Consultation on Blessing of Same Sex Relations
Proposal for Contracting with Facilitators

Document 5

In the period following the decision taken in the diocese of New Westminster a great deal of conversation has been taking place as people seek to understand what has happened, and how it might or might not affect the life of church. This conversation has reached FWM in the form of a directive from CoGS to work in consultation with the General Synod Planning Committee and the House of Bishops to ensure that the matter is brought before General Synod 2004.

In order to prepare as effectively as possible for General Synod we want to track the implications of these conversations within the whole spectrum of opinions present within the church. We want to understand where positions are flexible and inflexible, and where proposed options may invite openness or generate increased opposition. We are interested not only in understanding the views that particular individuals and groups hold with regard to possible concrete proposals, but also in understanding the feelings generated by these conversations. We are interested in the ways in which members express their concerns for the quality of relationships within the church as these conversations take place. We want to understand the hopes that members might have for the character of our common life and for public perceptions of the church both as we engage in debate, and as we move beyond General Synod 2004 and begin to live out of whatever resolution of these issues the church embraces.

We want to track this information in order to ask:

• What is the most helpful question that we can put to General Synod?
• What is General Synod going to require in order to handle such a question effectively? What information and or processes will best help the General Synod to deal with the question put?

We wish to gather this information through:

• Consultations at the provincial level linked to Provincial Synods.
• Consultations with indigenous people organised through ACIP.
• Consultations with parishes that are composed of particular cultural communities (monochrome non-WASP culture) whose concerns and questions may be different from those of the majority.
• Conversations between committee members and representatives of Integrity and Essentials drawn from across the church.