Representatives from dioceses across Scotland will gather in Edinburgh for the annual meeting of the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church, which takes place on 9-11 June at St Paul\u2019s and St George\u2019s Church, York Place, Edinburgh.<\/p>\n
A range of topics and issues will be debated throughout the three days of Synod, including Scotland\u2019s role within the world-wide Anglican Communion, and the Scottish Episcopal Church\u2019s response to the Growth in Communion, Partnership in Mission Report<\/em> produced by the Church of Scotland and Church of England.<\/p>\n Wider engagement of the Church with Society and its issues will be a particular feature of this year\u2019s General Synod through discussions on climate-related issues and poverty. The Synod will also be invited to back a Motion calling on the Westminster Government to cancel the renewal of Trident.<\/p>\n The increase in the number of candidates coming forward for training for ministry will be highlighted and Synod will hear from some of the students currently undertaking training for ministry.<\/p>\n What is likely to attract most attention at this year\u2019s General Synod is the first reading of a\u00a0proposed alteration to the Church\u2019s Canon on Marriage. This proposal would remove the doctrinal clause which states that marriage is between a man and a woman and would add a conscience clause for those who would want to exercise their right not to conduct a same-sex marriage. If the proposal is approved in 2016 there will be a further debate in 2017 when a two thirds majority in each \u2018House\u2019 of Bishops, Clergy and Laity would be required.<\/span><\/p>\n Preparing for General Synod the Most Rev David Chillingworth, Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church says: \u201cWe are considering an issue which is profoundly challenging for all churches. Over the past two years we have been engaged in a series of discussions in our province, dioceses and congregations. People have been courageous and open in expressing and listening to the diversity of views on same sex marriage which are held within the Scottish Episcopal Church.<\/p>\n \u201cWe now come to the point where we must make a decision about the way forward for our church. We do that in all humility seeking the will of God and attempting always to sustain our unity in the midst of our diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n -ends-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Representatives from dioceses across Scotland will gather in Edinburgh for the annual meeting of the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church, which takes place on 9-11 June at St Paul\u2019s and St George\u2019s Church, York Place, Edinburgh. A range of topics and issues will be debated throughout the three days of Synod, including Scotland\u2019s […]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-synod"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73694,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70433\/revisions\/73694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}