Synodical Government, Lay Leadership and the Episcopate

Province, Journal of Credo Cymru, Autumn 2012

4 Pages Posted: 28 May 2015

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

The recent Report of the Church of Wales Review (hereafter “the Report”) observed that “[u]nlike other churches in the Anglican Communion it does not have a fully developed system of synodical government. This may save it from some of the cumbersomeness of the system, as experienced elsewhere, but it means that there is no proper flow of ideas and resolutions from parish or deanery to Diocese and from there to the Governing Body and the Representative Body.” (Church of Wales Review (July 2012) 4) The implication was that the constitutional arrangements of the Church limited the upward movement of ideas, from both clergy and laity, with the episcopate having a stronger role. To redress this balance, the following was recommended:

“Recommendation I: 1) The Governing Body and bishops should make it clear, if necessary by Constitutional amendment, that motions can come from parishes, and deaneries (or whatever body might replace them), to Diocesan Conferences, and from Diocesan Conferences to the Governing Body, and that such motions would be welcome. 2) Consideration should be given to renaming the Diocesan Conference a Synod, and in the light of the development of Area Ministries, a new system of elections may need to be established.” (Church of Wales Review (July 2012) 5)

Although the Church is episcopally-led, in that the bishops retain the collegial and individual leadership roles traditional to the episcopacy, in most of the constituent churches of the Anglican Communion the Church is synodically governed. The purpose of synodical government is to facilitate the full participation of the laity in the government of the Church (Lambeth Conference (hereinafter “L.C.”) 1867, Ress. 4, 5, 8, 10; L.C. 1897, Res. 24; L.C. 1920, Ress. 14, 43; L.C. 1930, Res. 53. Synods were utilised in the Anglican Communion from 1785; the Canon Edward Norman, “Authority in the Anglican Communion” (1998)). It is not merely not a matter of concession to “fashionable theories of representation” ( Stephen Sykes, “Introduction; Why Authority?”, in the Stephen Sykes (ed.), Authority in the Anglican Communion (1987), 20; the John Howe, Highways and Hedges (1985), 50f), though this may have influenced the choice of synodical government at times in the history of the church. Even when monarchical episcopy prevailed, representation and participation remained important aspects of Church government, at least insofar as synods and convocations gave a voice to the junior clergy, if not to the the laity also. All members of the church, the laos, are equally important, even if their roles and functions differ. Synodical government involves the whole of the people of God in the process of church governance.

Keywords: church government, synod

Suggested Citation

Cox, Noel S.B., Synodical Government, Lay Leadership and the Episcopate (2012). Province, Journal of Credo Cymru, Autumn 2012, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2610843

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