Your answers

In the Renewal and Reform project, has any work been done to get annual meetings, and especially the rules about elections, back to pre-Churchwardens Measure simplicity?

The Task Group on Simplification was set up as part of Renewal and Reform to identify aspects of church law and rules which hinder mission and growth and which can be simplified to remove these constraints.

The second phase of work by the Group has been examining the Synodical Governance Measure and its provisions in relation to annual parochial church meetings (APCMs) and parochial church councils (PCCs).

The Task Group recognises that these rules can sometimes be confusing and burdensome for parishes, particularly multi-parish benefices. The Task Group is working on some proposals to allow more flexible modes of working. It hopes to report on these proposals to the Archbishops’ Council in September and — if agreed — to bring some legislation to the General Synod in February 2017.

(The Rt Revd) Pete Broadbent (Bishop of Willesden and chair of the Simplification Task Group)
London NW6

Your questions

What is going on? We have been told that the Bishops have made the Ascension and Pentecost “lesser festivals”, and no longer festivals of obligation. I believe that every parish should have a celebration of holy communion on Ascension Day, though not necessarily at the crack of dawn. . .
S. R.

In AD 16, Pontius Pilate was appointed Procurator of Judaea: a post he retained until AD 36. The Synoptic Gospels and St John’s Gospel are not in accord concerning the year during Pilate’s governorship when Christ was crucified. Has consensus already been reached by Christian Churches on when to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of the resurrection? If so, who took the decision and what was the reasoning behind it?
J. T.

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