Reactions to the Church of England General Synod’s vote on Palestine

Here are two reactions to the vote in the Church of England’s General Synod –

Why the Church of England has got Israel wrong – James Patrick at Premier Christianity.

“Dear Archbishop Sarah,

In light of the controversial motion passed at General Synod yesterday, your five-day pilgrimage in the Holy Land just three weeks ago could appear to be a well-timed advertisement in its support. Even so, your concluding pastoral letter wisely steered clear of the worst excesses of the Kairos Palestine II document commended in the motion. KPII accuses Israel 30 times of ‘genocide’, and claims that the State of Israel is ‘racist’ and colonialist from its origins (1.3; 2.1; 3.3; 4.2), a listed example of antisemitism in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition adopted by the Church of England in 2018. It is no wonder that British Jewish and Christian leaders alike have expressed their deep concerns about this motion, which promotes incendiary accusations rejected by our own government. …”

A Shameful Day for the Church of England – Julian Mann at The Daily Sceptic.

“The atmosphere at the Church of England’s General Synod after it passed its shameful anti-Israel motionwas frighteningly complacent. From where I was sitting in the press gallery on July 13th the members in the chamber seemed to be very pleased with themselves.

But unless these largely middle-class Anglicans had returned home to an enclosed-order monastery after their meeting in the York University central hall, how could they fail to register the impact of the nuclear bomb they had just let off?  …”

Image: Church of England General Synod, 13 July 2026.

See also Ian Paul’s speech during the debate –

CofE General Synod Private Member’s Motion affirming intimate same-sex relationships narrowly defeated

From The Church of England Evangelical Council –

“A Private Member’s Motion seeking to affirm that committed, faithful, intimate same-sex relationships are compatible with Christian discipleship was narrowly defeated at this week’s meeting of the Church of England’s General Synod in York.

The motion, proposed by Professor Helen King and amended by the Very Revd Christopher Dalliston, was debated on Monday 13 July as part of the Church’s continuing dialogue around marriage and sexual ethics. …”

– News from CEEC. Emphasis added.

NSW Presbyterians vote on whether women can be elders

John Sandeman at The Other Cheek reports on today’s vote in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in NSW –

“The Presbyterian Church of Australia in NSW (PCNSW) General Assembly voted in favour of an overture (motion) that women can not be elders, today. The vote passed 136 to 61. The meeting took place at PLC Sydney in Croydon.

Technically, the decision is not final. The General Assembly also voted that the (sustained) passed overture must be sent down to all regional presbyteries for a vote. Presbyterians have a process called The Barrier Act, which calls for presbyteries to vote for or against the overture unamended. If a majority of presbyteries vote for the overture, it will return to the General Assembly next time it meets. If it is passed by the next assembly, it becomes part of the church code (law). Given today’s overwhelming vote this decision is vanishingly unlikely to be overturned. …”

– Full post here. Photo: The Other Cheek.

A Chaplain’s Vindication

Andrea Williams, Director of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre in Great Britain, shines a light on the “institutional self-loathing” of the Church of England and the toll on a minister of the gospel –

“Dr Bernard Randall’s seven-year ordeal is one of the most extraordinary and disturbing cases I and the team at the Christian Legal Centre have ever had the privilege of being involved in.

Here was a Church of England chaplain, preaching in a Church of England chapel, in a school with a Church of England ethos, giving a sermon rooted in Church of England doctrine.

He encouraged pupils to think, to debate, and to love their neighbours. He did not bully. He did not harass. He did not incite hatred. He did what a Christian minister is called to do. …

The Church of England should have defended Bernard immediately. It should have recognised that a chaplain in a Christian school must be free to articulate Christian doctrine.

Instead, it joined the pile-on. It blacklisted him, demanded he submit to a psychological assessment by someone whose work included assessing serious offenders, and left him shut out of ministry for years.…”

– Read it all at The Critic. Photo: Christian Concern.

See also:

Chaplain wins double vindication after sermon on identity – Christian Concern.

“…it was the way the Church of England treated him that beggared belief. He was blacklisted by his church denomination over baseless safeguarding concerns.

