amendments were tabled against the main motion, as could be anticipated from the different responses to the report already in print - for example the Evangelical Council's Repair the Tear and A Liberal Response produced by the Modern Churchpeople's Union.

After strenuous debate the original motion welcoming the report, encouraging the Primates to "secure unity within the constraints of truth and charity" and promising prayerful support for the Archbishop of Canterbury was passed without amendment.

The afternoon began with farewells, not least to David Hope, retiring from his position as Archbishop of York to take up a pastorate in the Yorkshire Dales.

The final debate (following on from the approval of the new Weekday Lectionary) considered the new report in the environment, Sharing God's Planet. Several amendments were carried, expanding the full motion to include a call for the church to "lead by example".

Can the whole church take seriously this call to take better care of the earth, or will it be caught fiddling while Rome burns? The Mission and Public Affairs Council will report back in July 2008.