“DISCIPLINES of prayer”, liturgy, and contemplation of scripture are the “wellsprings” for faith, the Archbishop of York told the General Synod on Friday, in his presidential address at the start of a five-day meeting in York.
Research on recent growth in church attendance appears to show a particular increase in attendance at “churches that offer a depth of tradition”, along with those that are “becoming more diverse”, he said.
Referring to the Bible Society’s Quiet Revival report (News, 11 April), Archbishop Cottrell suggested that there was a “more spiritually aware generation of younger people exploring faith”.
The Church of England, he said, needed to respond to this by “renewing the catechetical life of the Church so that each of our churches and all our parishes really is a school for disciples where people receive, experience, and learn the way of Christ”.
Friday was an appropriate day to remember this, he said, because it was the feast day of St Benedict — “the father of Western monasticism” — who wrote of establishing “a school in the Lord’s service”.
Christians, Archbishop Cottrell said, should be “enchanted and transformed by what God has done in Jesus Christ” and “offer the world a narrative shot through with hope: hope for salvation in Jesus Christ”.
The Archbishop also spoke about assisted dying, first by implication, and then explicitly. “My understanding of the dignity and value of every life and every moment of life comes directly from my Christian faith,” he said.
“When we lose something as foundational as decisions over life and death, we are in danger of losing other safeguards and provisions as well,” he said, before thanking the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, and other bishops in the House of Lords for their “principled and persistent opposition” to the Terminally Ill (End of Life) Bill (News, 20 June).
The original agenda had been amended to include an item on assisted dying on Tuesday, he said. The Synod had previously debated the topic in 2022, when it voted by a large majority in favour of supporting its prohibition (News, 15 July 2022).
On the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process, “we seem no nearer a settlement which will hold us together,” Archbishop Cottrell said. He suggested that this showed the unity of a “common baptism” and “common hope”.
“We do not let go of each other,” he said. “How many other organisations would go this far with such disagreement?”
Archbishop Cottrell went on to thank the Church Commissioners for “their groundbreaking witness in transition pathways on climate change”, and for the work of Project Spire: the £100-million “impact investment” fund which is intended to support communities affected by the transatlantic slave trade.
Project Spire is not on the agenda for the July group of sessions, but has recently been the subject of public debate, after receiving criticism from a group of historians and Synod members (News, 11 July).
Also absent from the agenda is a diocesan motion from Carlisle on the subject of Palestine. In the Business Committee debate which followed Archbishop Cottrell’s address, the Archdeacon of West Cumbria, the Ven. Stewart Fyfe (Carlisle), quoted an article in the Church Times, in which the Rector of St Andrew’s, Ramallah, Fr Fadi Diab, writes that “when the General Synod claims it does not have time to discuss the motion, it is effectively saying that Palestinians — and Palestinian Christians in particular — do not matter” (News, 11 July).
“What will it take for this motion to be debated?” Archdeacon Fyfe asked.
The Bishop in Europe, Dr Robert Innes, said that, at the World Council of Churches (WCC), for which he represents the Church of England, “the debate on Palestine was the most important debate we had.”
He was “slightly disappointed” that the Carlisle motion had not been tabled, and asked whether the Business Committee would find time to consider “this appalling international situation”.
In response, the chair of the Business Committee, Robert Hammond (Chelmsford) said that he had heard the comments, and that the committee “understand the urgency” of the subject.
