Showdown on sexuality at the Synod

There’s only really one church news story to talk about today – the Church of England voting through radical new plans to offer blessings to gay couples for the first time. We dug into the history of the LGBT debate in the Church and where these proposals came from a few weeks ago on the podcast, and heard from spokespeople on each side of the, often bitter, debate. Today, we’re going to try and sketch out what happened last week, why it matters, and what’s coming next. We will head deep into Church of England headquarters in central London as the General Synod – the church’s national assembly or parliament – met last week over four gruelling days to wrangle over the details. There are angry protests, heartfelt speeches, endless amendments, procedural shenanigans, and by the end, the most momentous vote the C of E has seen for a decade.