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Something to Celebrate

Working Party on Family Life

in 1995 the report 'Something to Celebrate' (available from the CPA Unit, Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ; tel 020 7898 1535) was published as a result of a working party  set up in 1992 with the following terms of reference:

  • to perceive the will of God for the human family within contemporary English society, and in particular:
  • to review the teaching and insights of Scripture and the Christian tradition about the nature of the family:
  • to examine the range of experience of the family unit and the individuals within it against its wider background and likely future:
  • to offer a Christian contribution to the debate by reflecting critically and theologically on these developments; and
  • to make recommendations for action in public policy and in the life of the Church.

The report was debated at the General Synod in 1995, which resulted in the following motion being carried:

'That this Synod:

  1. reaffirm the Anglican understanding of the three great purposes of marriage and the family as set out in the report The Family in Contemporary Society to the Lambeth Conference 1958;
  2. strongly reaffirm its belief that marriage provides the proper context for sexual relationships and the bringing up of children;
  3. commend Something to Celebrate as a contribution to Christian reflection on the family, for further study and debate throughout the Church;
  4. noting the variety of family relationships in contemporary society, call upon the dioceses and parishes to strengthen their support for family life by prayer and by building on the practical suggestions in Chapters 8 and 9 of Something to Celebrate; and
  5. commend for reflection and action by Church and nation the challenges to a changing society set out on pages 206-208 of Something to Celebrate.

Earlier, in July 1991, the General Synod debated a private member's motion, carried as follows:

'That this Synod, being greatly concerned at the prevailing rate of family breakdown and in particular at the effect thereof on a large portion of the country's children, call upon the Board for Social Responsibility to investigate the causes of family breakdown and to recommend specific steps for the Nation and the Church to stem those causes and reduce that rate.'