[Telegraph] John Bingham: Church’s £360,000 budget for retreats to talk about sex

Church of England hosts away-days and retreats in luxury stately homes in bid to break deadlock over homosexuality.
The Church of England is spending over a third of a million pounds [US$558,702.00] on a series of away-days and retreats to talk about sex.

Clergy and lay members are being invited to a series of “facilitated conversations” behind closed doors, aimed at breaking down divisions between different factions over issues such as homosexuality.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, hopes encouraging people to take part in frank face-to-face discussions will help break the deadlock over what has become one of the most toxic issues in the Church.

A similar tactic led to breakthrough over the issue of women bishops which was finally agreed last year after decades of argument.

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