Day 2 at Synod: Lessons learned?

While the rest of the country bathed in the sunshine, watching Wimbledon or listening to the cricket, spare a thought for the 400, or so, poor souls who were stuck in the Central Hall at the University of York. Obviously, as the General Synod of the Church of England, they had important work to do, but it was a long day!

Redistribution of Funds (a Diocesan Motion)

First up, was the Bishop of Hereford, bringing a motion from his diocese calling for the redistribution of funds from the Church Commissioners to the dioceses and from the dioceses to the parishes. He spoke of a "widespread dissatisfaction with the Church's current financial ecosystem," and, raising the question of who could, ".. get the maximum value," from the Commissioners' money, he pitted the "local decision makers in the parishes" against the "experts in the National Church Institutions". However, his radical ideas were wiped out by an amendment, which was in fact a completely new motion, welcoming "the greater level of stakeholder engagement," "a more formal role for Synod" in decisions and seeking a "full debate" before the next three-year spending plan was agreed. It was a compromise that won the day.

National Church Governance Measure (Final Drafting and Final Approval)

Next on the agenda: the final stages of a new 'measure' (or a law which requires parliamentary scrutiny) re-organising the way that the central bodies of the Church of England are organised. You can find out more here or by watching the video below - but in short, the aim is to simplify the National Church Institutions and make them more accountable.

The need for change was summed up by the Bishop of Leeds, who said,

"It was a privilege to chair the original review group but quite horrifying to see the mess that we were actually in. And what shocked me was the number of bishops and senior lay people in the church who, when we produced our report, came to me and said, "I had no idea how the church worked." And I thought, "How have we become an institution where its most senior people either haven't had the curiosity or the ability to ask how does this actually function?"

Whether any Measure can change the culture and competence of those in senior leadership is unlikely but two changes may help.

1) The creation of a new charity, called CENS (Church of England National Services) which will do the work of the Archbishops' Council, the offices of the Archbishops at Lambeth and Bishopthorpe and Church of England Central Services through a number of committees with clear responsibilities.

2) The creation of a Synodical Scrutiny Committee to provide a route for concerns and questions and if things go very wrong Synod will have the power to call for a "Committee of Inquiry".

If the first debate was about the redistribution of money from the 'centre' to the 'parish', this debate focused on the fear that the new structures would redistribute power from General Synod to the centre - though once again it was focused on the question of who decided how the money was spent. In the end, "a constructive partnership in line with good charity governance rather than distrustful conflict filled with niggles and exasperation," won the day, the Measure was passed and Synod broke for lunch!

After a short lunch break, where some caught up with the sport, some sat in the sun and some attended fringe meetings it was back to the chamber for more discussion. For those interested, social prescribing, USPG, Children and Youth, 'Together' and a women's bible study were among the options available on the Fringe.

Armed Forces Chaplains (Licensing) Measure)

Following the address from Brigadier Jaish Mahan on Friday, this was a very encouraging debate. Ven Jonathan Chaffey, who was the RAF's Chaplain-in-Chief, was right when he said, "This is in one sense just a tidying up of a small area of ecclesiastical law but in a wider and more important way it is enabling and supportive of the essential work carried out by chaplain to his majesty's forces.”

It was encouraging to hear about the many ways chaplains support those serving in the military and their families. Revd Paul Cartwright’s comment that, “This isn't about bypassing Episcopal oversight. It's about enabling ministry in extraordinary settings,” summed it all up.

Appointment of two members of Archbishops' Council

This seemed to take longer than usual - lots of speeches from those supporting the nominations or thanking other members of the Archbishops' Council and other committees for their tireless work. Perhaps the last time this will happen - if the restructuring approved in the morning happens in the next five years.

Spending Plans

Back to the money. Currently, it is the Archbishops' Council who set out the the triennium spending plans for 2026-2028 and outline plans for the following six years.

Record sums were promised to provide better pensions, clergy housing and grants for those training for ordination. £150million was put aside for the safeguarding redress scheme. The debate gave the opportunity for individuals to campaign for more money for their particular projects or situations - but, whatever niggles there were, in the end the plans were voted through.

