A report on the synod held on Saturday last states: A diocesan synod can be a thoroughly tedious affair. A long day sitting through speeches about Glebes and money and wading through seemingly endless reports. This year’s synod was different.
Many of the traditional features of a Synod made their appearance. There was the opening Eucharist, a joyful affair with so many gathered together in one room and the music more than ably lead by Irina Dernova, the new organ scholar at St. Mary’s Cathedral. There was the business of the day, all those reports and all those questions about money and lands and houses. There were displays put up by USPG, Sunday School Society, Ecclesiastical Insurence, Protestant Aid, Safeguarding Trust, and the Interconental Church Society. There were also some new and innovative features to the event intorduced by our Bishop.
Much of the work of the day centered around an exploration of the theme “Faith Working” and around those questions of “Who are we?” “What are we about?” and “Who is our neighbour?” which have been threads running through Bishop Trevor’s addresses and sermons over the recent past. Even the buisness section of the day focused on these question with both Mr. Edward Hardy and Dr. Keith Scott taking them up in their speeches to propose and second the Diocesan Council report.
Another new feature of the Synod was the way in which the members were set in small groups around tables. Sometimes it looked as if the members were all back in school. The small groups, however, gave a chance for delegates from widely dispersed parts of the diocese to meet one another and share together through the day. The Bishop also gave opportunity for the synod to break up into the small groups and discuss some of both the business of the Synod and respond to various presentations
Which brings us to the next innovation. A number of different presentations were made to synod which were not strictly “business”. Early in the day an opportunity was given to discuss mission in the parishes. Later, as part of the business introduced by the Synod Linda Chambers made a presentation on behalf of the USPG Ireland project in Swaziland which is going to form the focus of this year’s Mission Sunday. Full details of this project are here. In the afternoon young people from the diocese had been invited to make a presentation, challenging the members to take a more positive and open attitude to youth in the life of the Church. Everyone agreed that this last presentation was moving, exciting and challenging.
All the innovations, all those opportunities to discuss and respond gave a new and much more lively feel to the whole day. As one visitor said “There is a buzz about this synod”. Synod members themselves were positive in their response to the day. We should all now work and pray that the vibrancy in evidence in our synod is carried back into the life of our parishes, and that we do take up the challenge of seeing faith working in our lives, in our communities and in our worship and witness.