As if it was not bad enough to discover child abuse scandals in the Church of England, but its General Synod meeting in York has voted to formally recognise monks and nuns for the first time since the 16th-century European Reformation.

These two errors are compounded by trying to justify one for the sake of the other – adding a third error to the direction in which the Church of England is journeying.

In the wake of the damning report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) into various religious communities, the Synod has added error to error. The IICSA recommended improved governance to safeguard children and this is the Synod’s response. A unanimous vote gives the House of Bishops more oversight in regulating monks and nuns

Reversing the 16th-century European Reformation

This is another step in the direction of returning to the embrace of the Roman Catholic fold.

The end of the Counter-Reformation

The counter-reformation movement begun by Roman Catholics against the Protestant Reformers in the 16th-century came to an end in the 20th century.

The reason given for this was that there was no longer any Reformation to counter. The mainline Protestant denominations had abandoned biblical Protestantism to such an extent that both the Church of England and the Church of Scotland are making strides towards reconciliation with the pope in Rome and his theology.

In 2017, on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York issued a statement regretting the division of the Reformation as something for we needed to repent.

This is not the end of the story, only the current phase.