York General Synod - what it achieved

By Sharen Green, Coordinator of the Lambeth Witness Group

Archbishop Sarah Mullally speaking to the historic motion about Palestine in York, 12 July 2026 Photo credit: Sam Atkins, Church Times

Our attendance at the General Synod was a bit of a rollercoaster. But it was great to be present as the Church of England debated whether to hear the desperate plea for solidarity from Palestinian Christians.

Last year we were in a great place for lobbying – people saw our banner, came to talk to us and took our literature. We were in the same place this year but members had to use a different dining room which meant very limited footfall past us.

However we shifted enough Lambeth Witness Group flyers and another one written by our Jewish stalwarts (see here) to make it worthwhile (and I also shifted over 70 copies of Palestine News).

Kairos II – part of the motion under discussion - talks of genocide, a term which made many members uncomfortable

Where have they been lately? Maybe they haven’t seen the demolished hospitals, universities, schools etc. or heard the testimony of British doctors who saw young boys shot in the testicles? How about the deliberate starvation of children or the precision bombing of thousands of embryos in the Strip’s fertility clinics?

We heard it couldn’t be a genocide because Palestinian population is growing! Really? What exactly are the figures for Gaza? Canon David Bruce Bryant-Scott claimed it was not a genocide - he knew because he’d done his dissertation on the subject. So obviously Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch, Israeli NGO B’Tselem, the UN are all wrong – not to mention actual genocide scholars, including numerous Jews and Israeli – are all mistaken. Arrogant or what?

One cleric told me he was conflicted because Kairos II uses the shocking term settler-colonialism. Israel illegally annexed the Syrian Golan Heights and the Palestinian Old City of Jerusalem following the Six Day War of 1967 and has settled hundreds of thousands of its own citizens there since. Now it has occupied over 50% of Gaza, is planning to take the rest, and is even selling off parcels to be colonised. Israel openly talks about annexing the West Bank, not to mention yet more of Syria and a huge chunk of Lebanon. What else can you call it but settler-colonialism?

Get the motion through, but don't frighten the horses!

It was clear that nobody was going to risk losing the motion by using any words in the chamber which might frighten the horses, whatever they might say outside. The point was to get the motion through.

On Sunday evening a horrified gasp went across the chamber when the chair adjourned the debate – time had run out. Remember it had taken Carlisle diocese five years to even get it on the agenda! However time was found the next morning and after another hour's debate the motion passed easily.

This is only the start for activists. It was plain that many members love Israel and do not want to face up to the harsh realities and ......... there is also the old bugbear of being seen as antisemitic.

We have quite a job on our hands to transform hearing into action.