Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T21:33:58.881Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reflections on the Workings of General Synod

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2023

Pete Broadbent
Pete Broadbent*
Affiliation:
Sometime Bishop of Willesden, in the Diocese of London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article is based on a paper delivered to the Ecclesiastical Law Society's day conference in 2022. It is a reflection on the workings of General Synod from the perspective of an author who has been a member of Synod for around 36 years. The article examines three discrete themes: (i) the problem of authority in the Church of England, (ii) the shortcomings of Synodical government, and (iii) the urgency of mission. It examines these themes by considering, among other things, the Church of England's response to a number of contemporary issues: its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, proposed reform of its governance structures, its ability to respond to issues concerning sexuality and racial justice, and the proposals for reforming the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, as set out in GS 2222.

Keywords

authorityChurch of EnglandCOVID-19General SynodGS 2222reform
Type
Articles
Information
Ecclesiastical Law Journal , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 2023 , pp. 19 - 31
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The online version of this article has been updated since original publication. A notice detailing the changes has also been published at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956618X2300025X

References

1 Podmore, C, Aspects of Anglican Identity (London, 2005), 123Google Scholar.

2 See, for example, Sykes, S, Unashamed Anglicanism (London, 1995), 156ffGoogle Scholar.

3 The letter is available at <https://cofecarlisle.contentfiles.net/media/documents/document/2020/03/C-20200327_Letter_from_Archbishops_and_bishops_JCAzSpv.pdf>, accessed 21 September 2022.

4 For further discussion of the obligation to say morning and evening prayer, see Dewhurst, R, ‘“Seven whole days”: The Obligation of the Clergy of the Church of England to “say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer”’ (2022) 24 Ecc LJ 14–24Google Scholar.

5 S Cottrell, A Vision for the Church of England in the 2020s, ‘Christ centred and Jesus shaped. Simpler, humbler, bolder’: A commentary to accompany the picture, November 2020, available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/system/files/2020-12//A%20vision%20for%20the%20church%20of%20England%20in%20the%202020s%20-%20commentary%20by%20Stephen%20Cottrell.pdf>, accessed 22 September 2022.

6 Transforming Effectiveness. An introduction and update, GS 2224, June 2021, available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2021-06/GS%202224%20Transforming%20Effectiveness%20Update%20July%202021%20v1.pdf>, accessed 16 September 2022.

7 cf. ‘Bishops and their ministry’, The Church Times, 12 February 2022, available at <https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/18-february/news/uk/bishops-and-their-ministry-full-document>, accessed 16 September 2022.

8 Report of the Governance Review Group, GS 2239, September 2021, available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2021-10/GS%202239%20Governance%20Review%20Group.pdf>, accessed 16 September 2022.

9 Cottrell (note 5), 2.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid, 3.

12 cf. ‘Dakin resigns from Winchester’, 16 July 2021, Church Times, available at <https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/23-july/news/uk/dakin-resigns-from-winchester>, accessed 16 September 2022; and ‘Bishop of Chester Dr Peter Forster could retire before outcome of abuse cover-up inquiry’, The Chester Standard, 21 March 2019, available at <https://www.chesterstandard.co.uk/news/17517593.bishop-chester-dr-peter-forster-retire-outcome-abuse-cover-up-inquiry/>, accessed 21 September 2022.

13 Synodical Government Measure 1969, Schedule 2, para 6.

14 ‘The Final Report of the ELS Working Party Reviewing the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003’, 24 February 2021, is available at <https://ecclawsoc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Final-Report-of-Working-Party-Reviewing-the-Clergy-Discipline-Measure-2003-1.pdf>, accessed 25 September 2022. See also ‘ELS Working Party reviewing the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003: Interim Report’, September 2020, Annex 3, available at <https://ecclawsoc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ELS-Interim-Report-revised.pdf>, accessed 25 September 2022. On the proposed reforms to the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003, see further, KC, P Collier, ‘50 Years of Safeguarding – 950 Years of Clergy Discipline: Where do we go from here?’ (2022) 24 Ecc LJ 148–174Google Scholar.

15 See, for example, letters to the Church Times from A Graystone and D Lamming (22 July 2022), which are available at <https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/22-july/comment/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor>, accessed 21 September 2022; and the resource Stones not Bread, published by A Graystone, which is available at <https://abuselaw.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Stones-not-Bread.pdf>, accessed 21 September 2022.

16 See <https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/living-love-and-faith>, accessed 16 September 2022.

17 See, for example, the different responses from the Church of England Evangelical Council, which are available at <http://www.ceec.info/uploads/4/4/2/7/44274161/gospel_church___marriage_-_preserving_apostolic_faith_and_life.pdf>, accessed 21 September 2022; and from C Coward in his blog, ‘LLF: it's long, complex, and fails LGBTI Anglicans’, Unadulterated Love, 10 November 2020, available at <https://www.unadulteratedlove.net/blog/2020/11/10/llf-its-long-complex-and-fails-lgbti-anglicans>, accessed 21 September 2022.

18 ‘From Lament to Action, The Report of the Archbishops’ Anti-Racism Taskforce’, 4, available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2021-04/FromLamentToAction-report.pdf>, accessed 17 September 2022.

19 cf. ibid, 60–99; and the Church of England press release, 8 February 2022, available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/media-and-news/press-releases/lack-action-racial-justice-chilling-lord-boateng-tells-synod, accessed 17 September 2022.

20 Report of the Governance Review Group (note 8), 6, para 1.

21 Working as One Body (London, 1995). The Turnbull Commission was created after steady over-commitment of the historic endowment, by the Church Commissions and the wider Church, led to an inflated income requirement and disastrous investment decisions, which came to a head in the early 1990s. As the Governance Review Group noted (note 8), 20, para 73: ‘This was widely seen as evidence of inadequate governance structures and the Turnbull report's diagnosis remains strikingly familiar. In particular it noted that there was no single vision and that no single body had overall responsibility for making decisions and developing policy (especially financial), and that the multiplicity of autonomous bodies created confusion and duplication’.

22 Report of the Governance Review Group (note 8), 20, para 75.

23 Working as One Body (note 21).

24 Statistics for Mission 2019 (London, 2020), 16 available here <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/2019StatisticsForMission.pdf>, accessed 23 November 2022.

25 See Cottrell (note 5).

26 ‘2030 Vision: People Strategy: Models of Church and Models of Ministry’, posted on my blog on 18 September 2022, <https://petebroadbentmusings.blogspot.com/2022/09/>, accessed 21 September 2022.

27 ‘Church of England Mission in Revision: A review of the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011’, 14 June 2021, GS 2222, available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2021-06/GS%202222%20-%20Mission%20in%20Revision%20-%20A%20Review%20of%20the%20Mission%20and%20Pastoral%20Measure%202011.pdf>, accessed 17 September 2022.

28 Ibid, 5.