For once, the debate on the agenda got quite agitated. As predicted, the speeches made were largely about safeguarding – or the lack of it, according to some – on the agenda.
There were plaintive requests that
- we respond to the catalogue of failings being rehearsed at the current IICSA hearings (see yesterday’s post for some context on this)
- we should debate the Blackburn letter (which I referred to in yesterday’s post, and which you can read here). A number of members had petitioned the two Archbishops (as Presidents of Synod) to use their powers to insert a debate into the agenda, despite the lack of notice. Their request was turned down.
- We recognise that the outside world is under the impression that we are ‘dragging our feet until IICSA goes away’ (a reported quote from a legal adviser at IICSA this week).
The overall tone was of dissatisfaction on behalf of victims and survivors of abuse, that when the Bishops speak out on safeguarding failures, they do not ‘speak from the heart’.
What happened (or some of it) at the first day of General #Synod in York:https://t.co/7C9WsoYzRM
— Stephen Lynas (@bathwellschap) July 6, 2019