24.06.2025
Busy General Synod Covers Huge Range of Topics – D&G Review
If you missed the round up of General Synod 2025 from this month’s Church Review, you can catch up below. Additional photos from Denise Stobart and the Revd Nigel Waugh.
The General Synod of the Church of Ireland took place in Lawlor’s Hotel in Naas on May 9 and 10 with a final session online on May 13. This is the first time Synod took place in the Diocese of Meath and Kildare. Well over 400 people from across the island attended the in person sessions at which a wide range of business was covered.
Synod Opened with the Presidential Address given by Archbishop John McDowell who highlighted the areas of leadership, reconciliation and solidarity.
Presidential Address
He spoke on the qualities of confidence, humility and resilience – confidence that “people are saved through Christ forever and that to be his friend and his disciple is the greatest privilege in life” … and also “the humility to know that God’s ways are not our ways and to learn the discipline of self–suspicion” that our plans need to be realigned from our own priorities to those of God; and resilience to face the inevitable occasions when things go wrong: “For every resurrection to celebrate, there will be a cross first to carry.”
Archbishop McDowell acknowledged the Church and Society Commission’s work on assisting people most affected by the legacy of the Troubles. Reconciliation “cannot draw a line under the past but it can somehow incorporate or miraculously integrate the past, with all its shadows and injuries, into future life,” he said.
He also spoke on two issues on the theme of social solidarity – immigration and the care of vulnerable people as parliaments consider allowing assisted suicide in Britain and Ireland.
Welcoming the contribution of migrants to diversity (and productivity) in society, the archbishop remarked: “It is not the fault of people coming into this island or anywhere else in the western world that governments have failed to seriously address … immigration in a way that respects treaty obligations and legal norms.”
On assisted suicide, the Archbishop of Armagh said approving the legislation, as proposed, would, he noted, involve “not just a technical change in medical procedure but would amount to a kind of cultural revolution in the relationship between doctor and patient, and also in the basis on which judgements and decisions about the value of human life are made.” The underfunding of the hospice movement by the State, in his view, “remains a collective disgrace”. The archbishop restated the Church of Ireland’s position that “life in its entirety is a gift from God and that what sustains people even in the most horrible of terminal illness is the certainty of human love and support right to the end.”
In the course of his remarks, Archbishop McDowell also looked forward to the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Belfast in 2026, and concluded with a quote from the late Pope Francis.
Bills
A total of eight Bills were presented to members for consideration. Some updated the Constitution of the Church of Ireland to reflect Bills passed in previous years, another fixed an anomaly in relation to clergy pensions, and another dealt with the streamlining of forms for registered vestry people. A large Bill dealt with governance at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in preparation for its incorporation as a company limited by guarantee.
Children’s Liturgical Resource
The Liturgical Advisory Committee launched a new resource aimed at helping children to become more rooted in the life of their local church. ‘Journeys Through the Church Year’ has been compiled by the Revd Julie Bell and is the product of a great deal of hard work by her and members of the LAC.
Introducing the resources, chair of the LAC Archbishop Michael Jackson said that from time to time the LAC heard the voice of the Church and sought to do something fresh and new. He said with ‘Journeys Through the Church Year’, the LAC had formulated a liturgical response to the Church year.
Ms Bell said: “These resources are shared with the hope that they will open the spiritual insights children bring to our worship. The primary focus has been bringing children into worship and ways to grow in participation at their own pace.”
The resource will be distributed via diocesan synods over the coming months.
Motions on Marriage, Racial Justice and E–Voting
Members of Synod agreed to a motion allowing Standing Committee to explore the use of electronic voting at their meetings in the future. The option, when available, would come into play in situations including voting by orders, replacing the voting by card process.
Synod also passed a motion proposed by Canon Lesley Robinson (formerly of these dioceses) and Nuala Dudley (Derry and Raphoe) which asked Standing Committee to set up a working group to explore the possibility of allowing clergy to solemnise marriages in secular venues.
Canon Robinson suggested that many clergy lamented the missed opportunities of outreach due to the general prohibition on them celebrating marriage in secular venues.
