General Synod Voting Is Underway
Updated: Sep 25
Voting has begun in what is probably the most organised election the Church of England has ever seen. Over the past year, both revisonist and conservative groups have worked hard to encourage their supporters to stand, and more crucially to be in a position to vote. There is one predominant reason for this. That reason os revisionists need the support of more than two-thirds of the House of Laity and of the House of Clergy, if they are to have any hope of making further 'progress' towards their goal of same-sex marriage.
This blog takes a quick look at the elections, the candidates and the electorate.
This is not a simple election - it is made up of almost a hundred discrete elections - every one of which has its own set of candidates and its own electorate.
The majority of seats are determined by the dioceses. Each of the 42 dioceses hold separate elections for their allocation of seats to the House of Laity and the House of Clergy. The total number of candidates is similar to the number that stood in the last election in 2021.
413 diocesan clergy are standing for election to 186 seats.
548 lay people are standing for 193 seats.
But there are also other elections taking place that 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).
Some of the bishops also 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 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. This may be why a few more bishops have put their hat in the ring this time, compared to past years.
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
Almost all those standing for election have provided a statement in which they set out what they believe they can offer to General Synod.
These statements have to fit on two sides of A4 paper, but, notwithstanding this limitation, they are as varied as the candidates themselves. One candidate has written three simple sentences, while others have used tiny fonts to cram a huge amount of detail onto the page and used photos and graphics to commend themselves to the voters. 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.
In addition, in lieu of hustings, just over a quarter of dioceses have given candidates the 'opportunity' to give written answers to questions posed by the electorate. Candidates in the Diocese of Guildford have been asked to give their opinion on 25 different areas of church life! It is perhaps unsurprising that most of these questions focus on controversial topics such as the candidate's view of standalone services of blessing for same-sex couples, the Spire Project or parishes use of the Ephesian Fund. In Norwich, however, candidates were asked to describe their Anglican identity in three words, which with answers such as "Liberal Anglo Catholic", "Devout Humble Prayerful", "Rural Anglican Evangelical", offer a glimpse of the candidate's concerns.
Add to all that the videos which some candidates and dioceses have favoured and the amount of information about each candidate is quite overwhelming. Despite this, Anglican Futures has sought to undertake a basic analysis of who the candidates are and how they might vote on the cruical topic.
It appears that:
If elected, 65% of clergy candidates and 76% of lay candidates would be new to Synod.
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.
This includes 6 of the 11 trustees of Together for the Church of England: 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. Including:
5 of the 7 directors of The Alliance: Revd John Dunnett, Revd Adam Gaunt, Revd Sarah Jackson, Revd Vaughan Roberts and Revd Jago Wynne.
5 of the 11 members of the Church Society Council: Revd Edward Keene, Rt Revd Rob Munro, Amanda Robbie, Revd Chris Kilgour and Revd Jason Ward.
The impact of the Save the Parish initiative can be seen by the fact that the vast majority of candidates mention their commitment to local parish ministry in some form or other - but 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.
As to predicting the outcome - it remains almost impossible.
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.
The electorate is also to some extent unknown and their motivations unknowable. The House of Laity is chosen by lay members of their relevant deanery synods, of which there are 635 nationally but no publicly available membership lists. This election is more organised, with Inclusive Church publishing a list of their favoured candidates and rumours of lists being circulated to conservative members of deanery synods. Yet, despite this, the majority of deanery synod members will have their own reasons for selecting candidates - "I feel sorry for her" being one memorable example.
Therefore, with the candidates and electorate in mind, William Laud's prayer for the Church seems the appropriate way to 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.
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.
Sarah Jackson is ordained (Alliance list)