General Synod, York 2015, Day 2

And so the second day of synod dawned.

After a good nights sleep in Alcuin College (the rooms are all en-suite now, not like my student days) I had an enjoyable Full English breakfast (one of the treats ofbeing away at Synod) in the Vanbrugh dining hall.

The mornings session consisted of a debate on presence and engagement, this was followed by dressing with various legislative matters.

After lunch I attended a very interesting workshop on Digital Evangelism. It looks like the church is (finally!) going to get to grips with this, and we'll be seeing updates and better integration of the websites and social media. And the websites at last will become mobile friendly.

There is also going to be training made available to the dioceses and parishes. I'll be urging my own diocese to take this up as Coventry's current digit offering is, not to put too much a point on it, distinctly sub par.

After this was the big debate of the day, Jayne Ozannne's private members motion against conversion therapy. After some extremely moving testimony in speeches from people  and some amendments including that  rare synod beast an amendment to an anmendment and multiple recorded votes by houses I am delighted to say that not only did synod vote to condemn conversion therapy we votes to call on the government to ban it.

Following the end of the days sessions and the evening meal, a very pleasant evening was spent on the terrace outside Vanbrugh College's bar drinking real ale overlooking the lake.