Safeguarding in the Church of England could be broadened to include anyone harmed or at risk of harm in a church context, after the C of E’s National Safeguarding Team (NST) launched a consultation.

The fresh approach is a result of recommendations from the Charity Commission, which has pointed out that the “Church does not treat allegations of abuse from an adult not assessed to be ‘vulnerable’ as a safeguarding allegation”. Its own guidance says that trustees “must take reasonable steps to protect from harm all people who come into contact with their charity”.

The consultation, What is Safeguarding?, focuses on the code of practice Safeguarding in the Church, the subject of a consultation in April and May. Until now, it has been referred to as Safeguarding Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults. The change of title follows recommendations from the Commission that the NST review definitions of safeguarding and vulnerable adults.

“It is very important to note that this document is in the very early stages of thinking,” the NST says in a preface.

Read it all.

Church of England’s definition of safeguarding could be broadened https://t.co/rheEMJAw4y

— Simon Sarmiento (@simonsarmiento) June 11, 2026

I challenge those Catholics and Protestants who use the term “pelvic theology” to expand the logic of their position to other areas. Take the law, for example. The fact that the law treats sexual crimes in a qualitatively different way to other assaults reflects what is perhaps one of the last moral intuitions still common in Western societies. A punch to the face, however damaging, will be treated as less heinous than sexual assault when it comes to prosecution and penalty. Why? Taking the logic of the “pelvic theology” critics, we might conclude that this is because the culture of making and enforcing laws in the West is dominated by sex-obsessed cranks pushing for “pelvic justice.” Therefore, if you use the term “pelvic theology,” you must also use “pelvic justice.” To refuse to do so is to give the game away: You are not using the term to make a serious point about the metaphysics of the body; you are performing as a useful idiot for the sexual revolutionaries who have wreaked such havoc on our societies.

The alternative to such politically selective rhetoric is to acknowledge the reality that underlies both the justice and the theology: Sex is not one human act among others but touches the heart of what it means to be human. The sexual constitution of the body is central to who we are, such that behavior involving such—whether criminal, consensual, or consequential—carries unique significance. To trivialize it, theologically or judicially, is to trivialize humanity itself.

Read it all.

Pelvic Theology, Pelvic Justice
Carl R. Trueman on “pelvic theology,” sexual ethics, and why sex remains central to what it means to be human.

Full piece available at https://t.co/RKQBRXa26s pic.twitter.com/Q4OJLtVRtU

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) June 5, 2026

Thirdly, this raises the question about the three descriptors that have been chosen in the motion and what they mean, especially if they are to include within their scope sexual relationships. 

A classic statement advocating same-sex unions (and later marriage) is that by Jeffrey John which was entitled Permanent, Faithful, Stable. These three terms are also in need of more careful definition but how significant is it that both “permanent” and “stable” are lacking here? What conclusions are to be drawn from the fact they have been replaced simply by “committed” with no explanation as to the nature or level of that commitment?

There has been a long concern about occasional and non-exclusive male same-sex sexual relationships being acceptable, including among gay Christians (see for example the 1997 work of Andrew Yip whose research with gay male Christian couples found “the majority of couples were expectationally and behaviourally non-exclusive; the recently deceased leading campaigner Malcolm Johnson expressed surprise in his Diary of a Gay Priest that “a third are physically faithful—or say they are!”). Leaving that question open is one reason the LGCM statement quoted above offered no criteria as to when expressing love fully in a sexual relationship was entirely compatible with the Christian faith (see Sean Gill, The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (Cassell, 1998), pp. 12-13).

In a world of rapidly changing sexual norms there is now much wider discussion and acceptance of “ethical non-monogamy” (ENM). As briefly explained in this “ethics explainer” from The Ethics Centre this is distinguished from “infidelity” and “cheating”. Here it is not unreasonable to ask whether those in such an ENM form of relationship might nevertheless still be able to be classed as in a “committed, faithful, intimate” form of relationship.

Read it all.

Helen King's motion for General Synod: a help or a hindrance? https://t.co/cIA8Evq875 via @psephizo

— Simon Sarmiento (@simonsarmiento) June 2, 2026

The survey consisted of 2,365 Gen Z respondents and was conducted through AmeriSpeak and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago between August 9 and September 26, 2024, with Rick Richardson as lead investigator. With weighting applied, the sample is representative of Gen Z as a whole. One of the first questions asked respondents to indicate their current religious affiliation, if any.

The results are striking. The generic “Christian” label was easily the most popular choice, selected by 27% of Gen Z respondents—about 10 points higher than those who identified as Catholic and 17 points higher than those who chose Protestant. This largely confirms what earlier data suggested: Young people are roughly three times more likely to call themselves generic Christians than Protestants.

Perhaps equally striking is what happens when we look at born-again or evangelical Gen Z respondents—a group that makes up about 24% of the total sample. Even among this theologically engaged cohort, a majority (54%) identify as generic Christians rather than Protestant. Only 22% chose Protestant, with Catholics at 12% and the remainder scattered across other categories.

Read it all.

Most of non Catholic USA Christianity is Protestant & Baptist but doesn’t know it or rejects the labels. https://t.co/S4AI8FdX1d

— @markdtooley (@markdtooley) June 11, 2026

Bountiful God, giver of all gifts,
who poured your Spirit upon your servant Barnabas
and gave him grace to encourage others:
help us, by his example,
to be generous in our judgements
and unselfish in our service;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Today's the feast of St Barnabas, a 1st Century apostle who in Acts accompanies Paul on several of his journeys. Here he is in glass by Herbert Bryans, 1908 at Mattishall, Norfolk. pic.twitter.com/wpCfEfYQAY

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) June 11, 2026

O God, we know and believe in the love thou bearest towards us.  May we, by dwelling in that love, dwell in thee, and thou in us.  We would learn to love and to serve him whom we have not seen, by loving and serving our brethren whom we have seen; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

St Andrews Church, Northumberland. pic.twitter.com/rpeuD4rFcP

— Jim Scott (@jimscottphoto) June 11, 2026

Cast your bread upon the waters,
for you will find it after many days.
Give a portion to seven, or even to eight,
for you know not what evil may happen on earth.
If the clouds are full of rain,
they empty themselves on the earth;
and if a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
He who observes the wind will not sow;
and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun.

For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

–Ecclesiastes 11:1-8

#Sunrise on Thursday over the Tidal Basin! @capitalweather @KaitlynMcGrath pic.twitter.com/arGeo1VhJZ

— Jeanne Stuart McVey (@RiverGirl707) June 11, 2026