February 2017 Session
General Synod Presentation
The Revd Canon Dr Dagmar Winter
General Synod Report
Session February 2017 in London
General Synod Report: February 2017
House of Clergy Meeting
Planning some work on
Clergy Wellbeing
General Synod Report: February 2017
Business Committee Report
Debate around:
• Nature of the Take Note
Debate
• Process of Shared
Conversations
• Group Work
• Processes which have left
people feeling vulnerable
• etc
General Synod Report: February 2017
Dates of Group of Sessions
surprisingly passionate
speeches on whether we
should or should not meet on a
Saturday in future!
General Synod Report: February 2017
Anniversary of the Reformation
• ecumenical agreements
• giving thanks to God for
the rich spiritual blessings
which the Reformation
brought to the CofE
General Synod Report: February 2017
Presidential Address
How are we going to contribute to the national future
as Britain is re-imagined?
We must guard against temptations
• to self-indulgence
• to power and glory
• to grand gestures avoiding the cross
General Synod Report: February 2017
Farewell to Andreas Whittam-Smith
for 15 years First Estates Commissioner
General Synod Report: February 2017
Preliminaries to Marriage
This motion argued for universal civil
preliminaries (similar to Scotland).
Arguments for this:
• reduction of admin burden and legal
stress for clergy
• unshackled from state so we can define
marriage ourselves (?!?)
This was about much more than banns.
But we love banns! They are a
tremendous mission opportunity!
The motion was lost.
General Synod Report: February 2017
LoL: Lots of Legislation
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Mission & Pastoral etc Measure
Draft Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Care of Churches Measure
Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) (Amendment) Regulations
Pensions (Amendment) Regulations
Safeguarding (Clergy Risk Assessment) Regulations
2 Draft Amending Canons:
– no need to wear surplice/alb for HC or cassock & surplice for
Morning/Evening Prayer on Sundays - appropriate dress must be
worn!
– ‘Normal’ funeral order of service can be used in case of suicide
General Synod Report: February 2017
Creation of Suffragan See for the Diocese of Leicester
There shall be a Suffragan Bishop of Loughborough,
replacing an Assistant Bishop (sounds familiar???).
special role of nurturing BAME communities
General Synod Report: February 2017
Fixed Odds Betting Terminals:
Reduction of Minimum Stake
Betting shops in poor areas,
you can gamble up to £100 every 20 seconds!
Synod welcomes HMG’s review and requests
• reduction of max amount from £100 to £2
• power to local authorities on location of terminals
General Synod Report: February 2017
Marriage and Same Sex Relationships,
after the Shared Conversations
• Presentation
• Group work
• Debate
ABC speech:
• we need a radical new inclusion based in love
• neither careless of theology
• nor ignorant of the world around us
+Christine now to lead Pastoral Oversight Group
General Synod Report: February 2017
Farewell to the Bishop of London
+Richard Chartres
Bishop of London 1995 – 2017
General Synod Report: February 2017
Address by the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion
The Most Revd Dr Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon
• brought greetings
• spoke of sense of gratitude to CofE as mother church
• “Take your gifts, make them the centre of your energies,
share them among yourselves and around the world.”
General Synod Report: February 2017
Setting God’s People Free
A Report on lay discipleship, ministry and leadership
(1/2)
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It calls for a shift in culture - not a narrow, centrally driven strategy.
It looks beyond and outside Church structures to the whole people of
God at work in communities and wider society - not to 'fixing' the
institutional Church.
It seeks to affirm and enable the complementary roles and vocations of
clergy and of lay people, grounded in our common baptism - not to
blur or undermine these distinctions.
General Synod Report: February 2017
Setting God’s People Free
A Report on lay discipleship, ministry and leadership
(2/2)
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It proposes steps to nourish, illuminate and connect what is working
already in and through frontline parishes - not to institute a top down
approach.
It aims to see confident involvement, engagement and leadership of
lay people wherever they are called to serve - not to devise lay
alternatives to clergy.
General Synod Report: February 2017
Mission and Administration (Private Member’s Motion)
• don’t apply subsidiarity principle to purely admin functions
• identify opportunities for nationally provided admin services
in order to release resources and generate economies
General Synod Report: February 2017
Note the praying
presence of the
Community of St
Anselm based at
Lambeth Palace
(A Year in God’s
Time).
Saturday 20th May 2017
time for a break (for those in the House of Clergy)