General Synod, Westminster 2019 - Day 2

Day two of general synod is a heavy day off legislative business.

After an enjoyable lie in (by my normal  weekday standards) and leisurely breakfast my wife announced she would join me in the journey to Church House as she wished to visit Church House Bookshop. Anyone who knows Jane will be getting worried at this point as they know she loves to buy new theology books. Well any new books actually. Well any books at all new or not!

First problem of the day was actually getting there as the district line wasn't running for too signal failure, so had to take a round about route.

As to the business itself, it consisted of that on Order Paper II :-

Amending Canon No. 38 (GS 2047D)

Draft Church Representation and Ministers Measure (GS 2046BB) - this generated quite a lot of debate. While the document was generally welcomed (especially on electronic voting) there was large concern raised about limiting Deanry Synod to two terms. Concerns were raised about losing existing experienced members. Additionally questions were raised about why term limits were not applying to General or Dioscean Synod members.

The outcome from this was that the section on term limits will be reviewed by the business committee's election review panel.

Draft Amending Canon No. 39 (GS 2047BB)

In the afternoon session legislative business continued with :-

Draft Amending Canon No. 40 (GS 2103A) on religious communities and Report by the Revision Committee (GS 2103Y)

Draft Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Measure (GS 2104A)

Draft Amending Canon No. 41 (GS 2105A)

Draft Parochial Fees and Scheduled Matters Amending Order 2019 (GS 2116) & (GS 2116x)

Code of Practice on Co-operation by the Church of England with Other Churches (GS 2117) & (GS 2117X)

We then moved onto Order Paper III

There was some discussion whether the Private Member's Motion: Homeless Task Force (GS 2110A) & (GS 2110B) should be put off due to timed business. However the Synod moved a variation of business to allow this debate to take place. 

Finally the Living in Love and Faith and Pastoral Advisory Group (GS Misc 1200) reported back on their work.