A HEAVY agenda and intense debate characterised the General Synod sessions in London last week. Issues of trust and power were to the fore.
On the first evening, victims and survivors of John Smyth were present when a motion was carried expressing repentance, in the wake of the Makin review, for the Church’s past safeguarding failures. The Bishop of Birkenhead, the Rt Revd Julie Conalty, read out submissions from four Smyth survivors. One said: “You are all witnesses and all to some extent complicit in failing victims so catastrophically by inaction.” Another spoke of forgiveness.
On the Tuesday, the Synod stopped short of transferring all church safeguarding functions to an external organisation, at least in the short term. Both optimism and disappointment were expressed after the debate, during which speakers frequently referred to a lack of trust in the Church of England and its leaders.
The Bishop of Blackburn’s accepted amendment pivoted the motion away from the model preferred by the lead bishop for safeguarding, Dr Joanne Grenfell, towards outsourcing the Church’s National Safeguarding Team. Further study would go into how diocesan teams could be added later to a new independent body.
Issues of trust and power were again raised in a debate on proposed changes to the rules followed by the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC). The CNC is soon to consider the nomination of the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Synod took note of the proposals on Tuesday, before a longer debate and vote on each on Thursday. Five of the nine amendments had come collectively from the CNC’s central members, elected by the Synod, and were carried. The other four had come from the House of Bishops, of which three fell. These proved to be the most contentious — not just on basis of their content, which was accused of being a “power grab”, but because the Bishops were criticised for a lack of consultation. These proposals included the removal of the secret ballot in favour of a show of hands, and giving the presiding archbishop (or his substitute) a deciding vote. The Archbishop of York declared that he did not want that power and would not use it.
The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, acknowledged that trust had been “knocked significantly” in the process, after no nominations had been made for Carlisle and Ely. Speakers also referred to the breach of confidentiality implicit in the leak from the CNC that had appointed the Bishop of Liverpool, Dr John Perumbalath.
Election processes were also central to a charged debate on proposed changes to the make-up of diocesan vacancy-in-see committees, which meet when the diocesan bishop has vacated the see. The committee also elects by ballot from among its members persons to be members of the CNC.
Among the proposals was that at least one woman be chosen to be among the six diocesan representatives on the CNC. Criticism of this prompted an emotional intervention from Bishop Mullally, who said: “Why are we not ensuring that our members are 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women?. . . There continue to be institutional barriers. We [women] continue to experience micro-aggression.”
Equality was central to a lively debate on racial justice on Tuesday, which led to the agreement of recommendations of the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice, including the appointment of a racial-justice board, panel, and lead bishop.
The Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, said: “Racial justice cannot be seen as responding to sheer political pressure. It has to be integrated into the life and fabric of the Church and the nation.”
Diversity through the inclusion of young people was raised by Kenson Li, who was co-opted to the Synod three years ago. His motion asked the Synod to request that “at least three and up to five young adults” represent, at Synod, a group of up to 200 young adults from across the dioceses to succeed the Church of England Youth Council, which was disbanded in 2019, owing in part to lack of funding (News, 18 February 2022). An amendment from Clare Williams (Norwich) was accepted, to ensure that “links are made with the opportunities provided for the voices of active disciples who are under 18 to be heard in a way that feeds into Synod”.
Absent from this Synod was any long debate on the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process. The vote on how prayers and services of blessings for same-sex couples are to be implemented has been delayed again. A brief discussion of the latest timetable was held on Thursday afternoon, with questions from the floor.
The sessions also brought the long-awaited final approval, on the Wednesday afternoon, of a new system for clergy discipline, in the form of the draft Clergy Conduct Measure. Its three-tier system for sorting complaints according to their gravity replaces the widely criticised Clergy Discipline Measure.
Later in the week, the revision stage of the National Church Governance Measure concluded with just one amendment, out of several tabled. This amendment required the new Church of England National Services to have, in spending decisions, “particular regard” to the “provision for the cure of souls in parishes where such assistance is most required”.
Also approved by the Synod was a simplification of the rules governing pastoral reorganisation, support for working-class vocations to ministry, a push to evangelise through sports, and a review of diocesan finances, including the scrapping of diocesan apportionment.
The Synod concluded on Friday with farewells to Archbishop Welby and four others: the former Second Church Estates Commissioner, Andrew Selous; the outgoing chief executive of the Church Commissioners, Gareth Mostyn; the former Third Church Estates Commissioner (now the Bishop of Selby), the Rt Revd Dr Flora Winfield; and the Vicar-General of the Province of York, the Rt Worshipful Peter Collier.
Podcast: Reflections on a long and difficult General Synod
