Sunderland Minster refusing to comply with Supreme Court ruling

[labtest57]

This is from their Facebook page today. No consideration for the women who do not want men in their spaces.

It seems, these days, that lots of social justice activists have migrated to the anglican church.

Yes, I've seen the website, and must say, I wouldn't touch this church with a ten-foot pole.

And when I clicked on their link to Safeguarding Policies, I get this:

6279 results found for 'sites default files 2019 10 ParishSafeGuardingHandBookAugust2019Web pdf'

6,279 results!

And when I clicked on the "Documents " filter to try to find their safeguarding documents, I got this:

No result found. Please enter another search term and try again

They really need someone to sort out their website.

Or perhaps they don't want anyone to see their Safeguarding Policies.

Or perhaps there aren't any Safeguarding Policies?

I just looked at the page and saw a lot of comments on the illegality of their position, so the deleted are obviously getting replaced at a good pace!

I wonder if Sunderland Minster is about to find itself in the Daily Mail.

One of the posts on Sunderland Minster fb from a "trans Christian" (interesting linguistically):

God does not make mistakes, and He does not make mistakes when he makes some people trans. To be trans is to be blessed with a sacred calling, to engage in an act of co-creation such that the accident of one's body rhymes with the essence of one's soul. God made neither bread nor wine; He made wheat and grapes and yeast, and gave humans the wit to work out how to make them more than what they were. Likewise, from the beginning of the world He has caused to be created those who feel strongly that our gender doesn't match the accidents of our body, and given us the wit and willpower to do what we can to bring those things into greater alignment. Transitioning is doing God's will, and trans people are sacred. Get over it!

God does not make mistakes (no one is born in the wrong body is a GC view)
but also
the accident of one's body.

Make it make sense.

The "trans people are sacred" line, though, is kind of what we are being sold in the secular world.

(Did someone say something about women in Abrahamic religions?)

Jesus would be rolling in his grave if he had one.

The Sunderland Minster Rev will believe that she is a martyr for Jesus. The more negative comments she receives the more she will believe that what she is doing is the Lord's work.
'Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.' Matt 5:11

This can only be stopped by her superiors.

Would making all the toilets unisex get round the law? I haven't seen the toilets so don't know if they'd comply.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DK0MsonM8KM/

Not having a link to your safeguarding policy on the website is a serious matter. Clergy have been subject to disciplinary measures for this.

engage in an act of co-creation

Hmmm, think God might have something to say about that (John 1:3)

Transitioning is doing God's will, and trans people are sacred.

(well, that's a bit of a leap, and Genesis 1:28, how are we supposed to multiply if no one knows who is male and who is female? It's such a conundrum!)

And, it's beside the point: women exist, too, and we have rights under the law, Christian or not.

My point wasn’t that the GC posts were being deleted but that some FB algorithm is hiding them for wrongthink. You can view hidden posts if you click on them.

What?
Facebook algorithms are hiding posts commenting on the unlawfulness of the original post?!

Please get screenshots because the press will love this!

And consistently, Jesus saw and treated women as people in a way that society and the men around him did not.

If I lived anywhere near Sunderland, I'd find out how many volunteers attend every day on average, then round up that many women, plus about 5, to be on the safe side. Then visit, and one at a time, at five minute intervals, ask for a volunteer to accompany us to the toilets. Perfectly reasonable policy, after all, nothing can go wrong with it...

I wouldn't recommend anyone do that without seeing their Safeguarding Policies first!

Someone on X had a similar idea;

At 72, the old lady stereotype is becoming increasingly tempting. My new fantasy: Go to church. Wait for the sermon to begin. Clatter noisily out of my pew to go to the loo. Come back again and call out to the vicar, "Excuse me dear, but could someone take me to the toilet?"

Imagine going to church, thinking you're doing the flower arranging or whatnot and getting roped into standing outside loo stalls all day.

Well you could incorporate 'Is the volunteer who is accompanying me appropriately vetted in accordance with the Diocese/CofE safeguarding procedures?' into your action.

The only link I can find that works leads to the diocesan safeguarding pages:

not sure Mumsnet will like the link, so it's

durhamdiocese dot org forward slash safeguarding

There are quite a lot of safeguarding hoops you have to jump through to volunteer in a church these days. I'm not sure what section of the training "accompanying people to the toilet to make a political point" falls under.

There are a lot of people who can't pee (or worse, poo) in public if someone is in the next cubicle, or if they think someone can hear them. Just imagine what it's like for them to have a stranger waiting outside, knowing what they're doing, and waiting for them to finish their business!

Good thinking, Batman!

"Oh, you can't find them? Sorry, I'll wait. Although I can't for very long, you know, getting on a bit now, kidney problems and all that. Are these flagstones historically significant? Or waterproof...?

Wouldn't it be awful if almost every service* was endlessly interrupted by a succession of women putting up their hand and asking to be escorted to the loo?

(*not funerals etc, obvs)

Under this regime men are entitled too privacy & dignity too so also warrant a chaperone to the Gents in case there is a lurking trans identifying female.