General Synod of the Church of England

The General Synod is the deliberative and legislative body of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church of England that had started in the 1850s.

Church Assembly: 1919 to 1970

Before 1919, any change to the Church's worship or governance had to be by Act of Parliament, which resulted in little being done.^[1] In 1919, the Convocations of the Provinces of Canterbury and York adopted the constitution of the National Church Assembly proposed by the Representative Church Council and presented it to the King as an appendix to an address. The constitution as proposed to the Sovereign was then recognised as already existing in the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919 thus obtaining legal recognition of the Assembly without implying that it had been created by Parliament or that Parliament could modify its constitution.^[2]

By means of the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919 Parliament then gave the Assembly power to prepare Measures which, once presented to Parliament and approved by a special procedure (see below), were to "have the force and effect of an Act of Parliament" on "any matter concerning the Church of England", and included the power to repeal or amend Acts of Parliament concerning the Church.^[3] The preparation of such measures lay mainly with a joint Legislative Committee of the three houses of the Assembly and this Committee negotiated with the parliamentary Ecclesiastical Committee to reach an agreed form.^[4]

The Act required that, after being passed by the Assembly, the measure had to be examined by a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament which prepared a report to both houses. If then approved by each House, it was submitted to the Sovereign for Royal Assent. If MPs or members of the House of Lords were not content with a Measure then they could vote to reject it, but not amend it.^[5] Once a measure had been agreed ("deemed expedient") by both Houses of Parliament, and received Royal Assent, it was (from 1926) printed with the Acts of Parliament for the year in question.

General Synod: from 1970

Establishment

By the Synodical Government Measure 1969,^[6] the Church Assembly renamed and reconstituted itself as the General Synod of the Church of England. It also took over almost all the powers formerly exercised by the Convocations of Canterbury and York.

Membership

The synod is tricameral, consisting of the House of Bishops, the House of Clergy and the House of Laity. There are currently 467 members in total.

The House of Bishops is made up of the 30 diocesan bishops in the Province of Canterbury, the 12 diocesan bishops of the Province of York, the suffragan Bishop of Dover (in the Province of Canterbury), and seven other suffragan bishops (four from Canterbury and three from York) elected by all suffragan bishops.

The House of Clergy comprises clergy elected by the following:

• 128 elected from the dioceses of the Province of Canterbury,
• 54 elected from the dioceses of the Province of York,
• 1 elected by each of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London,
• 1 elected jointly by the Universities of Durham and Newcastle,
• 2 elected by the other Universities (one from each Province),
• 6 deans elected from Cathedrals, plus either the Dean of Jersey or the Dean of Guernsey,
• the 3 senior Anglican Chaplains of the Armed Services,^[7] plus the Chaplain-General of Prisons, and
• 2 members of religious communities.

Members of the House of Laity are elected by lay members of the Deanery Synod in each Diocese every five years by a system of single transferable vote. There are:

• up to 170 members elected by the laity of the Province of Canterbury,
• up to 80 members elected by the laity of the Province of York,
• the Dean of the Arches,
• the Vicars-General of the Provinces of Canterbury and York,
• the three Church Estate Commissioners,
• the Chairman of the Central Board of Finance,
• the Chairman of the Church of England Pensions Board,
• the members of the Archbishops' Council who are communicants of the Church of England.

There are two or three synodical sessions per year (4–5 days each), one or two in Church House, Westminster, the other at the University of York, and each session is officially opened by the monarch. Meetings are presided over by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York as joint presidents.

Functions

The functions of the synod are:

• legislation:
  • to pass measures dealing with the government of the church and its institutions,
  • to pass canons,^[8] determining doctrine and the form of worship,^[9]
• to approve the liturgy and make other rules and regulations through Acts of Synod,^[10]
• to regulate relations with other churches,
• to consider and express their opinion on any other matters of religious or public interest, and
• to approve or reject the annual budget of the church

Measures or canons must be passed by a majority of the members of each house of the synod. Most other business can be passed by a majority of the members of the synod overall. However changes to church doctrine, rites and ceremonies, or the administration of the sacraments, can only be made in the form agreed by the House of Bishops. Also, changes in the services of Baptism or Holy Communion, as well as proposals for union with any other church, cannot be approved unless they have also been approved by a majority of the diocesan synods.^[11] Some Measures do not extend to the Diocese of Sodor and Man unless so provided by a measure passed by the Sodor and Man Diocesan Synod and approved by Tynwald.^[12]

The General Synod also elects some members of the Archbishops' Council.

Participant observers in the House of Bishops

From 1 December 2013 until 30 November 2016, eight "participant observers", each elected by and from among the female "senior priests" of a specific region, attended meetings of the House of Bishops. The eight first elected were:^[13]

1. Vivienne Faull, Dean of York (North East region)
2. Annette Cooper, Archdeacon of Colchester (East Anglia region)
3. Rachel Treweek, Archdeacon of Hackney (South East region)
4. Nicola Sullivan, Archdeacon of Wells (South West region)
5. Christine Wilson, Archdeacon of Chesterfield (East Midlands region)
6. Joanne Grenfell, Archdeacon of Portsdown (South and Central region)
7. Jane Tillier, Diocesan Adviser for Women in Ministry, Diocese of Lichfield (West Midlands region)
8. Libby Lane, Dean of Women in Ministry (later Bishop suffragan of Stockport), Diocese of Chester (North West region)

During the period of this arrangement, two casual vacancies arose:

• After Treweek began to sit (following the 15 June 2015 confirmation of her election) in the House by right as Bishop of Gloucester, Rosemary Lain-Priestley, Associate Archdeacon of London, was elected to succeed her representing the South East region.^[14]
• When, in October 2015, Lane was elected to the House as a representation suffragan, her seat for the North West fell vacant.^[15]

It was announced in June 2016 that the "participant observers" arrangement would be replaced from 1 December 2016 with an arrangement whereby six female bishops suffragan would be "[given] rights of attendance".^[16]

See also

• Doctrine Commission: In existence between 1922 and 2010. Latterly commission of General Synod
• Enabling Act: Includes brief background of reasons which led to the act being passed
• Faith and Order Commission: Replaced Faith and Order Advisory Group in 2010
• List of Church of England Measures

References

External links

• Official website
• Short film shown at General Synod in November 2015 to portray the Church of England