WEDNESDAY'S NEWS

The “thorny subject” of synodical reform
(from Elaine Whitehouse, Communications Dept, RCB)

This year’s report of the Standing Committee included the report and recommendations of the Synodical Reform Working Group, which was set up in 2001 following the defeat of a reform bill proposing to reduce the size of the synod.

The Rev Canon George Davison, seconding the Standing Committee’s report, referred to the “thorny subject” of synodical reform and told Synod members that in previous years “strong feelings, at times mixed with fear and prejudice, have meant that Synod has not yet given this matter a fair and reasonable hearing”.

It was clear, Canon Davison asserted, that “we make ourselves look foolish when we say that the arrangements that suited the Church of Ireland in 1870 don’t need to be revised for the twenty-first century”.

The Synodical Reform Working Group has recommended that, instead of addressing the restructuring of the Synod in one all-encompassing piece of legislation, reform should be effected on an issue-by-issue basis over the coming years. With this in mind the working group has submitted for the Synod’s attention seven areas for consideration before legislation can be drafted.

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Areas for discussion include representation from the dioceses and overall membership, timing and frequency of meetings, weighted membership to include different age categories etc, organisation of business to provide for in-depth debate on particular issues, election by proportional representation, provision for legislation to be more user-friendly and mechanisms to encourage input from diocesan synods to the General Synod.

The Standing Committee has agreed to appoint a new committee at its June 2003 meeting to consider recommending legislation to address specific issues. The questions of diocesan representation and overall membership remain, in the opinion of the present working group, the most urgent issues.

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