ALRESFORD DEANERY - in the Diocese of Winchester

A personal view by Adrian Harbidge

Is it a genuine Synod if the Archbishop is not present? With dignity, wit, erudition and (sometimes) scorn, the Archbishop of York made sure that no one felt bereft of leadership at the highest level.

Friday
Having said that, the Agenda was quite light; the chair of the Business Committee freely admitted that some items of legislation had failed to appear in time for inclusion in our summer deliberations. But it did mean that some experimentation was possible

• the first item of business was a presentation from Sir Al Aynsley Green (Children's Commissioner) showing how childhood in the UK is definitely not all that it could be - we the church should be doing more to welcome children back into the community. 23rd November is "Children Takeover Day" and Sir Al suggested we build on our existing tradition of Boy Bishops.
• Another innovation was a time of instruction and preparation for our Saturday morning Bible Study Group work - we had all read the whole of 1 Corinthians and some had even bought the short (300 page) commentary by Professor Anthony Thiselton.

It was generally agreed that Question Time was lack-lustre: carefully phrased answers (now delivered to the questioner beforehand) that meant that any equally carefully phrased supplementary question could be answered by the earlier answer. "What a very good question!" was one answer; "What if the Holy Spirit were talking to MPs and not the Archbishops over women bishops?" - "The Archbishops will have dealt with that question in one of their first essays in basic training" snapped back Dr Christina Baxter. We did learn that 79% of our churches are open for longer than just services, and that 37% have kitchen and cloakroom facilities; that we will need to raise a further £7.9 million to cover Gift Aid lost with the reduction in Income tax from 22% to 20%, and that surviving partners of clergy civil partnerships could only receive pensions based on service from the date the Civil Partnership Act came into force as that is the law of the land and nothing to do with the Pensions Board being un-generous.

Saturday
Changes to the Marriage Measure giving couples the legal right to marry in churches where they can show a "qualifying connection" went through remarkably smoothly (even though Synod was in effect changing its mind). We had some startling information from one priest, that the Home Office would not permit Asylum seekers to marry in church if they were not living together before marriage - "They clearly are not in love". [This measure then received its final reading on Tuesday, with the likelihood that it will come into effect in the middle of 2008.]
The Parochial Fees Order attracted a remarkable amount of discussion - we carry out 65,000 weddings per year and 250,000 funerals. Dr Julian Litten successfully sought to increase the fee for burial of cremated remains to half that for burial of a coffin; seemingly he won the day by his comment that the £19 increase was "only the price of a half decent bottle of wine."
The afternoon debate on Clergy Pensions was won by the platform with only two people voting against. Behind that headline lies an intriguing battle of figures about the Church Commissioners' funds, the Pensions Board and Diocesan ability to pay more. It was noted that the favoured link for pensions with stipends had actually lowered pensions this year and, in comparison with other professions, we clergy are extremely lucky to be able to continue with our present scheme.
Private Members' Motions are usually guaranteed to succeed as they must start off with at least 100 members signing up to support them. But Canon Simon Bessant's motion warning against military action towards Iran was sunk by a procedural motion seeking to move to next business; the reason for this was that any intemperate words used in the debate might have upset the recent permission given to the Iranian Anglican Church to reopen its doors. [There were those of us who felt that, by passing such a motion, we implied that we were getting ready to use such intemperate words ...]
Another sting in the tail emerged during the evening debate on the importance of "Transforming Worship" - a successful amendment removed any suggestion that we should carry out its recommendations and then report them back to the Liturgical Commission - "dioceses have got far more important things to do" thundered the Bishop of Northolt.

Sunday
Sunday afternoon was another object lesson in how Synod is swayed by good debating. After an initial presentation from Archbishop Drexel Gomez (chair of the Anglican Covenant Design Group) we began to discuss the Anglican Covenant proposal. "You don't get consent by including those who disagree with you"; "we need to work with dissent rather than prevent it"; "we never did it this way before (The Seven Last Words of the Church)"; "the Covenant would have prevented women priests"; "how dare we elevate an ecclesiological instrument over the primacy of love". But as we worked through the amendments we began to realise what we really felt: "we believe that the covenant will prove inadequate to address the problems presently dividing the communion" received only one vote; replace "affirm its willingness to engage positively with" with "note" was clearly lost; and postponing any decision until next time was also lost. And you could see people realising that this might be a way of giving the communion a chance. They voted in favour by a large majority. Another ongoing Covenant is with the Methodist church, and we heard that progress continues, even though the Methodists are now uncertain about the historic episcopacy.
In the evening we debated further the problems for Minority Ethnic Anglicans of how marginalised they feel - they want to feel they have a place at the table, Present and Participating. It was agreed that churches are better than most organisations in this area, and some problems may be to do with class or poverty (many former Asian immigrants are strongly opposed to Eastern European immigration) but we agreed to try to do better.

Monday
In his Presidential Address, John Sentamu encouraged us not to fear - "don't minimise problems, but don't supersize them either". The following debates on the Church Commissioners sought to review their actions; in fact, Synod was of the view that the Church Commissioners deserved our warmest praise and the motion was lost overwhelmingly. There followed a fascinating debate about what it feels like to be a disabled minister in the Church or England. "Look at the ability, not the disability"; "we are made in God's image - does He have crutches like me?"; "being disabled sucks". We were challenged to give more to central authorities to assist in this area; it seems iniquitous that disability issues have been added to the workload of the Chaplain to Deaf People without any additional budget. "Talent and Calling" was about the selection and appointment of Suffragan Bishops, Deans, Canons and Archdeacons; in some ways it had been overtaken by Gordon Brown's announcement that he would reduce his involvement in much of this work. We were actually keen to continue the input (if not the control) from his office. We noted that overseas service or part time work did not necessarily preclude taking on "Higher Offices"; London diocese wished to encourage others to share its openness to "characterful eccentricity". People questioned the need to retain special treatment for Evangelicals and Traditional Catholics, but the proposals survived and the report was carried with 297 in favour and 1 against.
The evening's debate was another Private Member's motion (from Gavin Oldham of Oxford) seeking to open up the list of restricted investments so that all parishes could engage in Ethical Investment using that information. It was clear that in no way was that information going to be divulged and, with a virtual wrecking amendment passed, Mr Oldham gave what I felt was a unique summing up by saying "I don't mind which way you vote, in favour, against or abstain."

Tuesday
Tuesday morning saw us with time to spare in debating the Budget for 2008 (we have more people in training now - 1,467 - than at any time since the 1970s, albeit not all are stipendiary; legal aid costs were less than anticipated; the staff pension scheme has had to be closed. As we completed our debate it was noted that this would be the last time we would be addressed by the steady figure of the Chair of the Finance Committee - Michael Chamberlain.
It was also time to say farewell to Peter Selby, Bishop of Worcester who famously noted that he regularly visited both the House of Lords and Her Majesty's Prisons (as Bishop of Prisons) and he preferred prisons.

To those who are contemplating standing for election to General Synod (in 2010) I would say that it is both rewarding and infuriating, but it is also very tiring - 350 to 400 people debating and praying and networking from 9.15 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. from Friday to Tuesday. But spare a thought for Bishop Tom Butler (of Durham) trying to speak above the noise of the rain drumming on the roof and thunder rumbling around the campus and remembering the famous fire in the south transept of York Minister: "Bishops of Durham always feel slightly nervous when in York during a thunderstorm."

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