Is God at work in Synod?

With these words we began Day 2 of Synod.

Kanishka Raffel, the rector of St Matthew's Shenton Park, WA, spoke to us from Colossians 1, reminding us that the gospel of Christ crucified makes known and makes present the Lord of all. I love that we start the day by opening the BIble together - it focuses us on what we are really there for.

Kanishka challenged us to see Christ as the treasure who has finished his work of reconciliation and who now is at work by growing his gospel in and among his people - even those in Synod! (Listen to Kanishka’s Bible Study)

With those words ringing in our ears, we moved to a discussion of Bradman cover drives, then on to the answers to questions.

The Archbishop confirmed that there was a record number on Day 1 and he took more than 40 minutes to answer them. You can see all the questions people asked on the daily business papers.

With questions behind us we began work on some proposed amendments to the way we elect and retire Archbishops. At first sight, this amendment looked cosmetic - an opportunity to get a new Archbishop efficiently. But the proposal also addressed the age at which the Archbishop should retire.

As is often the case a mountain of amendments suddenly emerged and after more than 90 minutes of speeches and questions, all we have decided so far is that we will not retire our Archbishop at 65. We are still to consider whether 68 is the magic number and more importantly, whether we will limit the term of the Archbishop to 10 years.

Personally, I am not yet convinced this is a good idea. What do you think?

We will revisit these questions at 4.30pm this afternoon.