CHURCH finances, redress for survivors of abuse, and a bid to remove Issues in Human Sexuality from the vocations process are among the items on the agenda for the meeting of the General Synod in July.
Members are due to meet at the University of York campus from 11 to 15 July. The Outline of Business was published on the C of E website on Thursday.
On Friday (11 July), the Archbishop of York will give his presidential address, after which the Synod will be addressed by a senior member of the armed forces, who is not named in the Outline of Business.
Next, there will be a presentation, with questions, on the work of the Triennium Funding Working Group, which is developing spending plans for 2026-28, from the endowment managed by the Church Commissioners. Members will have an opportunity to debate the spending plans the next day.
On Saturday morning, a motion to transfer £2.6 billion from the Church Commissioners to diocesan stipend funds (News, 31 January) will return to the Synod, having been adjourned at the February meeting when time ran short. The mover of the motion, the Bishop of Bath & Wells, Dr Michael Beasley, expressed frustration at the time, saying: “I wish that we had had proper time to discuss this” (News, 28 February).
Also on Saturday morning, the National Church Governance Measure will be presented for final approval (Synod, 28 February). The Measure will reduce the National Church Institutions (NCIs) from seven to four, and create a new body, the Church of England National Services (CENS), into which the functions of the Archbishops’ Council will be subsumed. An amendment to the Measure, which was carried in February, said that the new national body to replace the Archbishops’ Council would have to have “particular regard” for the cure of souls in poorer parishes in the use of Church Commissioners’ funding.
On Saturday afternoon, a private member’s motion (PMM) demanding that legislation be brought to the Synod no later than February 2026 to restore the clergy pension benefit to its 1997 level will be debated (News, 16 May).
Items on the agenda on Sunday include legislative business on armed forces chaplaincy; a presentation, with questions, on “church growth and revitalisation”; and an item on the impact over the past decade of the annual prayer movement Thy Kingdom Come.
On Monday morning, a redress scheme for victims and survivors of abuse, the Abuse (Redress Measure), will be brought before the Synod for final drafting and approval. It had been expected to receive final approval at the February Synod, but this was delayed to allow “final checks” to be carried out “in light of the Makin report”, Church House, Westminster, said earlier this year (News, 17 January).
In the afternoon, members will be asked to give final approval to Abuse (Redress) Rules, which “set out the procedure for making claims for redress and how financial redress is to be calculated”.
Included in the business on Tuesday will be a PMM motion from the Revd Mae Christie (Southwark), which requests the House of Bishops to “remove any requirements relating to Issues in Human Sexuality from the Vocations (Shared Discernment) Process”. The motion is backed by 146 signatures, as of 20 January, surpassing the threshold of 100 signatories required for it to be tabled for debate. In February, Ms Christie said that Issues was “antiquated and embarrassing”, and should be consigned to history (News 28 February). This would happen as part of the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process, but delays meant that it remained in place, she said.
There is no item on LLF on the agenda published on Thursday; the Church Times understands, however, that there may be an update from the working groups.