A Dummies guide to the bills before Synod
Tuam cathedrals reorganisation
At present, the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Achonry is St Crumnathy’s Cathedral, Achonry. This Church has been closed since 1997. The Bill seeks to amend the provisions of the Statute of 1891, Chapter I and make St Patrick’s Cathedral, Killala the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Achonry as well as Killala. It is proposed to unite the two Chapters of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Killala and St Crumnathy’s Cathedral,Achonry. The provisions of this Bill were passed unanimously by the Diocesan Synods of Tuam, Killala and Achonry at the Diocesan Synod.
Greater use of e-mails
At present, much communication between the central offices of the Church in Dublin and Belfast and members of General Synod is conducted by post. This means of communication has served the Church well in the past but allowing the use of email communication would be quicker, less expensive, requireless staff time and resources and be more environmentally friendly (in terms of the quantity of paper used in postal communication).
At present, the secretaries of each diocesan synod of the Church of Ireland are required to supply names and addresses of representatives elected to General Synod to the Secretaries of the General Synod.
This Bill will (if passed) require dioceses to also seek the email addresses (if any) and telephone numbers of members and supply these to the secretaries of the General Synod.
This Bill does not amend the Standing Orders of the General Synod and therefore notice of the meeting of the General Synod (the envelope containing the Book of Reports and voting cards etc sent out about 2-3 weeks in advance of the Synod) will still be sent by post. The bill also does not amend the Constitution of the Standing Committee and therefore, the members of the Standing Committee will still be elected by means of a postal ballot.
Sorting out representation of interns
This bill proposes to exclude deacons who are serving in an internship from the definitions “beneficed or licensed clergy” or “member of the clergy” for (i) the purposes of elections to the General Synod, (ii) determining the requisite number of lay synod representatives who may be elected from a parish to a diocesan synod, (iii) entitlement to exercise certain rights and privileges granted to members of the clergy regarding parochial organisation and (iv) management of burial grounds.
The Bill will not exclude deacons from inclusion in the definitions “beneficed and licensed clergy” or “member of the clergy” for other purposes while serving in an internship (for example they will be entitled to be members of the diocesan synod of the
diocese in which they serve during their period of service in an internship and shall
be subject to the jurisdictions of Diocesan Courts, the Court of the General Synod and Part IV committees and tribunals under Chapter VIII of the Constitution)
The Bill will, however, allow more routinecommunication to be conducted by email.
Sign up for General Vestry
At present, under Chapter III of the Constitution of the Church of Ireland, every vestry member must sign a ‘Form of declaration’ that they are inter alia members of the Church of Ireland and either resident in the parish (Form No 1) or an accustomed member of the Congregation (Form No 2).
The relevant forms used for this purpose, the ‘Form of declaration by a resident’ and the ‘Form of declaration by an accustomed member of a congregation’ are contained in the Schedule to Chapter III of the Constitution of the Church of Ireland. Neither form explicitly states the requirement for a signature. However, a signature is clearly required for both of these forms of declaration under Section 4 of Chapter
III of the Constitution.
The lack of an explicit requirement for a signature on the form may cause confusion and accordingly, the following Bill is proposed to change the layout of the forms and include an explicit requirement for a signature on these forms.
File the minutes
The Library and Archives Committee of the Representative Church Body has expressed concern at the fact that there is presently no requirement for important committees to keep written records of their proceedings.
The proposed bill will (if passed) mandate diocesan synods to make regulations relating to the keeping of written records of its own proceedings and the proceedings of diocesan councils, general vestries, select vestries, boards of nomination and cathedral chapters
within the diocese and for the authentication and safe keeping of those records.
The bill would further require the Chapter of St Patrick’s Cathedral to make its own regulations as regards the keeping, authentication and safe keeping of its own records.
No automatic nominations
At present, it is possible for dioceses to automatically re-nominate outgoing members of the General Synod. In some dioceses, outgoing members of the General Synod are deemed automatically re-nominated unless the person expresses a desire to step down. Those who are not members of the General Synod normally need to be formally nominated by one or more diocesan synod members.
The Hard Gospel Implementation Group feels that the practice of automatically re-nominating outgoing members of the General Synod discourages some who are currently not members of General Synod from getting involved and these include many who are currently under-represented in the General Synod including younger people and women. The bill will (if passed) prevent outgoing members of the General Synod from being nominated automatically and will require diocesan synods to a pply the same rules for nominating non-members of General Synod as current members
Flexible Easter vestries
At present the Constitution of the Church of Ireland prescribes that a meeting of the general vestry of each parish, to be known as the Easter vestry, shall be held
each year not earlier than twenty days before, and not later than twenty days after, Easter Day. At present if a parish were to hold their Easter vestry on a Sunday it would be limited in the days available. For example in 2013 there is only one Sunday available prior to Easter, which also happens to fall on a Bank holiday weekend. This Bill will also allow parishes greater flexibility where a number of Easter vestries are to be held.
Clergy Pensions
There is a large welter of sections and clauses which would defy the wisdom of Gamaliel. Good luck to the General Synod members reading this one.