Any CofE members around here - LLF response

There is good general guidance on things like safeguarding and coerced speech available from Sex matters, Safe Schools alliance, Transgender Trend etc.

and personal experience on these websites
childrenoftransitioners.org/ and www.transwidows.com/

and the Evidence Based Social Work Alliance tweeted this (after the previous Archbishop supported a ban on conversion therapy for transpeople)
www.ebswa.org/post/conversion-therapy-proposals-the-children-of-transitioners-speak

Things like this rarely make the national press
www.thesun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/21536021/trans-sexually-banned-befriending-anybody-approval
www.lbc.co.uk/news/convicted-paedophile-given-custody-of-young-girl-and-gets-her-pregnant/,

but diocesan CofE safeguarding teams have dealt with similar issues- (sometimes the result of christians 'being kind' instead of safeguarding):
and more commonly have to balance the fall out between welcoming the dads who decide they are women or traumatised families or victims of abuse (who often won't speak up- they'll just leave and the first the diocese knows is if its an abuse case and they get contacted by the police)

The naivety of many christians is quite astounding ..And then you get to church schools pushing Stonewall and trying to force victims of child abuse and lesbians to ' celebrate' all things trans and get undressed with the opposite sex, and trans teens who want to be affirmed as the opposite sex in school/ church and the congregation/ fellow school pupils
who are under pressure to use wrong sex pronouns or be accused of not being kind.

Churches can rarely welcome everyone- not at the same time anyway due to safeguarding. How can these issues be addressed if no one will face reality?

Many CofE safeguarding officers show a lack of concern for risks regarding males who say they are women until after conviction of the perpetrators(and few reach court anyway).

This reflects the fact many social workers are stonewalled
and Bishops, clergy and christians generally want to be seen to be liberal and inclusive of transpeople, even if a few women/ children are abused/ excluded from church on the way. Like priests who commit abuse, males who say they are women are the new 'sacred cows' in the CofE.

So does anyone know what sensible guidance looks like? Which specific policies should we be commenting on/ looking at or is there anything more general we should be offering them?

Getting sensible guidance to diocesan Safeguarding advisors is also absolutely critical.

That's a really good point.

This is true. I've read a few reports lately about churches that are growing and churches that are dying. As a general trend it's the more orthodox/evangelical/conservative that are growing well and the more liberal/'woke' that are not. It's not just the conservative evangelicals that are doing well, it's the more open evangelicals ie those that embrace women in ministry. It seems to be those churches moving away from scripture that are dying away and those falling over one another for inclusion but actually excluding people in their efforts to be kind - they can actually end up being unintentionally homophobic too in terms of embracing gender ideology. It's a mess.

@BornInSin I'd be really interested in being part of a group too. We could maybe have a private FB group?

Yeah, for the most part it seems like the ones doing well are the more evangelical conservative ones, or fairly religiously orthodox Oxford movement type places.

@BornInSin I'd love to be part of a network of GC CofE people. I'm a vicar and very concerned about the creep of gender ideology in the CofE. Lots and lots of handmaidens among women clergy. Last year the Children and Youth Adviser in my diocese ran a session on gender in the diocesan safeguarding week that was pure gender ideology. Totally captured and very worrying in the context of safeguarding week!

And yet the most successful churches are those doing the exact opposite. I guess if you discard too much of the bible then it starts to seem pointless.

This is a brilliant idea re contacting each safeguarding officer. What aboht the National safeguarding team and the bishop in charge of safeguarding. Let’s see what we need to tell them.

It kills me that these people think they are cool and appealing to the young unchurched.

Getting sensible guidance to diocesan Safeguarding advisors is also absolutely critical. In our diocese none are even Christian but they hold huge sway.

I contacted the Bishop who leads on prisons last year when the Police and Crime Bill was going through the House of Lords. I find it very hard to accept that we have bishops in our parliamentary system who had the opportunity to speak up for amendments designed to protect women in the female estate and they did not.

Hello again, I'm trying to coordinate a safe way for us to connect to set up a GC network. Do pm me if you would like to join in.

Thank you to everyone on synod and to all of you acting at grass roots 💐

This thread has left me feeling both less alone and horrified that things might be worse than I thought.

In terms of what to do, some sort of GC network with a focus on safeguarding would be invaluable. Sharing information, working together. I think that a lot can be done in our own parishes by asking questions that prompt clergy and PCC to think things through on a practical level.

Very glad to see this discussion after the news over on Twitter that St James Picadilly is hosting a drag night today. Its Called Preach! - I guess it's a different gospel. I've never met the Rev Yin but think he's overdosed on queer theory.

Me too teacher

Not CofE but similar denomination that follows the CofE in many ways. I believe that once we (the church) move away from the Bible as our authority in all matters relating to sex, identity, and relationships, that we’ve lost our anchor. We simply become a social club that does good works in the community.

I’m personally disappointed by the direction the CofE have taken, and I hope they change course.

It's very reassuring to know that there are voices on my side on gs. Thank you.

@Synodmember Do PM me and we can connect in July if the subject comes up! There are a few other conservative members with a strong passion about GC issues and I'm sure it would be good to ensure that we work together.
@creekingmillenial Thank you. If anything comes up that could be really helpful. I suspect that so much work now needs doing on the blessing stuff (interesting you noted the lack of theological depth @TomPinch - I agree!) that nothing will come to Synod anytime soon.

Thank you those on GS for all you're doing. This is all very concerning. I've thought for a while that things in the higher echelons of the CofE are pointing towards capture but felt really helpless in it all because it's so difficult to articulate without being shut down and called bigot.

I wasn't the asker of the question, but I helped shape the supplementary follow up with the woman who did!

Thanks for your work on this. If you need parents quotes, teen quotes at some later date then please message me. We have a very large youth group.

This has come up in our church because the local church school started going very very far down the rabbit hole. It’s not connected to our church (another parish) but many of our teens are at the school, so I have a good idea that around 70% of the church are really concerned about their teens being taught they can transition to the opposite sex. Another 20% are moderately in favour of what they would label trans inclusion, 10% probably have no idea about any of it.

It’s not something that’s been taught in church or youth group but Youth worker is quietly GC whilst keen not to be authoritarian or shut down conversation (if only that were true of the “other side”).

@AnotherGSmember I was trying to seek you out during synod to thank you for asking the question and offer you my support. I think we vote differently on the motions and amendments that went forwards but we vehemently agree on this issue. I would love to chat with you.