The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia begins today, Saturday 18 September 2010, in Melbourne, and I’m one of 61 of the Sydney Diocesan representatives: 30 lay, 30 clergy, and 1 bishop of the diocese.
It only meets every 3 years, and just like last time, I plan to blog my way through!
One good thing is that it’s a day shorter this time than the seven last time! Finances not in such good shape I think!
I’m looking forward to Melbourne’s trams; to seeing if the coffee’s better than Wollongong’s; to catching up with an old student minister friend, now serving with AFES in Melbourne; to meeting a Melbourne Diocese rep I’ve got to know via the web; and hopefully a chance to visit a second hand bookshop or two (but there’s not much spare time!).
As we commence, here’s a good question: what is a general synod? Or, if you belong to another denomination, what kind of thing is your general assembly, or whatever you call it?
The straight-forward answer is that functionally, it’s the national decision-making body for the group of more than 20 Anglican dioceses in Australia. It’s sort of the denominational equivalent of the Federal Parliament, with your local diocesan Synod like the State Parliament. And of course, just like our Commonwealth, there’s a struggle between state rights and national centralism.
But what’s the theological status of a synod? I know that the word ‘synod’ is derived from the Latin word for ‘assembly’. But what sort of assembly is it?
To paraphrase a leading Sydney layman, Robert Tong, when interviewed on ABC radio’s Sunday night religious show last week, is it a religious meeting which does a bit of business? Or is it a business meeting with a religious flavour?
Most Christians would like to think of it as the church in some sense. Certainly each day commences with Bible study, and is topped and tailed with prayer. In between, there’s lots of business done in a fairly parliamentary style—although mostly without the yahooing, name-calling and shouting you get in parliament! And ‘synod as occasional church’ (away from your regular local assembly) works pretty well when your synod is fairly solidly united around scriptural truths, as we experience in our own diocese.
But it’s far harder to approach it that way at General Synod, where there are often very large theological divides, as observers of Anglicanism around the world would be aware: evangelical, traditional Anglo-Catholic, completely liberal, and various other shades too.
What do you do when the organisers invite a woman to preach the daily Bible study? No doubt she’s a fine preacher in terms of training and ability. But your conscientious plain reading of Scripture prohibits a woman teaching a man. It’s seen as rude and divisive not to turn up, and arrive half an hour late. But is it breaching your carefully informed consicence if you attend?
What do you do when the General Synod service has the Ave Maria as a choral anthem, encouraging prayer to Mary, in contradiction to our belief that there is only one mediator between God and us: Jesus, who gave himself for us?
What do you do when the man invited to lead the prayers on the opening day of the last Synod, whose prayers to which I said “Amen”, turns out to be living in an open same-sex partnership?
It’s hard to start this General Synod blog on such a negative note. But all these things have happened in recent General Synods I’ve attended, even though I am certain many of the organisers would have known they were divisive. Sometimes it feels like your nose is being rubbed in it. But I’m hopeful of better things this time.
Personally though, I’ve come to the conclusion I’ve got to treat General Synod as a business meeting with a religious flavour, and not always too tasty! That means the normal political processes go on. And of course, one must behave in a godly manner, speaking the truth in love, being open and honest and not manipulative, loving those who oppose you, seeking to correct with gentleness. But our aim is unashamedly seeking to preserve as much of the denomination as possible, built up by our forefathers, as a place where Bible-based ministry can still be done. It’s where we seek to advance the cause of gospel ministry around the nation, and give encouragement to other evangelicals.
Pray that evangelicals on the General Synod could do all these things, and genuinely in the manner I’ve suggested.
And tell me: what do you think a synod is?
Is it poor form to not answer your question but suggest: brother baba budan at 359 little bourke st in the city for really good coffee? Take the address- it’s a nondescript looking place, but the coffee is good!
Enjoy Synod.
Hi Mandy, glad for the tip – GS is meeting a little out of the city at Melbourne Grammar and staying on the edge of Albert Park where the Grand Prix is run.
But given the queue for a coffee yesterday at the local cafe, I’d probably have time to catch a tram into the city and try your suggestion, and get back in time. (Mind you it did not help that the poor waiter spilt six cups of coffee in one go lovingly prepared by the barista – that did put them behind the eight ball!)
This is something that’s been bugging me for a while. Maybe I just haven’t been paying enough attention, but I can’t really see all that much point in trying to preserve a fellowship around the Bible when it seems that some elements within that fellowship are quite happy to reject (or, at least, not accept) it. I recall reading your seventh General Synod blog entry last year and thinking to myself, “Why are we striving so hard to partner with these people on gospel grounds, when it seems like these are the very grounds they don’t want to partner on?”
It could be that a “looser partnership” (or even a full break) would jeopardise our ability to teach and spread the gospel faithfully, in our diocese and abroad. If so, this would provide a compelling, if somewhat ends-justified reason for preserving fellowship. However, if this is not a real risk, then is all the anxiety resulting from deeply conflicting doctrines worth it?
Sandy,
whatever a Synod is, it is capable of being tweeted. Interestingly enough most twittering on #ozsynod is from Sydney reps.
@John, I can’t tweet because I don’t have a mobile phone (ducks for prehistoric cover)!
@Alex, good question. It’s undoubtedly the case the the partnership is already looser – the North Americans in particular have ensured the horse has bolted, and there is a certain parallelism already running.
However, one rule of thumb I have heard is that while the basic formularies remain Bible-based, as our 39 Articles and Book of Common Prayer do, then it’s worth staying, and not leaving our denominational capital for others to run down or ruin, as much as possible.
Sandy,
No criticism of you implied. I am a “long read” bloke. But it is interesting and welcome that the most open discussion of the synod in blogs and tweets is coming mostly from the (theologically) conservatives. Thank you for your part in this!
Hi John, and thanks for your encouragement. I did not feel criticised – I sort of take a perverse pride in being a luddite about mobile phones. However I must admit I am very close to capitulating.
The reason goes back to some excellent lay elders when I first became a rector in my previous parish of Kurrajong. I said I guess you want me to get a mobile phone to be on call. They said don’t be silly, if parishioners can’t get you for urgent pastoral care they can get one of us, as they all have our phone numbers. It was a good rebuke of mono-ministry-mania. And the same thing has applied in Wollongong with an excellent team ministry.
The long read will continue, because it is very hard to summarise complex synod business in the normal blog length of 200-500 words. Sorry to those readers for whom it’s not that interesting, but I guess they’re not reading these comments down this far!
Dear Sandy – thank you for your blog. I am aware that General Synod has a site up for the course of this synod but I am noting that not much is posted there. I appreciate your effort in recording your thoughts of Synod for us who are not there. Cheers and keep up the good work
Hi Shane, thanks for your kind words.
I think it’s probably fair to say the General Synod staff and volunteers are absolutely flat out just keeping the wheels turning.
People here at Synod are mostly incredibly gracious although there are some profound differences.
But I still haven’t got to ride a tram this time or go to those great second hand bookshops in town.