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 primary evening, victims and survivors of John Smyth were present when a motion was carried expressing repentance, within 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 4 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 wanting transferring all church safeguarding functions to an external organisation, at the least within the short term. Both optimism and disappointment were expressed after the controversy, during which speakers regularly referred to an absence of trust within 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 may very well be added later to a latest independent body.
Issues of trust and power were again raised in a debate on proposed changes to the principles followed by the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC). The CNC is soon to contemplate the nomination of the following Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Synod took note of the proposals on Tuesday, before an extended 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 4 had come from the House of Bishops, of which three fell. These proved to be probably the most contentious — not only on basis of their content, which was accused of being a “power grab”, but since the Bishops were criticised for an absence of consultation. These proposals included the removal of the key 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 didn’t want that power and wouldn’t use it.
The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, acknowledged that trust had been “knocked significantly” in the method, after no nominations had been made for Carlisle and Ely. Speakers also referred to the breach of confidentiality implicit within 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 amongst its members individuals to be members of the CNC.
Among the proposals was that at the least one woman be chosen to be among the many 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 proceed to be institutional barriers. We [women] proceed to experience micro-aggression.”
Equality was central to a energetic 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 can’t be seen as responding to sheer political pressure. It must 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 the least three and as much as five young adults” represent, at Synod, a bunch of as much as 200 young adults from across the dioceses to succeed the Church of England Youth Council, which was disbanded in 2019, owing partly to lack of funding (News, 18 February 2022). An amendment from Clare Williams (Norwich) was accepted, to be sure that “links are made with the opportunities provided for the voices of energetic disciples who’re 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 transient discussion of the most recent timetable was held on Thursday afternoon, with questions from the ground.
The sessions also brought the long-awaited final approval, on the Wednesday afternoon, of a latest system for clergy discipline, in the shape of the draft Clergy Conduct Measure. Its three-tier system for sorting complaints in keeping with their gravity replaces the widely criticised Clergy Discipline Measure.
Later within the week, the revision stage of the National Church Governance Measure concluded with only one amendment, out of several tabled. This amendment required the brand 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 principles governing pastoral reorganisation, support for working-class vocations to ministry, a push to evangelise through sports, and a review of diocesan funds, including the scrapping of diocesan apportionment.
The Synod concluded on Friday with farewells to Archbishop Welby and 4 others: the previous Second Church Estates Commissioner, Andrew Selous; the outgoing chief executive of the Church Commissioners, Gareth Mostyn; the previous 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.
