Synod observer

Over the last weekend I have been in York where the Church of England's 'parliament', General Synod, has been meeting at the University.

Synod elections take place every five years and this was the last meeting of the old synod. Now we must all stand for re-election over the summer before the Queen opens the next General Synod in November.

To some extent it was a tying up loose ends kind of synod, finishing off various pieces of work before we all went home for the summer holiday, but there were some real highlights too:

1. The Archbishop of York's presidential address: a wonderful bible saturated address on day one of the synod. Profoundly moving and thoughtful.

2. The debate on additional texts for baptism. It sounds boring but its good news for Bermondsey with a much more user-friendly service now available for baptism families. Also I got to speak in the debate.

 3. Evening worship led by St Michael-le-Belfrey Church, York,  on the last evening of synod - loud, celebratory, wonderful. Thirty years ago as a student I attended St Mike's most Sunday evenings. Its great to see they're still buzzing with life. Synod loved them.

4. The Archbishop's Task Force on Evangelism. This was an inspirational  fringe event presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, focussing on the task of sharing the message of God's love for the nation. For me, it was a real synod highlight, especially when the Archbishop led us in prayer for revival in the nation. We are so fortunate to have Justin as our leader at this time.

5. The video presented by the Committee for Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns. There's a big challenge for the church in this area and the video (which you can view below) put it so well: