February 2026’s meeting of General Synod is nearly upon us; the papers came out last week and I am starting to make my way through them. 

There’s a very full agenda but, for the moment restricting my thoughts to Living in Love and Faith (LLF), what do we have this time around? It’s been obvious for months that LLF is somehow coming to a close now, although what’s interesting is how we envisage a ‘close’. GS 2426 summarises the attempts of the bishops to ‘explore’ (their word) how to implement the motions Synod passed in, and since, February 2023, and it traces what happened between then and the January 2026 House of Bishops Letter to the Church of England. Unless otherwise referenced, all quotations in this blog post are from GS 2426. The bishops’ ‘exploration’ involves going through the various clauses of all these motions while saying nothing we’ve not heard before. The ‘lament and repent’ clause of the February 2023 motion is repeated with more focus on the pain – ‘it has been indescribably painful’. Apparently, while many are feeling bruised and unsafe, we have ‘learned lessons’. I really wish that terminology, thoroughly debased by its repetition in the context of safeguarding failures, could be abandoned.

This latest document comprises 48 pages.

Anything I’ve not seen before?

Not really; it’s all about how there is not going to be any ‘Delegated Episcopal Ministry’, nor any Code of Practice (originally planned, but as nothing has changed, no need for it) nor an Independent Review Panel (because nothing has happened). I suppose one tiny new nugget is that, in response to the clause in the February 2023 motion about ‘monitoring’ the use of the Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF), we now have a statement that there is some ‘exploring’ going on to see how this can be done through data we already have. But prayers of blessing with same-sex couples are still only allowed in existing services. However, I can save the C of E some time here – A Church Near You already includes a tag for churches to add if they are willing to use the PLF so why not use that? Maybe it’s just too easy.

The much-delayed Faith and Order Commission (FAOC) documents which came out in November are mentioned yet again (they are in the GS Misc section here and I wrote about them here), but not the various critiques of them that have appeared on Via Media (e.g. here) and other blogs. Instead, we are promised ‘an orientation webinar’ on them ‘prior to the February 2026 group of sessions’. I suppose this is the zoom on 26 January – tomorrow! – which was flagged up in an email sent to Synod members on 21 January. I’m signed up for that. Anyone thinking of standing for Synod later this year, make a note not just that there are extra meetings that turn up ahead of the actual five days in London, but also of the short notice that you are given. And probably better not to be working: the briefing for Safeguarding Structures is scheduled for 3 pm on 2 February.

Is this the end?

The summary of the Bishops’ statement is that it contains a plan to ‘conclude the work under the LLF Motions’ but this doesn’t mean all conversations are ended. So a conclusion to one thing (and LLF was a very large thing) but somehow not an end. There’s a hint that we need a pause, a ‘period of rest’ which could ‘leave more space for the Holy Spirit to move’. I am afraid that comes across as a convenient excuse for doing nothing. And there’s more because, despite the word ‘conclude’ the proposal is not, in fact, to do nothing. The intro to GS 2426 points the reader to Part 3 which offers a ‘more permanent structural framework’ for the continued conversations, which are to happen as part of ‘regular ongoing work’. I’ll get to that shortly.

The continued work is going to include ‘areas that have received less focus to date’, and in my negative moments I read that to mean that a load more people are going to be discovering just how ‘indescribably painful’ it is to have your life dissected, your identity challenged and your most important relationships defined as sinful.

Part 2: the House of Bishops Letter to the Church of England

While the second part of GS 2426 just repeats the January 2026 statement of the House of Bishops, we can read these alongside the Minutes of their October meeting when the decisions were made; these came out very later in the day but they are interesting. 

Part 2 states:

• The point that the LLF process is ending in a way that is ‘imperfect, untidy and which leaves some important questions unresolved’ (§34)
• That ‘lessons need to be learned’ point, this time referring to the 2023-2026 period (§35) – well, one lesson is that what Synod passes doesn’t necessarily happen
• That there will be yet more FAOC work (§29) – and we’ve already seen how long it takes to get reports from them (I am sure for good reasons, but it does look like a delaying tactic) – this time on Delegated Episcopal Ministry, which the rest of the document suggests is already dead so why do we need another report?

