The General Synod is an important body where policies and measures are ultimately decided and which determine how the Church of England moves into the future in its service of God’s Kingdom and this nation. It is essential, therefore, that those who are elected to speak for the diocese of Lincoln are prayerful, thoughtful representatives of the wonderful range of churches, communities, issues and mission ambitions which characterise Greater Lincolnshire in the national and international scene.
Do you see enough people like you in our representation or, if there are a lot of people like you, what groups of people are not represented that you could encourage and support?
What are the big issues for you in our witness to Christ locally and more widely over the next few years and who will represent us best in the national conversation?
Sometimes, the impression is given that you need to have the gifts of oratory of a Barack Obama or a Boris Johnson to be an effective member of General Synod. On the contrary, much effective work is done on committees, in conversations and in work outside the debating chamber. In this diocese candidates will be asked to take part in online hustings (a sort of question time where all the candidates will be asked to talk about themselves and their position on the key issues). Do not let that deter you or any good, possible people you know from standing. We are very happy to offer advice, support and coaching to help the widest, most diverse range of people offer themselves to represent the extraordinarily wide range of cultures and contexts in our diocese.
The electorate for General Synod is predominately made up of Deanery Synod members for deaneries in the Diocese of Lincoln. Like in the 2021 elections, for those who have provided an email address, the whole of the election process – both nomination and voting stages – will take place using an online portal provided by Civica Election Services.
Electors will be emailed login details to the election sites which will enable them to make nominations and to vote when the time comes.
Monday 2nd June: Nomination period opens. Invitations via email (and in hard copy for those without email) will be sent out to the electorate. The nominations portal will be open for 28 days.
Monday 30th June: An additional 7 days are available for those who have been nominated to upload their electoral addresses.
Monday 14th July: Voting portal opens (email or voting ballot will be sent to the electorate).
Friday 18th July: Deadline for questions for the online hustings
W/C 21st July: Two online hustings will be held, one for each house.
Monday 4th August: Voting closes. Civica will run the count and the results will be available later that week.
The General Synod has three Houses: Bishops, Clergy and Laity. Each diocese is allocated a number of seats in the Houses of Clergy and Laity – the number of seats varies according to the size of each diocese. The Diocese of Lincoln were allocated 4 seats for the House of Clergy and 4 seats for the House of Laity. We have one casual vacancy for each for the Houses of Clergy and Laity.
Any serving clergy or retired clergy with permission to officiate in a diocese can stand. Any communicant lay person who is on a church electoral roll (or cathedral roll) and is 18 or above can stand. There is no need for lay candidates to be on a PCC, deanery synod or diocesan synod.
In order to ensure they are accessible to as many of our electors as possible, hustings for both houses will be held virtually on the meeting platform Zoom. You will be able to submit questions during the nomination period up until 12 noon on the 18th of July. The questions will then be reviewed and chosen for inclusion by the members of the Diocesan Search and Nominations Committee. Questions will be credited to the submitter (name and deanery) where possible.
The Chairs of the respective Houses will chair and moderate their husting events.
The exact duration of the hustings will depend on the number of candidates, as will the amount of time given to each candidate for an opening statement and responses to the pre-submitted questions. The chair may allow for follow up questions should time allow, but to ensure your question is posed to the candidates you must submit in advance.
More detail on the proceedings for hustings will be made available to candidates and electors in due course. If you are considering standing but are nervous at the prospect of hustings, please do be in touch as support is available.
General Synod usually meets twice a year for 5 days each in London and in York, in February and July. Synod is sometimes called to meet in November. Future dates put aside for General Synod are as below
2025
2026
Each synodical term (known as a “Quinquennium”) lasts for five years. We are currently nearing the end of the 2021-2026 term, which will conclude after the July 2026 sessions.
Lincoln Diocese will reimburse your expenses up to a nominated amount including travel expenses and accommodation at London Synods. For York Synods, accommodation and meals are provided on the campus of York University where Synod meets each July. Synod members may claim expenses for travel to York Synods. Please see further details here.
For clergy and laity, you need two people from your category to nominate you to stand for Synod; ie clergy will need two clergy people to nominate them, and lay candidates will require two members of a Deanery Synod in the diocese to nominate them. The presiding officers in each diocese will issue invitations to nominate to all qualified electors, inviting them to send nominations to the presiding officer. Further detail can be found in paragraphs 37-47 of General Synod Elections 2021 – Notes for the Guidance of Dioceses.
If you would like to stand for election but are not an elector (and therefore will not receive an invitation to nominate automatically) please email helen.doyle@lincoln.anglican.org and either:
Or:
Please remember to include the postal and/or email address to which the login details or nomination papers are to be sent.
Helen Doyle
Deputy Diocesan Secretary
Helen.doyle@lincoln.anglican.org | 01522 504032
Data Protection & GDPR
Electors should note that the regulations governing the General Synod elections allow candidates to request details of not only electors’ postal addresses as previously, but also of electors’ email addresses, where these have been provided. These details are solely for the purpose of sending to electors canvassing information from the candidates in this election.
The Data Protection Act 2018, together with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (together known as the UKGDPR) governs the UK’s data protection regime.
The Rules require personal data to be processed for the purposes of the Synodical elections in various ways. These include:
• secretaries of deanery synods giving a list of names and addresses of members of both houses of their deanery synods to the diocesan electoral registration officer (CRR rule 20)
• the diocesan electoral registration officer recording those names and addresses (including email addresses) in a register of electors (CRR rule 27)
• the diocesan electoral registration officer and the secretaries of deanery synods ascertaining whether the content of the registers of electors are correct (CRR rule 54)
• the issue by the presiding officer of invitations to nominate (CRR rule 55, HoL Election Rules rule 5)
• the supply by the presiding officer to every candidate of a copy of the name and address of every elector (including email addresses where provided) (HoL Election Rules, rule 6)
• the equivalent rules in the Election Rules for the Clergy and the Upper Houses of the Convocations.
The Church Representation Rules (CRRs) are primary legislation (being contained in Schedule 3 to the Synodical Government Measure 1969). The Election Rules of the Houses are made under the authority of the CRRs or under the authority of Canons H 2 and H 3 and impose legal requirements on presiding officers and others. Accordingly, in all the above cases, the “processing [of the data] is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the [data] controller is subject.” That is the lawful basis for the processing of the data under article 6 of the UKGDPR. Inclusion of an individual on the register of electors reveals that individual’s religious beliefs, as electors must be members of the Church of England or of a Church in communion, and the register therefore contains ‘special category personal data’ to which additional protections apply.
In order to process this data it is necessary, as well as satisfying a lawful basis under article 6, also to satisfy one of the conditions under article 9. The relevant condition for the processing under article 9 is that the “processing is carried out in the course of its legitimate activities with appropriate safeguards by a … not-for-profit body with a … religious … aim” (article 9(d)). The consent of those whose names are on the register of electors is not required for the processing of their data in accordance with the Rules, and such consent should not be sought.
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