General
Synod Election AddressGeneral
Synod Election Address
The Reverend Canon Nigel LLoyd
General Synod Elections - 2005
Proposed by Canon Richard Franklin - Seconded by Canon Jeremy Oakes
I am 53 years old and married to Jane, who is senior chaplain of Poole Hospital NHS Trust. We have two daughters, Victoria (23) and Charlotte (21), both of whom training to be nurses. After my A levels (Science) I worked for some time in business in London, before going to Lincoln Theological College, where I met Jane. I took a degree in Theology from Nottingham University and later followed that up with a Lambeth Diploma in Theology, which I gained with a thesis on Marriage. I was ordained deacon by Bishop George Reindorp in 1981 and served as a curate at Sherborne Abbey. After that I was Rector of the semi-rural parish of Lytchett Matravers, just outside Poole, during which time the parish became a Local Ecumenical Partnership. In 1992 I moved to my present post of Rector of the Lower Parkstone Team Ministry, which includes St.Peter's Parkstone and St.Mary's Brownsea Island. The whole team has an electoral register number of about 10,000. The Liturgy is catholic in style and we have been in the forefront of recent liturgical changes. I have served on Diocesan Synod since the early 80s and from the mid-80s onwards I was secretary to the Diocesan Ecumenical Team and later Diocesan Ecumenical Officer. I am Rural Dean of Poole and a member of the Bishop's Council. I have been convenor for Affirming Catholicism in the diocese. I am also Chairman of the Governors of our local (VC) middle school of 600 pupils. I am passionate about the music of Mahler and a keen photographer.
I have served as a member of General Synod for our diocese for the past five years. During that time I have also been a member of the Council for Christian Unity and the Church of England's representative on the Methodist/URC Liaison Committee. I would consider it an honour to represent the diocese on General Synod for another five years. With my ecumenical background I appreciate that there are often differing and valid viewpoints on the major issues which face us and my commitment is to enter such debates with an open mind as to where the Spirit is leading the Church. Not all the issues facing the church have an obvious conclusion or resolution yet. I loved Martyn Percy's comments, at a clergy conference a few years ago, that we should be reaching out to cross boundaries in our society and that we must remember we are the invitation-givers to the party and not the gate keepers. I also liked David Schlafer's comments, at the same conference, about wrestling with the scriptures in a way that makes them sing with authority. Too often we simply use the scriptures to reinforce our own predetermined positions.
Having said that, you need to know where I am coming from and what I think the main issues facing us are. In no particular order, they are as follows.
An inclusive Church I believe that at the heart of the Gospel lies the reality of God, who, at whatever cost, is calling creation into relationship with himself in a way that is utterly transforming. I despair at the calls for a purified church and the earnest discussions as to whom we should include or exclude from our fellowship. As Desmond Tutu has put it, all that matters is whether people are “in Christ” or not. We need to learn how to live by our calling to be people who are bound together by our common response to Christ, even though we may hold radically different opinions over such issues as women bishops, same-sex relationships and so on. My own parish is one in which we have had a string of women priests, many called out from within our own congregation, yet we also include within the congregation some who cannot accept such ministry. We promote the sanctity of family life, yet also include some gay people among our number. My maiden speech in the last Synod was in favour of the remarriage of divorced people in church. In a debate in which many called for the protection of clergy against having to officiate at such ceremonies, I spoke about the need to take risks and to engage in the reality of people’s lives. It is about drawing circles large enough to include people into the experience of God’s transforming love, not reinforcing the circle to keep people out.
Human sexuality is an issue that threatens to split the Anglican Communion. I believe it is wrong to allow ourselves to be divided in this way and what is needed is ongoing debate with a commitment to unity, even though there is much pain and misunderstanding on both sides of the debate. The Church has often marginalized people because they are "other" and then used scripture to justify that action. I believe that we need to be bold in proclaiming a morality centred on the self-sacrificial love that we see in Jesus, which upholds the calling to celibacy for some and permanent monogamous sexual relationships for others. I have seen Christ in faithful gay relationships among people in my own congregations and I have no reason to condemn such relationships. Indeed I fear that we can be too ready to condemn in the area of human sexuality, where God calls us to chaste living, but where so often we can make mistakes.
Women Bishops—I believe that the time has come to move forward and ordain women as bishops. A single clause measure, allowing this to happen, with a code of practice to demonstrate how those who cannot accept this change can be fully included in the life of the Church, is the way forward. Legislating to produce different provinces within which Christian can be protected from one another would be a very divisive and destructive solution and one which I could not support.
Common Tenure is a good way forward towards giving clergy the kind of “employment rights” enjoyed by any other section of society. I support recent moves to sharpen up clergy discipline procedures, particularly as they have been framed within the context of pastoral care. At the same time I believe we should move towards to the ending of clergy freehold, but in a way that allows suitable safeguards to those of us whose homes go hand in hand with the office we hold. Having said that, I believe that moves to vest ownership of churches and parsonage houses with Diocesan Boards of Finance to be a mistake, for it would take something of the cutting edge of mission away from the coalface of parish life.
One of the most exciting themes to run through recent Synod debates has been the renewed commitment to mission. I was very excited by the report Emerging Church. Although this report was meant to be about church planting, it seemed to touch a nerve about looking at all mission in a fresh way. I am firmly committed to the parochial ministry as the backbone of the Church of England, but I am also committed to searching for fresh expressions of Church as we work to proclaim the Gospel message in a changing world.
I will support moves to change marriage legislation, if such changes are in fact allowed by Parliament. Anything to open up the ministry of the Church to a wider number of people is to be welcomed.
I will continue to support a greater transparency to the way in which senior appointments are made in the Church of England. I will also continue to support church schools as central to the mission of the Church and the Hind process of Regional Training Partnerships, even though there is a lot of work to do in meeting the strong reservations many have in the implementation of that process.
Two other important themes will be ecumenical and inter-faith relationships. Working out our relationship with our Methodist friends, through the Anglican/Methodist covenant, will be important. It will be also be essential that this is done in a way which does not compromise growing relationships with other churches, such as the Roman Catholics. With a mosque of frightened Muslims on the edge of my parish, I am aware of the need to build up relationships with people of other faiths in a spirit of mutual respect, whilst not compromising our belief in the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.
I offer myself to represent the diocese for a further period of five years and I will be grateful if you will give me your first vote in the election. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss these, or other issues, further.