Had he preached in a CofE place of worship, he could have faced disciplinary action.”

U.K. clergyman cleared after 7-year legal battle over gender ideology

The latest in a long-running saga –

“The Rev. Bernard Randall, 53, an Anglican clergyman, reached a settlement with his former employer and was cleared in a Church of England safeguarding investigation after seven years of litigation, according to the Christian Legal Centre.

Randall in 2019 preached a sermon regarding gender ideology while working as a chaplain at an Anglican school, Trent College. He taught, in accordance with the Church of England’s official doctrine, that marriage was between one man and one woman. He said students should debate secular teachings on gender ideology, while urging them to respect alternate views.

The school reported Randall to a government counterterrorism agency and eventually fired him, while he simultaneously faced an inquiry from the Church of England and was barred from preaching. …” (emphasis added)

– Report from World News Group.

Statement from Christian Concern.

“… There has been no apology for the remarkable fact that the Church took nearly seven years to reach its conclusion, whereas the secular LADO took just one day to determine that it was not a safeguarding matter but rather an ‘issue regarding the subject’s beliefs which ran contrary to his employers [Trent College].’ The Church of England’s bishops declared in 2021 that Dr Randall’s sermon contained ‘nothing … outside the doctrine and teaching of the Church of England’, making the contrast in treatment even more extraordinary.

The independent investigator also said: ‘It is a matter for the Designated Safeguarding Lead for the Diocese of Derby as to what they feel is an appropriate role for Dr Randall to be considered for. He may choose to apply for a licence, for Permission to Officiate (PtO) or may apply for another role within a school or another educational facility.’

It now remains to be seen how the Derby Diocese and Bishop of Derby will actively help and support Dr Randall back into full time ministry within the CofE.” (emphasis added)

Earlier posts.

Photo: Christian Concern.

Two Paths Forward: What ACC-19 reveals about the nature of the Anglican Communion

At The American Anglican Council, Canon Mark Eldredge considers the just-completed meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (of the old Anglican Communion) –

“The recent meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC-19) once again brought into focus a question Anglicans have wrestled with for years: What truly holds the Anglican Communion together?

News coverage of the meeting understandably focused on discussions surrounding the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals and the differing perspectives expressed by delegates from across the Communion, but beneath the procedural debates lies a much deeper issue. The real question isn’t simply whether the Communion should adjust its governing structures but whether genuine communion can exist apart from a shared commitment to the apostolic faith. …

We are told that there’s been ‘little evidence of widespread support for GAFCON’s plan to leave the Anglican Communion,’ even while the article [by the Episcopal News Service] acknowledges that Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, and other provinces have continued to absent themselves from Canterbury-led gatherings. Both realities are stated in the same sentence! I can’t help but wonder if the Episcopal News Service reporter was being willfully ignorant or not. The ‘little evidence’ of GAFCON support includes the absentee provinces that make up most of the world’s Anglicans! Whether one agrees with every aspect of GAFCON’s vision or not, the continued absence of these GAFCON provinces signals that the present tensions aren’t ‘little’ or temporary. They reflect convictions that developed over many years concerning doctrine, authority, and the future of Anglican witness, and they can’t be ignored. …”

– Read it all.

See also:

Should the ACC Endorse the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals? – Bishop Glenn Davies writes at The Living Church (this was published before ACC-19) –

“In December 2024, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith, and Order (IASCUFO) released The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals: Renewing the Instruments of the Anglican Communion, with a Supplementary Report released in March 2026. It was two years in the writing, having been commissioned by the 18th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), in response to the 2022 Lambeth Conference Call on Anglican Identity. The reports will be considered by the Anglican Consultative Council at its meeting in Belfast in June 2026. …”

As part of his conclusion, Bishop Davies argues,

“Unfortunately, neither proposal meets the challenge of the hour. The changes to the 1930 Resolution, as outlined above, actually weaken the definition of the nature of the Communion as a fellowship of Churches bound by Holy Scripture, as successive Lambeth Conferences have affirmed.”

– Read it all.

