The second meeting in the triennium was held on 27 February 2025 at St John’s Church, Hyde Park Crescent, W2 2QD.
The meeting was attended by over 100 members.
Report of the meeting
Opening prayers were led by the Bishop of Edmonton.
There were three main discussion items:
- An update on net zero carbon work across the Diocese
The net zero carbon work helps us Care for God’s creation (part of our Compassionate Communities ambition). There had been good progress in some church properties and discussions were underway with Local Authorities and energy suppliers to increase support for churches. External funding was available to implement energy savings that would reduce carbon footprint and long-term costs. To help these efforts, churches were being asked to:
- fill in the Energy Footprint Tool (EFT) each year – enabling emissions for churches and halls to be tracked and prioritised, as well a condition for church grants and unlocking further funding
- join the EcoChurch scheme and work towards an award, with free online survey and resources
- have an energy audit and look at the ‘practical pathway’ checklist provided by the national team.
Support for parishes to get started was available on the national and diocesan websites and from the diocesan team. Some members of the Diocesan Synod welcomed the work, while others challenged the scale of the impact we would have (compared to the costs) on both the environment and our vision for every Londoner to encounter the love of God in Christ. The work aims to demonstrate leadership, setting a moral example for church members and larger polluters to follow, and attracting members for whom this is an important issue. Diocesan Synod members provided feedback on what more we could do to raise awareness in churches and support churches to work towards net zero.
- Work being done to support the ‘growing younger’ priority
The Growing Younger team shared work that had been done to determine measures of growing younger (using data from parishes’ annual mission returns), and five key objectives to drive growth:
- Every parish with a plan to increase the number of the under 17s in their Worshiping Community
- Clergy who understood ministry among children, young people and families
- Paid workers, with an ambition for 300 across the diocese to accelerate growth
- Volunteer youth workers, with an ambition for 2000 new volunteers
- Youth Minsters providing missional youth work, with an ambition for 1 in every deanery.
Members discussed their experiences, the challenges and opportunities for growing younger including: the resource costs and the pros and cons of dedicated youth workers and/or administrators, and challenges of finding the right people; reliance on volunteers; and other ways of engaging young people e.g. through parents, family members and other church members.
- A motion from Hackney Deanery recommending their Children and Young People’s Charter.
The Charter was developed and adopted by the Hackney Deanery in response to questions from church schools about what the church was doing to keep young people safe following the strip-search of Child Q. The Charter set out protections for children and young people on church premises.
While condemning what happened to Child Q, members of the Diocesan Synod expressed concern that, as written, the Charter might hinder the prevention of self-harm or harm to others and/or put church officials in conflict with police lawfully carrying out their duties. It was recognised that this was not the Charter’s intention. The meeting moved to next business without a vote. The Hackney Deanery will consider amendments to the Charter to address the concerns raised.
The meeting also included Presidential Remarks from The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally, taking the theme of accountability and picking up on key discussions at the February sessions of General Synod relating to improving safeguarding and the progress of Living in Love and Faith.
The final agenda item was a response to, and brief discussions of, a range of questions raised before the meeting by individual members of the Diocesan Synod. Topics included:
- How churches can get involved in London Mission Week (28 June – 6 July).
- The Diocese’s response to General Synod’s call to develop a strategy for sport and wellbeing ministry.
- The ‘Nine theses about the Doctrine of Marriage’ (GS Misc 1407).
- Policy on Clergy retirement and on Licensed lay ministry beyond the age of 70.
- Encouraging, developing and supporting vocations, lay and ordained, of people from working class backgrounds.
- Blind shortlisting of clergy.
- Participation in the appointments to the senior team of archdeacons and suffragans.
- Numbers and costs of parish incumbents, curates and staff employed by parish churches, BMOs and LDF over time.
- Reference to the Holy Spirit as ‘she’.
The meeting concluded with prayer led by the Bishop of London.