by Madeleine Collins

When Warren Stanley, 59, walks into a crowded Pitt Street auditorium this month, he will be transported back to his days as a young man in 1971.

The member of St Paul’s, Castle Hill, who became a Christian when he was 17, will listen to Archbishop Peter Jensen’s address to the Synod, having witnessed three previous Archbishops take the stage before him.

The financial planner is a longstanding representative at the annual event where up to 800 Sydney Anglicans will convene over five days.

“There were certainly some great presidential addresses over the years,” Mr Stanley said, adding that while proceedings have “become more relaxed” the debate is still as stimulating.
“While the basic work of the gospel goes on in the parish…Synod is the place where major decisions are made,” he said. “It’s important for us to have a bigger view of what’s going on.”

Highlights will include the Archbishop’s Presidential Address on the first afternoon at 3.15pm. There will be a presentation of the Mission on the same day, and the popular ‘missionary hour’ will be held on the following Monday.

A record number of provisional parishes – Shellharbour, Helensburgh, Naremburn/Cammeray, Minto and Narrellan will apply to become parishes in their own right. Other major items include a debate on lay administration of the Lord’s Supper. A proposal to introduce a law for the practice has been shelved in the wake of legal problems.

Synod will be asked to broaden the role of deacons to aid the Mission goal of training large numbers of ministry workers. Debates are likely to be held on a number of other issues, including the Church’s response to abortion, a move to replace the word ‘priest’ with ‘minister or ‘elder’, allocating funds to church activities and providing pastoral assistance for struggling rural dioceses.

Synod is the church’s main governing body, instituted by an act of the NSW Parliament in 1902. As in previous years, there will be disappointment and joy, tedium and moments of great excitement in a program which includes daily Bible studies, congregational singing and multimedia presentations.

The advent of the Mission is challenging traditional notions about the role of Synod. Archbishop Jensen commented last year that “it is time to abandon the idea that [Synod is] the parliament of the church”.  “It is far healthier for us to think of the Synod as an assembly of the representatives of the churches for the purposes of our mutual life,” Dr Jensen said.