General Synod

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 Click here for all agendas and papers

 Follow '@synod' on Twitter for news as it happens

 Elections to the General Synod 2021

The Proctors elected are:
The Ven Alan Jeans
The Revd Jane Palmer
The Revd Paul Bradbury
The Revd Mike Tufnell

The laity elected are:
Mr Jonathan Baird
Mrs Debbie McIsaac
Mr Andrew Farley
Mrs Fiona Norris
Mrs Gillian Verschoyle
Mr Christopher Webb

For reference, the 2021 Election Addresses are here.

Full details here.

Elections this year took place using the Church of England Elections Portal, with paper material posted only to those electors who do not have an email address.

Summary information for Candidates is here 
Guidance on Election Addresses is here 
Lay Nomination Paper is here. 

Elections publicity

PDF poster here; JPG here 

Front page news in this Diocese

Read the story here.
 

 
What is General Synod?

The General Synod is the national assembly of the Church of England. Elected representatives from all dioceses gather to debate and decide the future direction of our Church.

Meetings of the General Synod are referred to as “A Group of Sessions”.

Although General Synod was set up in 1970 to give the laity more say in the decisions of the Church, the roots of synodical governance actually date back to the medieval period.

What do members of General Synod do?

• Attend debates during Synod meetings which are held twice a year, each lasting 4 or 5 days
• Worship together
• Vote, because decisions at Synod are always taken by voting. Members vote according to individual conscience and, we hope, according to what they believe God is saying at this time
• Speak, although not everyone who wants to speak can be called. It’s the majority who listen carefully to the debate and then vote who actually take the decisions
• Keep in touch with their electorate, because the wider church has the right to know what goes on at General Synod. Members should be closely aware of the issues facing their particular constituency

General Synod Online

For more about General Synod, its duties, responsibilities and powers, or to download background papers, audio files of debates and updates from previous sessions, click here.

Click here for past groups of sessions and here for the papers.

BBC Parliament's digital TV channel broadcasts debates from General Synod. To view this coverage on the web, and to see previous broadcasts from Synod, click here.