General Synod Voting Is Underway

Voting for the next General Synod of the Church of England began on Monday 21st September and the electorate have until Tuesday 13th October to cast their vote.

Regular readers of the blog will know how important these elections are as they may well determine the likelihood of the Church of England moving forward with or pausing the move towards same-sex marriage. Any one of the three Houses (Bishops, Clergy or Laity) could prevent such a bill going forward with a blocking minority of 33%.

This blog takes a look at the candidates:

The majority of seats are determined by the dioceses, with each of the 42 dioceses holding elections for the House of Laity and the House of Clergy.

• 413 diocesan clergy are standing for election to 186 seats.

• 548 lay people are standing for 193 seats.

These numbers are similar to the figures for the last election in 2021.

But there are also other elections taking place which will influence the membership of General Synod.

• 7 clergy from the Universities and Theological Education Institutes are standing for 4 seats.

• 2 lay people and 2 clergy from the Armed Forces need to be elected (but their election addresses appear to be top secret!)

• 2 lay people and 2 clergy from the Religious Communities have been elected unopposed

• 5 deans of cathedrals have already been elected unopposed, 3 from the South (Canterbury) and 2 from the North (York).

Even the bishops get a chance to engage in a bit of election fever. While every dioscesan bishop is automatically given a place in the House of Bishops there are also nine seats available for suffragan bishops. This is a significant proportion of the episcopal electorate, given that a similar number of diocesan seats are vacant at the moment.

• 9 suffragan bishops from the Province of Canterbury are standing for 5 places

• 8 suffragan bishops from the Province of York are standing for 4 places

The vast majority of these individuals have provided an electoral statement in which they set out what they believe they can offer to General Synod.

The statements are as varied as the candidates themselves; some focus on their professional qualifications, others on their personal story; some are very clear about their theological convictions, others require people to read between the lines. Although candidates are limited to two sides of A4 paper, one candidate has written three simple sentences, while others have crammed a huge amount of information, written in tiny font, and used photos and graphics to commend themselves to the voters.

In lieu of hustings, just over a quarter of dioceses have also posed questions to candidates, which they have been offered the opportunity to answer publicly. Candidates in the Diocese of Guildford were asked to give their opinion on 25 different areas of church life! Unsurprisingly, in most dioceses the questions focus on controversial topics such as the candidates view of standalone services of blessing for same-sex couples, the Spire Project and the use of the Ephesian Fund. Others have asked more general questions about the candidates priorities, sense of calling, and their intentions to communicate with the electorate in future. In Norwich, candidates were asked to describe their Anglican identity in three words - with answers such as "Liberal Anglo Catholic", "Devout Humble Prayerful", "Rural Anglican Evangelical".

As if that was not enough information - a small number of dioceses have also offered candidates the chance to speak to the electorate through short videos.

Anglican Futures has undertaken a basic analysis of the statements and answers provided (though the videos remain unchartered territory).

At this point it appears that approximately:

• 65% of clergy candidates and 76% of lay candidates would be new to Synod, if elected.

• 36% of clergy candidates and 47% of lay candidates are female.

• 40% of clergy candidates and 30% of lay candidates quote the Inclusive Church Statement or commend the blessing of same-sex relationships.

  • 6 of the 11 trustees of Together for the Church of England are standing in the election: Professor Helen King, Revd Dr Charlie Bączyk-Bell (and his husband Piotr), Fiona MacMillan, Kat D'Arcy Cumber, Paul Ronson and Revd Rachel Wakefield.

• About 40% of both clergy and lay candidates appear to hold more traditonal views. Many state clearly that they hold a traditional view of marriage of uphold the Church's teaching in Canon B30.

  • 5 of the 7 directors of The Alliance are standing in the election: Revd John Dunnett, Revd Adam Gaunt, Sarah Jackson, Revd Vaughan Roberts and Revd Jago Wynne.

  • 5 of the 11 members of the Church Society Council are standing for election: Revd Edward Keene, Rt Revd Rob Munro, Amanda Robbie, Revd Chris Kilgour and Revd Jason Ward.

• Whilst the Save the Parish initiative has had a considerable impact - with the vast majority of candidates mentioning their commitment to local parish ministry in some form or other - only about 7% of clergy and 16% of laity actually align themselves openly with the campaign.

  • 4 of the 14 members of the Save the Parish steering group are standing for election: Fr Marcus Walker, Prudence Dailey, Robert Zampetti and Elliot Grainger.

• There are also a number of interesting new faces putting their hat in the ring including the Revd Nicky Gumbel of Alpha fame.

With nearly a hundred separate elections taking place, such analysis, while having some value, does not allow a prediction to be made as to the outcome. That is in the hands of the electorate.

More than ten thousand clergy will be given the opportunity to cast their vote - all those who are beneficed, licenced or hold permission to officiate (PTO) in their diocese. A complicated algorithm is used to determine the number of clergy elected from each diocese, which favours the Northern Province (York) and those dioceses with fewer clergy. For example the Diocese of Truro will return one member of clergy for every 34 clergy, while the Diocese of Rochester will return one for every 70 serving clergy.

The number of lay people entitled to vote is not publicly available because the electorate is made up of all the deanery synod members, of which there is no publicly available record. The number of lay people sent to General Synod from each diocese is based on total electoral roll numbers, but the algorithm is again skewed towards the north and smaller dioceses. Sheffield will be sending one lay person for every 2972 people on their electoral roll - while the poor people of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich have to make do with just one person per 4745 church-goers.

However, every vote counts and it is worth remembering that some seats are more contested than others. There was no need for Sodor and Man to have an election for the House of Clergy - just one candidate stood, suggesting the other eighteen clergy in the diocese decided they wouldn't compete. In contrast, in the Diocese of Winchester seventeen candidates are standing for just four seats in the House of Laity.

More could be said but with the candidates and electorate in mind, William Laud's prayer for the Church seems the appropriate way tot end this blog:

Gracious Father, we pray for your holy catholic Church.

Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace.

Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it;

where in anything it is amiss, reform it.

Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it;

where it is divided, reunite it;

for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen.

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Results will trickle out between the 15th-19th of October, after which Anglican Futures will give an initial analysis of the make up of the new General Synod.