Graphic – The ACC-19 logo, via the Anglican Communion website.

Anglican Consultative Council refuses to give up Ecclesiastical power

“Why are we not surprised?

The 19th Anglican Consultative Council, meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland, voted 72–8 on July 4 to leave the Archbishop of Canterbury’s role as the spiritual and ecclesiastical figurehead of the Anglican Communion untouched. Delegates declined to adopt the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals — the most serious attempt in a generation to reckon with post-colonial reality — and called instead for three more years of ‘discernment and conversation.’

Three more years! When the ecclesiastical establishment wants to kill something, it does not shoot it; it studies it to death. The Windsor Report, the Anglican Covenant, the ‘listening process,’ Indaba — the graveyard of Anglican reform is littered with commissions, consultations and continuing conversations, and now the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals join them in the long grass. The ACC will not even take the matter up again until its next meeting in 2029, hosted by the Church of North India. By then the question may well have answered itself. …

There were voices in Belfast who saw it clearly. The Rev. Berthier Lainirina of the Province of the Indian Ocean warned the council that without structural change, his province and other orthodox churches might conclude they no longer have any place in the Communion at all, lamenting that delegates preferred to pretend all was well when it manifestly is not. …”

– David Virtue comments on the not-surprising lack of action by the 19th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, part of the old Anglican Communion.

Photo: ACC Members, Commission and Network Representatives, Staff and ecumenical guests at ACC-19.

Credit, Neil Turner, Anglican Communion News Service.

Canada steps up its war on the Bible

“The Canadian parliament has passed Bill C-9, known as the Combating Hate Act; it received Royal Assent on June 18 and the provisions come into force on July 18. Mark Carney, the liberal Prime Minister, considers that the legislation is ‘a huge step forward in our mission to build a stronger, safer country’.

Bill C-9 will usher in a ‘dark day’ for Canadians of faith. Conservative MP Brad Redekopp described the Bill as ‘a tool to enforce liberal DEI ideology while leaving fundamental freedoms dangerously exposed’. Such is the danger to the church that the legislation been dubbed the ‘Bible Ban’ Bill. …”

– Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack, retired Presbyterian minister in Scotland, wrote this opinion piece for TCW.

A short video and prayer for Gafcon Sunday

If your church observes Gafcon Sunday tomorrow, this video and the notes below from Gafcon might be of use –

“Around the world, biblically faithful Anglicans like you are praying and giving to support the ministry and mission of the Global Anglican Communion. We invite you to join our General Secretary, Bishop Paul Donison, in praying the GAFCON collect today.

Around the world today, parishes like yours will be ministering in Word and Sacrament, and GAFCON Sunday is a great time for us to reflect on what the Lord is doing in His global Church.

Thank you for standing with us! Thank you for praying for the work of the Global Anglican Communion, and for your partnership with GAFCON. None of this would be possible without the faithful stewardship of generous partners like you.

So today, please

Pray — Lift the Global Anglican Communion before the Lord. Pray for our archbishops, bishops, clergy, and lay leaders — especially those in hostile and dangerous contexts who pay a real price for their faithfulness.

Share — Mention GAFCON Sunday from the pulpit or in your small group. Post about it. The breadth of this fellowship is its strength.

Give — Make a generous gift today. As Paul writes, “God loves a cheerful giver” — and there is much reason for joy in what your gift makes possible (2 Corinthians 9:7).

We are grateful for every prayer offered and every gift given.”

Link to the video.

This Sunday is Gafcon Sunday

Archbishop Miguel Uchoa, Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Brazil and Vice-Chairman of the Global Anglican Council, shares why GAFCON Sunday matters and why you should partner with us in prayer and with your most generous gift today.

From Gafcon:

“What began as a conference became a movement, and, by God’s grace, is now the home for biblically faithful Anglicans around the world.

The Global Anglican Communion announced at G26 in Abuja early this year is not a new communion, but the same Anglican Communion now reordered with leadership that is both biblically faithful and truly global.

And GAFCON Sunday is your opportunity to give generously to this work that is impacting millions around the world.