But the main take-home message from Part 2 is the proposal for another – another! – working group. This one would be to talk about how Canon B2 could be used to make standalone services of the PLF possible. That makes no sense at all. We already have the long list of legal steps that would be necessary if Canon B2 were to be used. The group would also talk about the legislation and the theology needed for clergy to be in same-sex civil marriages. You’ll remember that same-sex civil partnerships are fine for them but marriages aren’t, because apparently there’s no sex in civil partnerships; something addressed in a recent blog post from Neil Patterson. The C of E really does feel like an alternative universe, and not in a fun way.

As for those ‘areas that have received less focus to date’, the spotlight will be falling on ‘singleness; transgender identity; technology and sexuality; and the wider sexualisation of society’. I am not sure what this says about how we respond to changes in ‘society’ (like it is One Thing?); perhaps, by the time this group says anything, ‘society’ will have moved back towards purity culture again.

Part 3: the new group

This is where the interesting stuff begins. The LLF process is concluding. But it isn’t. Part 3 tells us that the temporary programme of LLF (a temporary programme that has been dragging on since 2017) ‘now needs an established, ongoing place within the life and work of the Church’ with ‘longer term resourcing’. Enter… a new group! The Relationships, Sexuality and Gender Working Group! Not a very snazzy title but we get the picture. It will be driving and marshalling the work. It will issue advice (not relationships advice, I trust) but the Bishops will make the decisions. It will have workstreams! It will manage teams! And it will report back to Synod by 2028. Annex 2 gives the details. As usual it’s designed to be bishop-heavy (up to 5 bishops): the 10-12 members will be picked ‘by  Archbishops in consultation with the LLF Programme Board’. It will meet four times a year which doesn’t seem like a recipe for making progress.

This group, if Synod agrees (and maybe even if it doesn’t?) will explore how standalone services for same-sex couples can happen under B2 and how clergy could enter same-sex marriages. Interestingly, the document doesn’t say (this is on p.20) same-sex civil marriages. So are we talking about church marriage? That seems unlikely. But it will also consider ‘proportionate pastoral reassurance measures to accompany’ these marriages. Maybe we are talking about church marriages after all?

Part 4: what comes to Synod next month

Part 4 simply consists of the 4-clause motion for Synod to vote on, closing LLF and setting up the RSGWG.

Annex 3: asking the dioceses

In the introduction to the document the feedback from consultations at diocesan synods was described as ‘helpful’ but GS 2426 also has a very short report on these consultations which shows that no conclusions were possible because they weren’t all working with the same questions, and anyway the results from only 24 dioceses were available for analysis. The material analysed isn’t just from the consultations but also from emails – from those who couldn’t be there in person? That’s a surprise. I note that in my diocese we were told no participation was possible if you weren’t at the meeting. 

Pastoral Guidance

And finally… we have an updated version of the Pastoral Guidance document, which is about how to decide whether to use the PLF in a church, cathedral or chaplaincy. This still includes some pretty dodgy questions like 1.2.2 ‘Do the PLF presuppose sexual activity? Could or should a minister ask questions of the couple with regards to sexual activity?’ While the answer is No, and No, even seeing the question is distasteful. There are also some questions which I wonder if anyone is ever going to ask in reality, like whether you can enter a covenanted friendship if you are married to someone other than this friend.

Back to Synod

The LLF material in this Synod comes in two instalments: a presentation on 10 February and a debate on 12 February. The latter comes after a debate on a diocesan synod motion on using sustainable flowers in churches: because ‘Church flowers are an expression of our worship and an important part of our welcome to people in our churches’ (GS 2433B). There is a certain irony in having a debate on flowers immediately before a debate which includes reference to that Pastoral Guidance and the importance of not following ‘wedding traditions’ (§1.3.6) in a service using the PLF.

What is currently far from certain is how Synod will respond to this concluding-which-isn’t-ending, this move from a very long and very expensive ‘process’ to an ‘established, ongoing place’ with dedicated resources. Will Synod vote for it, or against it? Will the motion to set up the new group be so heavily amended that it falls under its own weight? And why should we believe – whether we want change, or we don’t – that anything different is going to happen? Is this just finding an even longer patch of long grass, into which we can deposit not just lesbian and gay people, but trans people too?

Watch this space.