Dropping the ball at General Synod

Much time & money wasted?

Commentary by Sue Careless

General Synod rather dropped the ball this year in Halifax. What were certainly fun icebreakers, which should have lasted no more than ten minutes each, instead ate up two ninety-minute morning sessions during which delegates should have been concentrating on crucial issues.

Three hours were allocated for ball games and animal improvs while only one hour was scheduled for a report by Bishop George Bruce on the global Anglican Covenant. Three hours for games but Canon Nick Brotherwood had only 30 minutes for his presentation on Fresh Expressions and no time for questions from the floor.

And how many thousands of dollars were paid to the professional facilitators of those games which were billed as team-building exercises? All dollars the church cannot afford.    

General Synod was nine long days this year. (It has been as long as eleven!) Yet the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada can get its national business done in four days.

When a synod drags on for over a week, delegates naturally lose their focus and enthusiasm and start skipping sessions. Productivity drops.

Many lay Anglicans cannot afford to give up over a week’s worth of employment, so most lay delegates tend to be retirees who are on fixed incomes. And those who are still employed give up precious vacation time to attend.

Then there is the exorbitant cost of nine days worth of accommodation ($550) and meals ($350) for a total of $900 per delegate. This does not include transportation which for most of the 350 delegates involves plane fare. The Church -- at parish, diocesan or national level -- tries to pick up much of the tab but cannot afford to do so.

Four days should suffice for General Synod – perhaps five if there is the need for a primatial election. And, if they wished, delegates could add on extra days at the beginning or end to explore the host city at their own expense.

Yet even with nine long days there was no time to hear a three-minute speech from each of the five delegates for Prolocutor. Their biographies were simply read aloud. One delegate rose on a point of order to express his “dismay” that delegates were being asked to vote for such an important office without having the biographies in front of them either on paper or in electronic form. The election proceeded, regardless. The election for Deputy Prolocutor a few days later was no different. 

By contrast, delegates to the Church of England Synod receive biographies on candidates for various offices in the mail well in advance of synod, and vote by mail so that by the time they gather the elections (which can be time-consuming) are over and those elected can get straight to work.

Confusion on the floor of Synod

Each table had only one binder of official proceedings to be shared with as many as eight members. Some delegates brought laptops with them but had to rely on their batteries as there were no power cords on the floor. The two main screens did not always display in full or for any length of time the resolutions being voted on. This led one bishop to complain publicly that he did not have time to read on paper or on the screen the motion in its entirety. He asked the Synod to slow things down “so we know what we are voting on.”

At past synods, members were all given their own binders to follow the proceedings. The attempt to make GS2010 an almost paperless synod may have saved trees but it left many delegates confused.      

Guests

It’s good that Synod hears from invited guests from around the Anglican Communion and from across the country. But the guest list and/or the speeches could be shorter. And there should be a variety of guests each synod. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, was invited back to speak for an hour at this Synod, even though she had addressed the last one.

So for a more effective and efficient Synod in 2013, let’s save both time and money and get down to business for four full days instead of meandering through nine.