Nominations are being sought for diocesan synod this spring as the current three-year cycle of membership comes to an end.

Bishop Hugh Nelson has written to every parish asking for information to be shared with all eligible people.

Diocesan Synod is the main representative body of the clergy and lay people of the diocese. Members meet with the bishops, archdeacons, and other senior officers to consider our life together and to discuss our direction as a diocese, to give thanks for God’s blessings, and to understand our opportunities and challenges.

“Synod” means “coming together and finding a way” – Diocesan Synod is a vital coming together as leaders from across the diocese to find our way under God.

Bishop Hugh said: “To do this well we need members from different communities and traditions who represent the whole life of the church in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, and our parishes in Devon. We work best when we hear voices from different backgrounds, experience, and ages. Synod is an opportunity to speak up and be heard, to listen carefully, and to take part in leadership.

Everybody Matters

“You matter in this work; you matter for your church and your community and for the diocese. Your faith, tradition, and experience matter, I want to hear your voice on Diocesan Synod.”

Diocesan Synod members are elected for a three-year term of office. Synod usually meets three times a year on Saturdays for a morning and part of the afternoon. Our current practice is for meetings to be held on a hybrid basis – in person and online by zoom.

The work of Synod includes some formal business on an annual cycle, such as approving the Diocesan Board of Finance budget, and approving the Annual Report. Synod also receives reports from Boards such as the Diocesan Board of Education, and discusses the various plans, opportunities, and challenges of the life of the diocese. An important part of the work of Synod is to worship together, this is always at the heart of the meeting. Members hold officers and the leadership of the diocese to account; they can ask formal questions as well as suggesting items for the agenda.

Members come from across the diocese, ordained and lay, elected from each deanery.

Who is eligible?

You can put yourself forward for diocesan synod if you are over the age of 16 and on the electoral roll for a parish or if declared a member of a mission initiative in your deanery. You also need to be a communicant member and have taken communion at least three times in an Anglican church during the past year. Ordained clergy can also stand if on a Deanery Synod.

If you feel this is something you wish to do, contact your Deanery Synod Secretary (ask your PCC Secretary or Churchwarden if you don’t know who this is) and they can provide you with a nomination form. The closing date for nominations is May 23, 2024, and the closing date for voting is June 17, 2024.

If elected, you would sit for three years with the first meeting being on September 14, 2024.

For more information, visit the diocesan website or if you have specific questions about nominations and elections, email Lesley Fusher or call her on 01872 274351.