Lord Joffe did not think the Synod's vote would have a "significant impact" on Parliament, where the bill is likely to return later this year. "Most members of Parliament have always known that the church is opposed for historic reasons to voluntary euthanasia." A pro-life group claimed, however, that the massive vote against the Bill reflected the "general opposition" to voluntary euthanasia in the country. ProLife Alliance spokeswoman Julia Millington said: "If we allow the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia, there's clearly a risk that some patients will be considered to be of so little value that it isn't of financial value to keep them alive." She claimed that, in the long term, the legalisation of euthanasia would lead to people being judged on how "useful" they are to society, which she claimed "would take us down a eugenics path". "It has an impact on people with disabilities . . . we wouldn't just be looking at people in the last few terms of illness." Speaker after speaker at Saturday's Synod debate spoke against the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill. Many members gave moving personal accounts of the deaths of terminally-ill relatives before body voted resoundingly to continue The Church's opposition. Bishop of Liverpool calls for Church of England to forge improved religious links in multi-faith society THE Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, used The Synod meeting in York to urge The Church of England to face up to the challenge of operating alongside Islam in "multi-faith communities". Leading the debate on how the Anglican church should operate within a "multi-faith society", Bishop Jones said: "We need to relate better to the increasing diversity of British society. In particular, we need wisdom and skill to understand how two great missionary religions such as Christianity and Islam might inhabit the same neighbourhood, the same nation, the same continent and the same world." The bishop began by acknowledging how the London bombers, in their actions, did not discriminate on the ground of people's faith. The Bishop said: "What happened in London affected Jew, Muslim and Christian as well as people of other faiths and no faith. "When it comes to this sort of terror there is neither Jew nor Muslim nor Christian. "We are all one, and together all vulnerable to this indiscriminate violence. "That is the nature of these acts. "That is the multi-cultural character of Britain today." Bishop Jones told The Synod how 80% of parishes now contained people of other faiths and urged members "not to retreat from the places where the cultural change is greatest". He said: "The Church of England's claim to be a national church, geographically present in all neighbourhoods, is secured only by our on-going presence in multicultural areas. "The church at large needs to understand that these sometimes vulnerable and fragile churches set in multicultural parishes are valuable assets to be treasured." | 
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