Clergy Pensions

This Private Members Motion has been championed by a group of evangelical clergy - it began with a motion brought by the Revd Ian Paul in February 2024, and was taken up this session by the Revd James Blandford-Baker. Shocked by the fact his mother was receiving a much higher widows pension than he was predicted to receive, an anonymous clergyman started the Clergy Pension Action Facebook Group which gained 500 members in 48 hours and now has it's own website.

The original motion had done its job - with updated spending plans that commit an additional £900m for service already accrued. A 'friendly' amendment was therefore proposed recognising the changed circumstances and calling for further reviews to "ensure that clergy and their dependents are supported in retirement with dignity and fairness - specifically in relation to both pension provision and housing."

While important, and necessary, the debate took a slightly unreal turn when Revd Simon Talbot suggested the Church of England should offer a pension to clergy for time spent serving in other denominations, raising a few eyebrows in the media gallery.

328 members of Synod voted in favour of the motion with 3 abstentions.

Governance Review of the House of Bishops

This was the final debate of the day - and the first time that the underlying divisions over sexuality raised their head. It was another Private Members Motion, brought by Dr Ros Clarke, Associate Director of the Church Society, who was supported on the stage by the Revd Mark Wallace, previously a Church Society Regional Director and Senior Chaplain to the Bishop of Ebbsfleet. The original wording was:

‘That this Synod request that the House of Bishops urgently submit itself to an independent culture and governance review in order to restore trust and ensure that it is acting in an appropriate manner.’

In a similar way to the previous debate about clergy pensions, events had rather overtaken things - with the House of Bishops having already announced "a review to evaluate the governance structures, culture, and operational practices of the House of Bishops," and a 'friendly-ish' amendment was proposed acknowledging this change of circumstance. Dr Clarke was unmoved - doubling down on the need for "independent" input.

In her original speech, she said:

"We need outsiders, independent outsiders to show us what is healthy and what is unhealthy in our own culture. So without that independent review and transformation of culture, it seems to me there's actually very little value in a governance review alone."

Responding to Dr Jamie Harrison's amendment, she said:

"It suggests that a review team will be nominated by the House of Bishops. That is not a fully independent review... Why would we not just publish the whole review as is standard practice with other reviews that have been undertaken?"

"... It does seem to me however what is being offered is not only a case of the bishops deciding to mark their own homework. They are setting the homework, deciding how that homework will be assessed, doing that homework, choosing who will mark it, and then telling us how well they did."

The pushback came first from Revd Graham Kirk-Spriggs, a member of Inclusive Church, who having described the motion as paranoid, declared, "This PMM quite simply is a thinly veiled attack on our bishops because of LLF because some in this chamber haven't agreed with decisions taken. It's a way of punishing them and it's not how we should be treating one another."

He was joined by, Revd Charlie Baczyc- Bell, another member of Inclusive Church, "We've heard during this debate vague, broadbrush allegations. We've heard about so much power being unchecked. We've heard innuendo. We've heard accusation. We've heard about subversion. We've heard the quote seemingly use their power unquote...bishops are not malicious fantasy objects upon whom we can reasonably project all of our fear and our anger and our frustration and our hatred at the way things are. They are human beings"

Despite a helpful contribution from the Rt Revd Joanne Grenfell picking up on questions of sexual harrassment and the need for a review to consider the problem that, "At the moment, too much falls into the 'not- safeguarding-but-what?' category," the debate appeared to have been lost.

Then in a final piece of drama, the Ven Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, another progressive member of the synod, used a procedural motion - 'a move to next business' to prevent any vote taking place at all.

There is much that the conservatives can learn from what happened - but that may be for another blog.

Saturday's formal business came to an end and members went out into the evening sunshine, more agitated than at any other point this session.

---

To discuss the events of Synod and pray for the future

Join us online at Close to the Edge on Wednesday 16th July

Find out more

https://www.anglicanfutures.org/event-details/close-to-the-edge-july-16th