The Church of England has just held a meeting of its General Synod and has come out of it looking ridiculous, disgraced, and acting as if it had a death wish.

We had the shambles of the issue of women bishops. A compromise was put forward whereby women could be made bishops and those who objected on scriptural grounds, (not a wise move in the present Church of England) would be accommodated by being offered alternative oversight. This however was not enough for the proponents of women bishops, it had to be complete surrender, a typical stance for those of liberal persuasion (you can be as liberal as one likes as long as you agree with them). Whilst women have every right to claim for appointment, so have those who object, to have their case considered. In the end Synod did what it does so often, it put the issue back until next time.

I have written before how wasteful Synod is. It has 467 members at an enormous cost when money is scarce for parish needs. It does nothing very useful and discusses issues it has no business doing so.

At a time when the country is screamingly anti-European, the Church wants to be more European calling for more European support. When 70% of the population are anti same sex marriage there are those who want to promote it.

We have Synod disgracefully supporting a Middle Eastern body which is violently and very biased against Israel. It is not Israel who is firing rockets on civilians and encouraging suicide bombers, yet not a word in support of Israel and against its attackers.

There was a motion virtually prohibiting clergy from being members of the British National Party. I cannot imagine many, if indeed any, member of the clergy wanting to become members of the BNP, or for that matter any other political party at the present time, but as that Party is a legitimate one given full freedom to campaign by the government, it ill behoves the Church to start meddling in politics, especially when it would never suggest clergy refrain from joining the Labour or Conservative Parties.

Then we had the most stupid remark surely ever made by a Bishop, and there have been many silly statements. The Bishop of Bath thought the rioters last year were having a spiritual experience when rioting. It has brought mockery and shame on the Church. The rioters were simply criminals and many were punished rightly. People of yesteryear suffered poverty on a scale beyond modern comprehension, but never acted in such manner. It ill behoves a Bishop sitting pretty in some palace in a serene part of the country to comment so when hard working people in the riot zones were having their life’s work sent up in smoke.

If a Synod is to exist it should concentrate its energies on propagating the gospel at a time when the Church is losing members in frustration at the Church’s obsession with matters, some of which are in direct contravention of Scripture, and other matters which are the province of secular government.