You are supporting our work in:

Theological education for the next generation of orthodox clergy and bishops, many in contexts where sound training is scarce or actively opposed.

Frontline mission among the unreached — including partnerships across the world, including in the Middle East region, and the re-evangelization of Europe.

Relational infrastructure that holds together our provinces across cultural, linguistic, and national divides — bound not by institutional power but by a shared confession of the Jerusalem Declaration.

Global Gatherings like our upcoming G27 prayer conference for laity in Brazil, and our next major assembly in Athens in 2028 for GAFCON V.

None of this happens without faithful, generous partners like you.

Three Ways to Participate on 28 June 2026

Pray — Lift the Global Anglican Communion before the Lord. Pray for our archbishops, bishops, clergy, and lay leaders — especially those in hostile and dangerous contexts who pay a real price for their faithfulness.

Share — Forward this email. Mention GAFCON Sunday from the pulpit or in your small group. Post about it. The breadth of this fellowship is its strength.

Give — Make a generous gift before or on June 28. As Paul writes, “God loves a cheerful giver” — and there is much reason for joy in what your gift makes possible (2 Corinthians 9:7).

We are grateful for every prayer offered and every gift given. You are not a donor at a distance — you are a participant in something the Lord is doing across the earth. Thank you for your partnership.”

Links:

Link to the video.

Donate to Gafcon.

“Theology has consequences” — The Episcopal Church heads for Extinction

“It was over 30 years ago that the Wall Street Journal ran an analysis of the Episcopal Church that had the unforgettable headline, ‘The Episcopalian Goes the Way of the Dodo.’ …

This was a prediction made over three decades ago that the Episcopal Church in the United States would go extinct, and that was simply from a dispassionate look at the statistics…”

– in his The Briefing for 24 June 2026, Albert Mohler comments 0n the planned sale of The Episcopal Church’s headquarters at 815 Second Avenue, New York.

Related:

Presiding bishop authorizes marketing of Episcopal Church Center building in New York City – The Episcopal Church website.

“Celebrate Pride Month with pride resources” – TEC website.

Bishops after attack on Anglican cathedral in Nairobi

“‘If what we saw happen in All Saints Cathedral Nairobi is anything to go by, where a meeting was disrupted by goons, who were so confident as to even threaten the policemen present, a grave danger awaits us!’ affirmed the bishops of Kenya in a pastoral letter…’

The incident refers to the attack by unidentified young men on motorcycles on All Saints Cathedral, belonging to the Anglican Church of Kenya, in Nairobi on June 12 during a public event discussing the state budget. …”

– Report from Catholic news service Fides.

The Anglican Church of Canada has published a [trial] euthanasia liturgy

From Anglican Samizdat in Canada –

“The state in Canada has euthanised around 80,000 people as part of its Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) programme since its inception in 2016. That’s one in 20 deaths. So far, you have to be over 18 and of sound mind to request termination. The state even pays for it regardless of income, a claim it can’t make about dental care.

To solemnise the occasion, the Anglican Church of Canada has published a series of liturgies to be used at the bishop’s discretion. …”

– Read here.

The State of Theology in Canada – some good news, but not a lot

“What do Canadians in 2026 believe about God, the Bible, and salvation? Ligonier Ministries Canada and Lifeway Research partnered to find out. …

Evangelicals were defined by Lifeway Research as people who strongly agreed with the following four statements:

– See the rather mixed results here. (Link thanks to challies.com.)

What is the Church of England for?

Carl Trueman offers a devastating commentary on too much of the Church of England –

“H. Richard Niebuhr famously denounced the liberal church of his day, summarizing its theology in a single withering sentence: ‘A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.’ What he did not note—but perhaps implied—is that such theology typically manifests in worship that is infantile, offering a pastiche of the wider culture’s predilections that would qualify as kitsch, if its purveyors had the wit to see it as such. The progressive church is always a poor imitation of what the world considered cool the day before yesterday.

Walking through the streets of London in early June, I encountered a first-class example of such third-class theological life…”

– Read it all at First Things.

(Thanks to Julian Mann for the link.)

Next Page →