What on earth is the Church of England up to now?

Vicar Mark reports back from the Church of England’s General Synod meeting in London, 9-13 February. We welcomed our new Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally, who said that her aims are to unify the Church and to take account of those who have experienced trauma through its work. The week’s sessions were marked by a wide variety of business and a constructive atmosphere.

Clergy Conduct Measure
This was passed in July 2025 but Parliament returned it to Synod asking us to reconsider one element: to change the default for clergy disciplinary hearings from being held privately to being held publicly. This was uncontroversial and Synod hopes the new measure will take effect later this year to deal with clergy discipline more quickly, efficiently and fairly.

Living in Love and Faith
The week’s longest and most highly charged debate concluded the Living in Love and Faith programme and a motion to this effect was passed without amendment. The three years since the initial proposals were brought in February 2023 have been characterised by a loss of trust in the House of Bishops and perceived failure to follow due process. The debate was well mannered but a lot of genuine hurt was expressed, particularly by progressives hungry for change. The House of Bishops’ decision to press ahead with changes on the basis of a majority in Synod was raised repeatedly as a problem. We discussed a number of amendments. The most closely fought one asked for a full review of the process from the House of Bishops before new proposals are brought forward: this was passed in the Houses of Clergy and Laity but rejected by the Bishops. Afterwards it was made clear that this message was received loud and clear, that there will be a full accounting of lessons learned before anything new comes forward.

Adult Social Care
There was a moving debate about adult social care, with numerous voices being heard from carers and former recipients of care. Synod endorsed the Archbishops’ Commission on Reimagining Care and its vision to change how adult care is organised, delivered and experienced. We also shone a light on the enormous amount of work being done by churches to support carers at all levels. We hope this will be a helpful contribution to the current consultation being done by the government towards finding a new settlement for the care system.

Mental health and the church
There was a thorough and honest debate about mental health and the church’s response to it. Members shared their own experiences of personal struggles and those of family, friends and parishioners. We passed a motion requesting dioceses to review clergy training to ensure adequate preparation for ministry to those struggling with mental health issues, to develop new materials for use in church schools and to draw attention to resources available for clergy facing mental health challenges.

Church safeguarding structures
Last summer Synod endorsed a new approach to safeguarding which will make much of the Church of England structure independent of the organisation. We were updated on the work, which is developing at pace and will make an enormous difference, avoiding complete root and branch change to an entirely independent model which would be expensive and untested.

New liturgy
Synod looked at a first draft of material for two new festivals: God the Creator and the Commemoration of the 21 Martyrs of Libya, endorsing the work done so far.

Mission initiatives code of practice
Synod approved this new code of practice, formulated out of the problems which have bedevilled a number of these initiatives, formerly known as Bishop’s Mission Orders, including Soul Survivor. These put in more robust oversight and requirements for more effective constitution and governance. This work has happened at pace after last year’s Scolding review into events at Soul Survivor.

2026 General Synod elections
This summer there will be General Synod elections for clergy and laity. All licensed clergy will vote along with Deanery Synod members, who are themselves being re-elected this spring. There was some important preparatory work we had to do in our legislation, along with consideration of future Synod dates.

Poverty and the Church: 40 years after Faith in the City
We had a debate postponed from last summer, marking the 40th anniversary of the Church’s landmark report Faith in the City. This drew attention to the enormous amount of work and funding which has gone into Christian communities in deprived parishes, with an informed debate where numerous people who spoke serve in such parishes, both in urban and rural settings. This was coupled with a Private Member’s Motion on Lowest Income Communities  (LINC) Funding, which sought to send funding directly to the neediest parishes rather than to the relevant dioceses. 12 dioceses receive no LINC funding and these contain 268 parishes which are among the 25% most deprived. It was argued strongly that the current system gets money more effectively into the neediest communities, and that wealthier dioceses should support their needy parishes better. Synod passed a motion to review LINC funding to take account of the difficulties we talked about.

Sustainable church flowers
We debated a Diocesan Synod motion from Worcester Diocese encouraging more sustainable use of church flowers. While there was a good deal of criticism of this debate ahead of our sitting, it was a more informative and encouraging time than many of us expected. It provided a good opportunity to draw attention to the legion of flower arrangers, overwhelmingly women, who contribute to something small, but significant and beautiful in our parishes week by week.

Parochial Fees
We debated fees for funerals and burials, as the Archbishops’ Council brought forward proposals for large increases in these, after consultation with parishes. It was clear throughout the debate that there was no enthusiasm in Synod for any significant increase, but rather that we are very concerned about the increase in direct cremations. Speakers were keen to ensure that churches have every opportunity to make the most of the gospel openings which good bereavement ministry supplies. We amended the motion to ensure that fees will only increase by roughly the rate of inflation.

Working class vocation and ministry
In February 2025 a Private Member’s Motion called for a national strategy for working-class vocations and ministry. A team led by the Bishop of Barking reported back on the large amount of work which has been done, and there was a well-informed debate which heard from numerous ministers from working-class backgrounds, with a strong speech from the Bishop herself.