from Anglican Futures
Voting has begun in what is probably the most organised election the Church of England has ever seen. Over the past year, both revisonist and conservative groups have worked hard to encourage their supporters to stand, and more crucially to be in a position to vote. There is one predominant reason for this. That reason os revisionists need the support of more than two-thirds of the House of Laity and of the House of Clergy, if they are to have any hope of making further ‘progress’ towards their goal of same-sex marriage.
This blog takes a quick look at the elections, the candidates and the electorate.
This is not a simple election – it is made up of almost a hundred discrete elections – every one of which has its own set of candidates and its own electorate.
The majority of seats are determined by the dioceses. Each of the 42 dioceses hold separate elections for their allocation of seats to the House of Laity and the House of Clergy. The total number of candidates is similar to the number that stood in the last election in 2021.
- 413 diocesan clergy are standing for election to 186 seats.
- 548 lay people are standing for 193 seats.
But there are also other elections taking place that will influence the membership of General Synod.
- 7 clergy from the Universities and Theological Education Institutes are standing for 4 seats.
- 2 lay people and 2 clergy from the Armed Forces need to be elected (but their election addresses appear to be top secret!)
- 2 lay people and 2 clergy from the Religious Communities have been elected unopposed
- 5 deans of cathedrals have already been elected unopposed, 3 from the South (Canterbury) and 2 from the North (York).
Some of the bishops also get a chance to engage in a bit of election fever. While every dioscesan bishop is automatically given a place in the House of Bishops, there are nine seats available for suffragan bishops. This is a significant proportion of the episcopal electorate, given that a similar number of diocesan seats are vacant at the moment. This may be why a few more bishops have put their hat in the ring this time, compared to past years.