THE Church of England's general synod, at its summer meeting in York, accepted the principle that communities of other faiths, such as Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, could be allowed to use Anglican church halls - but not actual churches - for their worship.
Such lending - on the basis of what the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Rev Tom Butler, called "missionary hospitality" - needed to have the agreement of the local community, should take place within the framework of interfaith dialogue, and should be subject to the proviso that the church premises should not be used for teaching which constituted an explicit attack on the Christian faith.
The report laying down these principles also tackled the much trickier and more divisive issues of selling a redundant church to another faith community. Only one church has in fact been sold to another faith community by the Church Commissioners - St Luke's, Southampton, now a Sikh gurdwara - while two other requests to take over redundant churches have been turned down.
The report suggested that in deciding such cases the Church Commissioners should bear in mind the feelings of the entire local community (not just the Church of England parish or parishes affected), the effect on Christian relations with other faiths in England, and the possible impact on Christian churches overseas.
Yesterday the synod warmly commended for study a recent report by the Doctrine Commission on the mystery of salvation. This concluded that damnation remained a possibility for every human being but went on to suggest that "annihilation might be a truer picture of damnation than any of the traditional images of the hell of eternal torment".