VARIOUS items of legislation came before the Synod for final approval or revision on Tuesday morning.
Geoffrey Tattersall QC (Manchester) introduced an amending canon, whose main consequence was that, under the arrangements for common tenure, clergy who would normally be expected to live in their benefice could, under certain circumstances, such as their being married to another beneficed cleric, be allowed, by the bishop, to live in another house, whether in the benefice or not.
The Synod approved Amending Canon No. 29 in a vote by Houses: Bishops 25; Clergy 97 with 2 recorded abstentions; Laity 109 to 1 with 2 recorded abstentions.
The Synod approved the Ecclesiastical Fees (Amendment) Measure. The Measure will allow churchwardens to receive fees for the reading of banns and searches of registers when there is no incumbent.
Jonathan Redden (Sheffield) said that the fees were a form of taxation that the Synod levied on the nation; so it should be discussed by the Synod each year.
The Archdeacon of Salop, the Ven. John Hall (Lichfield), asked why, if the importance of PCCs was continually being reasserted, their power to set fees was being removed from them.
The Revd David Primrose (Gloucester) said that a PCC had received money from a wedding because the bridesmaids had gone round to make a collection.
The Synod also revised the Draft Mission and Pastoral Measure and the Care of Cathedrals Measure, which received their first consideration last July.