TWO Archbishops’ Council members appointed
THE appointment of two new Archbishops’ Council members was approved by the Synod on the Saturday afternoon: Peter Doyle and Julie Jones. Carl Hughes, who chairs the Finance Committee, paid tribute to the departing Maureen Cole. Her successor, Mr Doyle, had been identified by a competitive recruitment process and was to chair the Audit and Risk Committee.
In a short debate, the Revd Dr Ian Paul (Southwell & Nottingham) praised the interim chair of that committee, Chris Gill. Robert Hammond (Chelmsford) was surprised that members were not being told where the new Council members worshipped. Mr Hughes said that this was not deliberate. Dr Ian Johnston (Portsmouth) said that appointing a member of the Council to chair its Audit and Risk Committee was “an example of poor governance”. Mr Hughes said that the committee’s job was not to audit the Council itself, and that Mr Gill was not a member of the Council.
Alison Coulter (Winchester), another member of the Council, introduced Ms Jones, saying that the Council had been keen to improve diversity. Adrian Greenwood (Southwark) praised the departing Matthew Frost for leading the 2017 laity report Setting God’s People Free. Nicola Denyer (Newcastle) asked about the balance of representatives from the Province of York. Sarah Tupling (Deaf Anglicans Together) also asked about diversity: “Is it too white, is it lacking in neurodiversity, is it too hearing?” Penny Allen (Lichfield) praised Ms Jones’s work ethic. Nadine Daniel (Liverpool) suggested that the appointments process was skewed against the north.
Synod takes note of audit and risk report
THE General Synod took note of the Archbishops’ Council’s Audit and Risk Committee’s annual report on the Sunday afternoon. It had originally been listed as deemed business, but members had requested a debate. The former interim chair of the committee, Chris Gill (Lichfield), clarified some “potential misunderstandings”, apologising to two members who had recently left the committee, if his “robust approach” as chair had caused their departure. Membership should be restored by its next meeting in November, he reported.
Caroline Herbert (Norwich) welcomed the committee’s intention to increase the number of independent members from two to three, saying that this would help it to run smoothly and increase its diversity. Debbie Buggs (London) asked what guidance the committee had given to the Archbishops’ Council on risks with the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process, mentioned in the Council’s annual report. The Council, she said, quoting, was “increasingly concerned about the impact on the lower pipeline of vocations . . . and that protracted deadlock is unambiguously a risk to the Council’s objectives, either through deferral of decision-making or of vocations”.
Canon Mark Bennet (Oxford) asked how the committee intended to transition to the new Church of England National Services body. John Mason (Chester) asked whether the power to co-opt new members might be created, to prevent the committee from slipping below its quorum through resignations.
Responding, Mr Gill said that the committee would continue to support the Council for as long as it existed. The committee was ensuring that the Council was considering potential risks of LLF.
Urban debate squeezed in, then adjourned
OWING to the swifter-than-expected passage of the Abuse Redress Measure, an item was brought to the agenda to mark the 40th anniversary of the report Faith in the City, which led to the formation of the Church Urban Fund. In his presentation, its chief executive, the Rt Revd Rob Wickham, said that the report had raised serious deficits in government policies. “Our shared work was prophetic, a wake-up call,” that challenged the rhetoric that there was “no such thing as society”, he said. The ministry initiatives that had ensued had changed lives.
Mark Sheard (Archbishops’ Council) spoke of stark disparities in health and life expectancy between poorer and wealthier people. “Poverty still blights the face of our nation. Injustice still rears its head.” He moved a motion celebrating the outcome of the report and affirming “the value and necessity of listening to people within our congregations and in our wider communities who are experiencing poverty, learning from these insights, and embedding these views and experiences in the forming of the body of Christ”. Then, for lack of time, the business was adjourned to February.
The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North, objected: “What does the making of this debate contingency business, and now its shoddy adjournment, say about the Church’s compassion” for the 30 per cent of children in the country living under the poverty line, he asked.
Archbishop Chan: Third World War would destroy us
PREACHING in York Minster on the Sunday at the sung eucharist attended by Synod members, the Archbishop of Hong Kong, the Most Revd Andrew Chan, told the story of a two-year-old Chinese girl who was passed by 18 people after being hit by a truck. He said that the story illustrated “how indifferent and uncaring humanity can get”. Being a Good Samaritan meant “having the whole world as your neighbour”, he said, before drawing attention to the many conflicts around the world. “If these local wars keep escalating so much that one day they merge and become World War Three, then we will be dooming ourselves — we will destroy ourselves, and there will be nobody left to witness World War Four,” he warned.
Criticism after Palestine debate left off agenda
ABSENT from the agenda was a diocesan motion from Carlisle on the subject of Palestine. In the Business Committee debate, the Archdeacon of West Cumbria, the Ven. Stewart Fyfe (Carlisle), quoted the Rector of St Andrew’s, Ramallah, Fr Fadi Diab, as saying that “when the General Synod claims it does not have time to discuss the motion, it is effectively saying that Palestinians — and Palestinian Christians in particular — do not matter.” “What will it take for this motion to be debated?” Archdeacon Fyfe asked.
The Bishop in Europe, Dr Robert Innes, said that, at the World Council of Churches, on which he represents the Church of England, “the debate on Palestine was the most important debate we had.” He was “slightly disappointed” that the Carlisle motion had not been tabled, and asked whether the Business Committee would find time to consider “this appalling international situation”.
In response, the Chair of the Business Committee, Robert Hammond (Chelmsford), said that he had heard the comments, and that the committee “understand the urgency” of the subject.
Read more reports from the General Synod digest here
