08:02
Tieng Anh Vui
The Church of England is expected to make a formal apology for past child abuse by Anglican priests, and its own "serious failure" to prevent it.
The ruling General Synod, meeting in York, will debate a report about abuse in the Chichester Diocese.
Members will be asked to back an earlier apology issued by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.
Meanwhile, a man has been arrested after stewards were allegedly attacked at a Synod service in York Minster.
'Inescapable truth'
The General Synod will also debate the government's welfare changes, which have already been criticised by bishops.
The cases of two priests - Roy Cotton and Colin Pritchard - who abused several children during the 1970s and 1980s, prompted an inquiry into safeguarding procedures in the diocese.
Its report described a "profoundly unhelpful and negative culture" there, producing an "appalling" and "dysfunctional" record in handling allegations of abuse.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, later offered their own apology for "individual wickedness on the part of abusers" and serious failures by the Church to protect children or listen properly to victims.
They said would be a source of grief and shame for years to come.
The motion before the Synod will ask members to endorse their apology.
It could also agree plans to take further legislative and non-legislative steps to improve policies and practices on safeguarding children.
The Synod will be asked to lift the current one-year limit on making complaints of child abuse, and give bishops the right to suspend clergy who are credibly accused of abuse.
Meanwhile, the debate on the government's welfare reform programme will decide whether to back a call rejecting the "misleading characterisation" of welfare recipients.
A briefing document drawn up for the General Synod by Philip Fletcher, chairman of the Church's Mission and Public Affairs Council, has accused government spokesmen of making "political capital" by presenting unemployment as a "strivers" versus "scroungers" debate.
Archbishop Welby and Dr Sentamu were among the 43 bishops to write to the Daily Telegraph earlier this year criticising the Government over benefit cuts.
On Saturday, the MP who acts as the Church of England's link in the House of Commons told the Synod it has been divided into a "gathering of tribes" as a result of disputes over the role of women.
Sir Tony Baldry, Second Church Estates Commissioner was speaking after General Synod members spent the day in private talks in an attempt to solve the impasse over introducing women bishops.
A debate and vote on endorsing draft legislation on women bishops is to take place on Monday.
Sir Tony told the meeting: "There is, I believe, an inescapable truth that the Church of England probably has no more than 20 years to reassert its position as the national Church of England," he said.
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