General Synod Meeting in Armagh: 9 -11 May
For only the second time in its history, the General Synod, the chief governing body of the Church of Ireland, will be meeting in Ireland’s ecclesiastical capital, in the Armagh City Hotel. The General Synod consists of 648 members in the House of Representatives (two thirds laity, one third clergy) and the 12 members of the House of Bishops.
Some of the issues coming up this year are:
• The formal constitutional recognition of Safeguarding Trust (the Church of Ireland Child protection policy, and the appointment of two Child Protection Officers, one in Northern Ireland, and the other in the Republic.
• Encouraging the Church of Ireland to become a Fairtrade church (the Diocese of Down and Dromore is working towards becoming a Fairtrade diocese).
• The Mission breakfast and a good deal of the Council for Mission report will deal with Fresh Expressions of Church: ie new ways of doing church in our generation.
• The Covenant Council is seeking to move forward the conversation on the mutual interchangability of ministries between the Methodist Church and the Church of Ireland.
• There will be a Church of Ireland response to the ARCIC document on Mary, entitled Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ. This response has caused a ripple or two in the Irish press, as it makes clear that the Church of Ireland still firmly believes that the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the Bodily Assumption of Mary have no firm biblical grounding.
• There will be an up-to-date response to 'Windsor' . The Windsor Report was an attempt (under the chairmanship of Archbishop Robin Eames) to the present difficulties in the Anglican Communion.
Other concerns such as victims in Northern Ireland, the church in Palestine, youth ministers, sectarianism, disability, and many others will make for a busy, creative and full three days of discussion and fellowship.
If you would like to follow the work of the General Synod as it progresses, please go to the General Synod website (click here)