Updated Friday
All the lists of candidates for General Synod for the diocesan constituencies, and their election addresses, are now available. There are links to all of them on my website.
Ian Paul has taken a look at the gender balance (or lack of it) of the candidates: Synod, representation and gender.
Update
Tim Wyatt and Hattie Williams have also been looking at this for Church Times: Male candidates outnumber female in Synod elections.
Your website is a really useful resource, Peter. Thank you.
The depressing thing about Synods and the like is that they make it so difficult for people in “normal” jobs with younger families to take part. I’m not sure what the solution is – four weekends a year, perhaps? That would make it difficult for the clergy, though.
Richard, in the Anglican Church of Canada our General Synod meets once every three years. Granted, it’s a week, but I think it’s much more doable for people in what you call ‘ordinary’ jobs. And really, a good national executive council can deal with a lot of the stuff that comes up between synods.
Tim,
if our General Synod only met once every three years we would still not have women bishops.
Tim, the General Synod of the Church of England has unique responsibilities. Among other things it is a legislative body that votes “Measures” which then pass into the law of England that is binding on all our 50 million + citizens (subject to a Yes/No vote from Parliament.) That is what “establishment” means. Granted it’s a scandal that it should be so, but where is the appetite to get it changed?
Erika, with our General Synod that meets only once every three years we succeeded in getting our first female bishop in 1994.
And Richard’s point is a good one. With a General Synod that meets as often as the C of Es, the pool of lay people who can actually participate in it is rather limited. The comment has been often made on TA that General Synod is not representative of the opinion of the church. Well, hello!
A lot of the business could be done remotely, or more succinctly, or not all. One physical meeting over a long weekend a year plus perhaps one day session on a Saturday would easily cover all the essential business.
Good to hear, from the Church Times’ article mentioned, that there are high-placed candidates to represent the LGBTQ viewpoint in General Synod.
Nothing seems to have been mentioned in the C.T. about the people standing who may be (even secretly) appearing on the opposing platform. It would be good to know who they are. Hopefully, their stance has been properly indicated by their answers to the appropriate questions.
Tim,
yes, but we’re talking CoE here. We’re already lagging behind Canada. A Synod every three years would make this much much worse.