CHURCH funds, redress for survivors of abuse, and a bid to remove Issues in Human Sexuality from the vocations process are among the many items on the agenda for the meeting of the General Synod in July.
Members are resulting from meet on the University of York campus from 11 to fifteen July. The Outline of Business was published on the C of E website on Thursday.
On Friday (11 July), the Archbishop of York will give his presidential address, after which the Synod will probably be addressed by a senior member of the armed forces, who just isn’t named within the Outline of Business.
Next, there will probably be a presentation, with questions, on the work of the Triennium Funding Working Group, which is developing spending plans for 2026-28, from the endowment managed by the Church Commissioners. Members may have a chance to debate the spending plans the subsequent day.
On Saturday morning, a motion to transfer £2.6 billion from the Church Commissioners to diocesan stipend funds (News, 31 January) will return to the Synod, having been adjourned on the February meeting when time ran short. The mover of the motion, the Bishop of Bath & Wells, Dr Michael Beasley, expressed frustration on the time, saying: “I’d that we had had proper time to debate this” (News, 28 February).
Also on Saturday morning, the National Church Governance Measure will probably be presented for final approval (Synod, 28 February). The Measure will reduce the National Church Institutions (NCIs) from seven to 4, and create a latest body, the Church of England National Services (CENS), into which the functions of the Archbishops’ Council will probably be subsumed. An amendment to the Measure, which was carried in February, said that the brand new national body to switch the Archbishops’ Council would should have “particular regard” for the cure of souls in poorer parishes in the usage of Church Commissioners’ funding.
On Saturday afternoon, a personal member’s motion (PMM) demanding that laws be delivered to the Synod no later than February 2026 to revive the clergy pension profit to its 1997 level will probably be debated (News, 16 May).
Items on the agenda on Sunday include legislative business on armed forces chaplaincy; a presentation, with questions, on “church growth and revitalisation”; and an item on the impact over the past decade of the annual prayer movement Thy Kingdom Come.
On Monday morning, a redress scheme for victims and survivors of abuse, the Abuse (Redress Measure), will probably be brought before the Synod for final drafting and approval. It had been expected to receive final approval on the February Synod, but this was delayed to permit “final checks” to be carried out “in light of the Makin report”, Church House, Westminster, said earlier this yr (News, 17 January).
In the afternoon, members will probably be asked to offer final approval to Abuse (Redress) Rules, which “set out the procedure for making claims for redress and the way financial redress is to be calculated”.
Included within the business on Tuesday will probably be a PMM motion from the Revd Mae Christie (Southwark), which requests the House of Bishops to “remove any requirements referring to Issues in Human Sexuality from the Vocations (Shared Discernment) Process”. The motion is backed by 146 signatures, as of 20 January, surpassing the brink of 100 signatories required for it to be tabled for debate. In February, Ms Christie said that Issues was “antiquated and embarrassing”, and ought to be consigned to history (News 28 February). This would occur as a part of the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process, but delays meant that it remained in place, she said.
There isn’t any item on LLF on the agenda published on Thursday; the Church Times understands, nonetheless, that there could also be an update from the working groups.
