To be honest, Day One of this Group of Sessions felt, and was, a bit odd. We began at 1.30pm; we ended at 5.30pm! There was hardly time to settle yourself into the chamber let alone really begin to engage with things or get a sense of the mood of the Synod. There is always a mood and its interesting to get a sense of that. Are people angry, frustrated, determined, excited? I’ve been to many Synods in which you can cut the atmosphere with a knife. But there was nothing you could identify yesterday, nothing discernable – today may be different of course.
The time we did have in the Chamber was taken up by three things. After the Archbishop of Canterbury had welcomed new members and some visitors, particularly some bishops representing the Anglican Communion, we moved into the first debate. This is always on the Report of the Business Committee. Even this didn’t get the pulse racing. The session ended with Questions, of which there were over 90. A lot of those were around safeguarding and were something of a prelude to the discussions which will take place first thing on Saturday morning. But apart from that there was a great deal that was interesting but nothing earth or church shattering.
In between these two standard items of business that would always take place on the first day of Synod was the main course on the menu. Professor O’Donovan and his team of theologians had been asked to look at the processes of the Crown Nominations Commission and to report back to the Archbishops and the Synod. This they did and we then debated the way forward for the work of the CNC.
As a former member of the CNC – I served for 8 very enjoyable years – it was fascinating to read and then to listen to what was said in the debate. I had, of course, attended one of the meetings of the group to give my reflections on the process. One of the problems about talking about it in any detail is that at the beginning of each CNC all 14 members take an oath of eternal secrecy. One member of the Synod in the debate said that the CNC was as ‘leaky as a sieve’ which, if it were true, would challenge that principle of confidentiality. I think, however, that is an urban myth that needs revealing as such. In my experience the leaks came from every where else apart from the membership of the CNC. With interviews, references, follow-up references there are a great many people ‘in the know’ who have not sworn an oath of strict confidentiality. The last nomination made by the CNC, Bishop Sarah Mullally to London, was a shock and welcome surprise to so many. As you can imagine I had heard a great many rumours about what was going on but nothing that reflected the truth. If someone was going to leak this would have been the leak of the century!
It seems to me that the most important thing that came out of the report and the debate is that the work of the CNC is the work of discernment and that means a great deal of sitting and listening to God, being open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and, as I said in my speech to Synod, ‘to form the Church not in our image but in Christ’s image.’ I have strong views about the church and work out of a clear and well know church tradition, but I hope that I have always been able to leave some of my tribal branding at the door of discernment. And whether we are nominating bishops or making decisions in PCC the call to embrace the divine spirit of true discernment is the same.
Samuel sees as God sees
The story of the identifying of David as God’s successor to Saul is an important one for any of us who are engaged at any level of discernment. Samuel has been given the unenviable task and God tells him what will happen
‘I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.’ (1 Samuel 16.3)
But when Samuel looked on Eliab, the oldest son and the obvious choice, God says to him
‘The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’ (1 Samuel 16.7)
Learning to see as God sees, to look as deep as God looks, is the task of the church and of each of us.
So what does today hold? Look out for the debate on food wastage – sounds like motherhood and apple pie but its important to air the issue. There is plenty of legislation, the business that really does affect the nitty-gritty of the life of the church. But the most interesting and perhaps contentious business will be about unity with the Methodists. I have no idea which way that will go – but as I am in the chair for that debate that might be a good thing! But whatever we are doing, may we be discerning.
God of wisdom,
may we see as you see,
know your mind
and do your will.
Amen.
Andrew Nunn's reflections from General Synod 
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