The bid by Church of England revisionists to cancel an event at July’s General Synod in support of non-affirming therapy - known as so-called 'conversion therapy' by its opponents - is straight out of the neo-Marxist playbook.
A letter signed by 82 revisionist campaigners on the General Synod weaponizes safeguarding to put pressure on the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to ban the ‘People Change: Sexual Identity Transformation’ fringe meeting on July 13 and the organisers’ exhibition stand.
The fringe event is sponsored by Christian Legal Centre lawyer, Rebecca Hunt, a lay General Synod member for Portsmouth Diocese.
The Christian Legal Centre’s chief executive Andrea Minichiello Williams is among the advertised speakers at the event on York University campus.
The letter to Archbishops Sarah Mullally and Stephen Cottrell by Robert Thompson, a vicar in London’s West Hampstead, says: “The Fringe Meeting Guidelines expressly reserve to you, as Presidents of the General Synod, the right to refuse a fringe meeting where its subject matter would be contrary to the ethos of the Church of England, may adversely affect its reputation, or would be inconsistent with House of Bishops’ safeguarding guidance. We would therefore be grateful if you could explain how those criteria were applied in relation to both the fringe meeting and the exhibition stand.”
Thompson’s letter ratchets up the pressure on the Archbishops to cancel the event by highlighting the Labour Government’s recently published Draft Conversion Practices Bill.
The letter says: “Whatever differing views may be held about aspects of that legislation, we believe it makes it all the more important that the Church of England is able to explain clearly how decisions of this nature are reached and how they are reconciled with its own safeguarding commitments.
“We would therefore be grateful to know whether safeguarding assessments were undertaken in relation to both the fringe event and the exhibition stand and, if so, whether they specifically considered the potential psychological and spiritual impact upon LGBTQIA+ members of Synod.”
Thompson’s letter concludes with a thinly-veiled threat to get the Archbishops into trouble with the political establishment if they refuse to cooperate: “For transparency, I have copied this correspondence to those with responsibilities for the governance of General Synod, safeguarding, the bishops in the Diocese of London in whose ministry I share, and those with interest in the Church’s relationship with Parliament and government.”
Core Issues Trust founder, Mike Davidson, and X-Out-Loud co-director, Michael Grech, are due to speak.
International organisation X-Out-Loud says on its website: “We are passionate about our freedom! Our lives are living proof that Jesus is still transforming lives and that the gospel offers full hope to those voluntarily moving away from LGBT. We celebrate our identities by sharing our stories and supporting and giving a voice to those who no longer identify as gay, lesbian or trans.”
In 2022 authorities in Malta brought criminal proceedings against Grech, a former X Factor Malta finalist, for promoting ‘conversion practices’ in a podcast interview. After a protracted legal battle he was acquitted last March but the authorities have now appealed that decision, according to the organisers of the Synod event.
Grech is due to “share his personal story and reflect on the wider implications of his case for freedom of speech and religious liberty”.
The weaponization of safeguarding by the Left against free speech was very much in evidence in the recent case of former Royal Marine, Jamie Michael. He was acquitted in 2025 by a jury in South Wales in just 17 minutes for inciting racial hatred after he criticised illegal migrants in a Facebook video. But within a fortnight of his acquittal, his local safeguarding board, which is responsible by law for protecting vulnerable children, ruled that he was not “suitable” to work with young people.
As a result, the Football Association of Wales barred him from coaching his daughter’s team after a meeting held in private with the local authority’s safeguarding officer and South Wales Police.
Free Speech Union General Secretary, Toby Young, told The Telegraph last December: “Citing safeguarding concerns to silence people you disagree with is a scandalous abuse of the system. Those protocols have been put in place to protect children from abusive parents and sexual predators, not people with patriotic views.
“Jamie’s case is particularly egregious, but it’s by no means isolated. At the Free Speech Union, we’ve come across this again and again. We have 15 people on our books who’ve been branded a risk to children because of their political views.”
The Archbishops’ sympathies are bound to lie with the revisionist campaigners over the Synod fringe event and exhibition stand. Both Mullally and Cottrell are in support of the LGBT agenda in the C of E. They voted for the introduction of services of same-sex blessing at the General Synod in February 2023.
But they will surely be weighing up whether it is worth picking a fight with the Christian Legal Centre’s warrior princesses, Andrea Williams and Rebecca Hunt, by caving into the revisionists’ demands to cancel the event.
Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.