“Couples choose secular wedding venues for many reasons – perhaps for the convenience of having everything in one place, or perhaps because of the lack of accessibility, comfort, parking or toilet facilities in many of our churches. While it is true that some couples may have no wish to have a religious ceremony, undoubtably there are others who would opt for a religious ceremony if it were an option in their chosen venue,” Canon Robinson suggested. “To be able to provide such an option could be a wonderful missional opportunity for clergy to bring God’s Word and Spirit into ceremonies and places and congregations currently off limits, as if somehow God’s presence is confined to our beautiful church buildings.”
Each diocese of the Church of Ireland has been urged to hold a Racial Justice Sunday Service in a format and venue of their choosing on the second Sunday of February each year. A motion, proposed by Dr Lucy Michael (Dublin and Glendalough) and the Revd Philip McKinley (Meath and Kildare) noted that the celebration of Racial Justice Sunday took place in the National Cathedral this year and the resources of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) to raise awareness of the issue of racial justice. Proposing the motion, Dr Michael, who is the secretary of the Primates Reference Group on Ethnic Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Justice, said that the intention of the motion was to show that the church takes its role in addressing racism seriously.
Education
The report of the Board of Education (RI) focussed on the redevelopment of the ‘Follow Me’ Religious Education programme for Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Dr Jacqui Wilkinson of the Church of Ireland Centre at DCU said that following consultation by the General Synod Board of Education, the Follow Me curriculum is to be retained while a redeveloped programme of delivery, which is digitally based, has been devised. The aims and strands of the original 2001 curriculum are retained.
“The redevelopment project commenced a couple of years ago but has really moved on with the launch of the new supporting Follow Me website in November 2024 – serving as a resource bank for schools and the point of access for schools to purchase the new slide decks for the Follow Me books,” Dr Wilkson said.
Reports from Committees
The wide ranging work carried out by the Standing Committee detailed how the church was looking to the future. The Church of Ireland Census is to become an annual event thanks to a simplified process which takes place online. The Census provides a snapshot of the church as it is but also enables Standing Committee to become more strategic in working towards growth and the provision of effective ministry. The report also looked at the work of the Future of Curacies Working Group and the Third Level Chaplaincy Review Group. Standing Committee also noted what is being termed the ‘quiet revival’ of interest in the church by young people who, Archdeacon Jim Cheshire, who proposed the report said were seeking truth, meaning, hope and life and were finding it in Christ.
Presenting the report of the RCB, Hilary Prentice, chairperson of the RB executive committee, also looked to the future priorities of the church. Apart from the church’s finances she outlined the church’s strategic priorities which included funding for curacies, development of a comprehensive funding strategy for chaplaincy, the integration of pioneer ministry within the Church of Ireland to support new forms of ministry, the development of a property and library strategy as part of a future campus, promoting positive mental health through the MindMatters project, and focussing on committee succession planning. She also gave an update of Safeguarding.
The Report of the Commission on Ministry focused on clergy stress and the importance of nurturing vocations. The Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue outlined the range of inter–church and inter–faith relationships fostered by the church. The Council for Mission highlighted the church’s many partnerships overseas. The Covenant Council reported on practical outworkings of the interchangeability of ministry with the Methodist Church in Ireland. The Liturgical Advisory Committee highlighted a number of new resources including the children’s resource mentioned above and resources for young adults which were distributed through third level chaplaincies. The Pioneer Ministry Council updated members on developments which were bringing the vision of Pioneer Ministry to reality. The Church of Ireland Youth Department also highlighted the Quiet Revival. It also detailed the findings of its Youth Ministry Audit Survey which found that about 15,000 young people are served by youth ministry across the island but the numbers of parishes with paid youth leaders continues to fall. The Marriage Council highlighted its clergy retreats.
You can read full reports of proceedings on the General Synod website – www.churchofireland.org/synod/2025/news/
This article first appeared in the June 2025 edition of the Church Review – the Diocesan Magazine of Dublin and Glendalough. You can find out how to subscribe, advertise or contribute articles by clicking here.
