Why don’t people trust the Church of England? (Clue: social media isn’t to blame)

If the Church of England wants to restore trust, it needs to earn it, says George Pitcher. Social media is not the problem, it’s the lack of transparency in dealing with the hard issues

There is something foreboding about a new Church of England report, a sense that, whatever it’s about, you know what’s coming: A heady mixture of statements of the obvious, answers to all questions that are likely to be “Jesus” and an overriding sense that it’s been authored jointly by Pollyanna and Mr Pooter.

So it is with the latest portentous brick to be offered ahead of next month’s General Synod, the Church’s parliament, titled Trust and Trustworthiness in the Church of England, which wonders why we’ve lost those qualities and ponders what we might do to retrieve them.