Members of the Church’s decision making General Synod have been issued with a manual setting out how to discuss the fraught subject of sexuality without offending each other too much.
It comes ahead of a special series of “shared conversations” on the issue set to take place behind closed doors when the Synod meets in York next month.
“Facilitators” trained in conducting negotiations in warzones have been called in to help Anglicans resolve their differences over issues such as same-sex marriage after a similar tactic helped break the deadlock over women bishops.
Press and the public are to be banned from the three-day session in which bishops, priests and lay members with differing views and backgrounds will be asked to join in small-group discussions to speak frankly away from the glare of publicity.
The 14-page booklet, entitled “Grace and Dialogue”, amounts to an etiquette guide for the talks, advising members on everything from where to sit to body language and even facial expressions.
…………………………..
The special sessions are being organised by Canon David Porter, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s chief of staff, who helped lay the foundations for the Northern Ireland peace process through talks with paramilitaries in the 1990s.
He said that while they might not ultimately avert a split in the church over sexuality, they might at least make it less acrimonious.
“I’ve never said that the shared conversations process should be measured on its ability to stop fracture,” he explained.
“I’ve always said that it should be measured on its ability as to even how you fracture.
“Because the reality is that throughout Christian history there have been deep issues about which we have differed at various points and it has not always been possible to maintain the unity of the church in those contexts.
“That is the history of the church, that is the reality.
“What these conversations are about is to show ”¦ that even when we disagree deeply we disagree well.”