The Church of England’s General Synod has called on the Government to introduce legislation requiring pornographic sites to use age verification systems preventing access by under 18s.A motion was passed encouraging quicker progress to be made in tightening up laws after previous attempts have stalled.A large number of children and young people say they have viewed pornography, with one survey before lockdown showing 78 per cent of sixth formers in a school said they had seen porn in the last week, the synod heard. Introducing the motion, the Revd Jo Winn-Smith (Guildford) said that age verification “ought to be a no-brainer.”“This is an issue about which parents and children themselves are highly concerned,” she continued.“Exposure to sexualised material is more likely to lead to young people engaging in more sexualised behaviour and to feel social pressure to have sex, and to think that they can and should have sex in these unhealthy ways and relationships.”“Friends, there is a time for reasonable patience, and then there is principled frustration. The need to safeguard children and young people is something to unite around.“Additionally, as parents, as communities, as churches and schools, we all have a part to play in seeking to support young people in their developing sexuality and as they start to experience romantic relationships.“By engaging with them and teaching them and modelling to them healthy adult relationships, backed up by social structures like age-appropriate safeguards including this essential measure of age verification, we can help young people to develop and grow and flourish as they mature.” Detrimental effects of pornography include the sexualising of young people, normalising sexual violence against girls and women, and creating a distorted view of what constitutes normal sexual relations.While it is hoped the Online Safety Bill currently going through parliament will improve matters, it was noted that legislation introduced in 2018 targeting commercial pornography sites never came into effect, and that new laws had been proposed by David Cameron still earlier in 2013.It was also noted that the industry has made progress in developing the necessary tools to verify age once required.The motion, from the Guildford Diocesan Synod, also urged more social and educational programmes to increase awareness of the harms, including self-generated sexually explicit images.A large number of synod members spoke to support the motion, including the Bishop of Guildford who paid tribute to a Deanery Synod member, Charlene Smith, of Leatherhead Deanery, who first raised the motion.The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, supporting the motion, said that The Lords Spiritual were “taking great interest” in the issue of internet safety in the House of Lords, and that conversations with tech firms suggested that age verification systems were a workable possibility.“The Internet is not a platform, it is a public space, where all the rights and norms you would expect in public should apply,” he said. “It’s about making the internet safe by design. This can be done, but we need regulation, a code of practice and a code of conduct to make it happen.“In the 1970s we quite famously put fluoride in the water supply because we knew it would be great for dental health. What we the Church need to be in the forefront of campaigning about is putting some fluoride in the internet!"In a counted vote of the whole synod, there were 263 voting in favour, 2 against, and with 3 abstentions.
This week our focus is on something I find incredibly difficult to do – rest. When we think of busyness and rest in a biblical context we often go to the story of Mary and Martha. Admittedly, I’m a bit of a ‘Martha’. While I think Martha gets a slightly bad wrap (she really was trying), it is clear that Mary had offered true hospitality in listening and discovered deep rest in sitting at the feet of Jesus. From the very beginning, God modelled rest and throughout the gospels Jesus models working from a place of rest and intimacy with his Father.Sometimes we can end up being so busy for the kingdom of God that we neglect to actually experience it ourselves. So, as we move through this summer holiday period, we would like to encourage our readers to slow down, rest and engage with titles such as Tony Horsfall’s Rhythms of Grace, The Art of Peace by David Cole (Brother Cassian) or Seven Sacred Spaces by George Lings. We recommend a number of fantastic titles this month so we encourage you to dive in and pursue true rest at the feet of Jesus. Tracey Jones of Living Faith
Following a debate, members backed a Private Member’s Motion (PMM) paying tribute to the ‘enormous and untiring’ efforts of health professionals working in palliative and end of life care. They called on the Government to guarantee adequate funding and resourcing of palliative care services to ensure the highest possible standards of care for all. Members further affirmed that the law on Assisted Suicide should remain unchanged.General Synod member Dr Simon Eyre, from the Diocese of Chichester, introducing the PMM, called for the Government to ensure adequate funding for hospices over the next decade.He said palliative care was currently ‘insufficiently comprehensive’ with only one palliative care consultant per 100,000 of the population.“Our response needs to be an honest one, that palliative care can fail to deliver its best at times but it should also be our logical conclusion that we need to seek ever improving excellence in palliative care services, through training, research and investment, rather that enacting new legislation on Assisted Suicide as a route out of the problem,” he told the Synod.Following a debate where members heard powerful personal testimonies, the Synod observed a period of prayer before voting. The full wording of the Private Member’s Motion is below:‘That this Synod: (a) appreciate the enormous and untiring efforts of health professionals, including healthcare chaplains, in constantly developing and maintaining the excellence of palliative and end of life care provision in this country; (b) call on Her Majesty’s Government to guarantee and expedite the adequate funding and resourcing of palliative care services within the NHS to ensure that the highest possible standards of care are achieved and made universally accessible; and(c) affirm that the current legislation in relation to Assisted Suicide referenced in Section 2 of the Suicide Act 1961 (and its application through the DPP guidelines) should remain unchanged.’The voting was 289 in favour, 25 against and 33 abstentions.
I first want to say thank you to Bishop Nick for a superb and magisterial opening speech with which I agree entirely – and therefore I shall cut back significantly on what I was going to say.Peacemaking, we need to remember, is one of the beatitudes. Peacemaking is of the character of God, which is why peacemakers are called God’s children. They are a chip off the old block.Peacemaking requires humility and sacrifice. We see this in Jesus setting his face towards Jerusalem. It needs confrontation, as he showed with those opposing him. It is the pattern for all humanity. At times peace-making is as hard as a diamond. At others it is the glory of the crucified God, the conquest of evil through self-emptying.Yesterday we saw both as we had the privilege at Lambeth Palace of a visit from Metropolitan Epiphaniy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was given autocephaly through a Tomos of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in 2019. It had been under the oversight of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1684.In addition to a previous online call I had with Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Hilarion in February, we are seeking opportunities to meet further with the Russian Orthodox Church, but that has not been possible to date.But yesterday over the course of three and a half hours of prayer and discussion we heard the most heart-breaking stories of atrocities against civilians and against Orthodox clergy in occupied territory.Yet amidst it all the Patriarch spoke of love for all, especially enemies.Of course, like all Ukrainians he feels passionately about the terrors and horrors visited on his country. The lies told and the remorseless fear and attack. But the passion is not showing itself in hatred. Nor is it showing itself in weakness, but in faith and determination and a plea for support for the Church in its humanitarian work - and for Ukraine.Let us give that support as a Church as best we can. Let us also be determined in seeking peace, and we are asking the Government to re-return the funding of the unit in the foreign office which has been so seriously cut back and was set up, at church-urging, three years ago to specialise in mediation and peace building.And let us also pray for and support our armed forces – (Bishop) Nick mentioned they were being cut back.And particularly pray for the chaplains the Armed Forces Synod is represented here.Thank you.
