The General Synod of the Church of England will be meet in London on 8-10 February 2022. The outline timetable has been circulated to Synod members and is copied below.
It came with the following note: “The Business Committee has set the timetable for the February 2022 group of sessions, which can be found attached. The current plan is for Synod to meet from Tuesday 8 February to Thursday 10 February, in person at Church House, Westminster. However, we will continue to monitor Government guidance and should this need to change, we will be in touch.”
GENERAL SYNOD: FEBRUARY 2022 TIMETABLE
Tuesday 8 February
1.45 pm – 7.00 pm
Opening worship and introductions, including formal introduction of the Prolocutors and the Chair and Vice-Chair of the House of Laity
Presidential Address
Business Committee Report
Pattern of Meetings 2024-2026
Racial Justice
*5.15 pm Questions
Wednesday 9 February
9.00 am – 12.30 pm
Eucharist
Safeguarding
Legislative Business The Faculty Jurisdiction Rules (Amendment) Rules 2022
1.45 pm – 7.00 pm
Durham DSM: Challenging Slavery and Human Trafficking
Clergy Remuneration Review
Setting God’s People Free
Vision & Strategy group work
Questions
Thursday 10 February
9.00 am – 12.30 pm
Opening worship
Diversity, difference and disagreement: resources for effecting culture change
Motion on the Governance Review Group policy paper
Appointment of Chair of the Appointments Committee
Appointment of Chair of the Dioceses Commission
2.00 pm – 4.30 pm
Lichfield DSM: Persecuted Church
Canterbury CNC
Farewells
*4.30 pm Prorogation
Meetings of Lower Houses of the Convocations and House of Laity
* not later than
Please note that all timings are indicative unless marked with an asterisk
Deadline for receipt of questions: 1200 hrs Thursday 27 January
I don’t think it is right that the next steps for Living in Love and Faith are being decided without any involvement of Synod.
The deadline for LLF responses is April 2022, so I guess any discussion of it at February synod would be pre-emptive?
Doesn’t that make February the time to discuss what happens after April?
I think I’d feel a bit aggrieved if the CofE had asked for my feedback, then already decided what to do before receiving it. If there’s a near unanimous call for new liturgy, then that’s one programme (set up drafting group, draft it, present to synod etc.) If there’s a near unanimous call to reaffirm current teaching and practice then the ‘next steps’ will look very different. I don’t see how the shape of what happens after April can be decided in any detail without warping engagement with the responses themselves. A few milestones in 2022-23 might help, but not… Read more »
At the risk of sounding flippant, the way in which the first session of business on Wednesday afternoon is phrased would seem to suggest that the stipend in the diocese of Durham is remarkably low. I assume the two topics are separate items of business.
You are quite right; they are two separate items of business. I made a formatting error which I have now corrected.
It’s encouraging that the Business Committee has taken on board the many comments at Synod asking for more time for Questions, including at the end of the Questions session in November 2021 when, after only 68 out of 132 of the submitted questions were reached for oral supplementaries, Ian Paul, raising a point of order, asked, to sustained applause, for the Business Committee to find a way for more time to be given in future sessions to “this really important business of answering questions.” A minimum of 1¾ hours is now allowed on the Tuesday evening with, it would appear,… Read more »
David, while I applaud the principle of questions, I have always found the reality to be at best unsatisfactory and at worst pointless. In my years on Synod and latterly on Business Committee, I never found anyone who was happy not matter what we did. The only people satisfied where those who provided scripted answers and stonewalled supplementaries. My suggestion is, and always has been, for Synod to decide what info they want, from whom and how. Then they can work out how to do it. Having questions largely it seems to me, ‘cos Parliament does it, is no good… Read more »
As I have proposed before, if you want openness and transparency, then set up an all-year-round forum where GS members can raise questions (up to a ceiling maximum per person). And have a system of likes/up-ticks where other GS members can ‘like’ up to 3 questions each per session. Then those most-supported questions are presented for answering, with a reply/answer provided in advance of a session of Synod, and a ‘right of a follow up question’ from the initial original questioner. The answering process would not end if the session times out, because the forum would run all the year… Read more »
My younger daughter (who turns 37 today) once laughed at my friend Scott and me for our old fashioned way of trying to arrange workshops for the Edmonton Ecumenical Peace Network. “Dad,” she said, “people under 40 don’t do it like that. We get a conversation going online, and if it gets interesting and everyone’s local, at some point someone says, ‘Would you like to do a coffee meetup to carry this on face to face?’ “
Can this be raised in July and can we keep it on the agenda – I feel sure many people have similar views about the way in which important business is dashed through with few opportunities to hear the views of all those who have an opinion. This would reflect a sense of equality and transparency and reduce the apparent suspicion between the ranks which I have observed. I have also made similar suggestions so happy to back this idea in any way I can.
I just want to voice my concerns about the recent court case at Cambridge Jesus College . Of course I am against historical and modern day slavery but I feel the removal of statues is very upsetting for the living families. In fact it is vandalism! The philanthropists did a great deal of good! I have every sympathy for the students using the chapel but this is a new culture of cancelling people sadly!!
Are they actually removing the statues or re-locating them in order to reduce distress to families of slaves?