Synod member Sarah Finch writes: The newly-elected General Synod has met in Church House, Westminster, for the first time in person since February 2020.
The election had been a serious contest in many places, with more candidates standing than ever before: 60% of members are new. Commentators have noted, cautiously, that the proportion of orthodox members in Synod would be large enough to stop legislation designed to revise the doctrine of the Church of England. (All legislation has to be passed by a two-thirds majority in all three houses, Bishops, Clergy and Laity.)
In the first debate, the Archbishop of Canterbury made a statement about Ghana, where the government proposes the criminalisation of the LGBTQ+ community. He had communicated to the bishops in Ghana his strong opposition to the government bill. The Prolocutor of the Canterbury House of Clergy, Canon Simon Butler, using his privilege to speak whenever he stands, said that gay Anglicans suffered as did their gay brothers and sisters in Ghana. A sizeable number of Synod members then stood, wearing placards that read: ‘Soon to be imprisonable in Ghana’.
