A vacancy came up on the General Synod and I decided to apply. The General Synod is the 'parliament' of the Church of England with some delegated powers from the national parliament. It is currently involved in a 7 year struggle to change its doctrine in the area of who can marry who (as touched on in recent blogs The storm after the calm, Messy solid or lost). As this is made very clear in the Bible – its sole authority according to the church’s founding and governing documents – it also affects, or at least reveals, our attitudes to this book. JI Packer summarised it as: do you judge the Bible or let the Bible judge you. But more than this it questions our desire for righteousness, to please the Author as best we can. No doubt all parties would say, and maybe feel, they are doing this, but that is why we have it written down – so feelings alone are not the arbiter.
The voting has been very close in the General Synod church-member 'house' so it was important to elect someone who holds orthodox rather than revisionist views. These can be evangelical, mainstream or more catholic streams.
I didn't know how the system worked, what you had to do, if there was anyone to help. You don't know who else is standing until the voting starts. You can write an Election Address which is published when voting starts – so you don’t know what others are saying in advance. Another motivation for standing was the opportunity to speak to all the 750 electors so I decided to summarise the role of the General Synod, the key issue and how I’d respond, keeping it fairly brief. For fun I asked an AI writing tool to do one and its effort was as smarmy as you can get!
What they said
There turned out to 10 people standing and the Election Addresses ranged from factual to life-story - complete with experiences and qualifications that would seem to have no bearing on the role. Some included pictures. Reading between the lines you could mostly work out where people stood on the key issue though most were incredibly coy, so I decided to email each and ask how they would vote on motions that were expected to come up at the next session. Of the 10, 4 replied – 3 in detail and one in generalities. So much for openness!
I understand the desire to avoid putting-off what we assume is the majority of the electorate, but in doing that we imply that our views are somehow disreputable. Such is the nature of social conditioning that even those who share our views look twice when hearing them expressed. So we need to move the 'Overton window' in the right direction so those who share our views are encouraged and even those who oppose them agree that they are at least valid to hold (as JK Rowling has sought to do in her area).
Helpful assistance
I was glad to speak to someone who had been elected to the GS and he suggested emailing the electors – as the (excellent) team organising the election provided the information if requested. I decided to do this and deal with the practical issue of loading all the addresses and dispatching (your ISP may not allow 750 at once!). My message:
The number of orthodox members of General Synod has been rising but is still a slight minority. There is the opportunity now, and again in 2026 at the main elections, to increase that number and change the legislation that has already caused large parts of the global Anglican communion to split away (bbc) and is creating serious schism among churches in England (St Helen's statement). See what The Alliance are saying - you can sign up to show your support.
There are a number of candidates standing in this election who have orthodox views if you read the Election Addresses carefully. We do need to be clear and unashamed of the Gospel of grace and truth especially when it contradicts current cultural norms. Jesus encountered opposition with the elites in his earthly ministry even while bringing healing and rescue. We have to be gracious and straightforward.
The Bible is also the bedrock of the Church of England, expressed in the 39 articles (worth re-reading!) and related documents. These were formed in the crucible of opposition - spiritual, ideological and political. Since then God has blessed Britain through personal revival and reformed society so that through Him it has been a blessing to the world.
We need not fear opposition in our time if, by being close to our Christian roots, we are pleasing God and not grieving the Holy Spirit. Indeed by honouring Him we will grow in maturity, the church will be revitalised and our communities flourish.
This is my approach so please support me if you agree, and if elected I'll keep you updated on what's happening. thanks
I had a few replies evenly split between positive and negative. I had some conversations with the 'negatives' which are useful, to engage with the arguments. One claimed that different views apply today so the church has to change to reflect the 'world'! Another said 'Please be assured that I shall not be voting for you', another 'The evangelical position is very damaging to the church, and always has been' (despite it being the founding ethos). So some unhelpful but also some progress.
Happy ending
The good news is that an 'orthodox' person was elected and I’ve written to him in support.
So to prepare for the next election – now what did he do...
