Day 1
Church of Ireland General Synod begins today
The General Synod of the Church of Ireland gets underway today, Thursday September 30 and continues until Saturday October 2. Meeting online once again this year, this will be the first meeting of the fifty–second General Synod. The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, the Most Revd John McDowell, will preside and will make his Presidential Address to General Synod shortly after the start of business today.
The General Synod Service of Holy Communion will be based in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh. The celebrant will be the Archbishop of Armagh and the preacher will be the Rt Revd Andrew Forster, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. The Service will be made available online before the start of business today and will be shown within the Zoom meeting from 10am.
The starting times for the business of General Synod will be as follows:
- 11.00am – Thursday, 30th September;
- 2.30pm – Friday, 1st October; and
- 10.00am – Saturday, 2nd October.
There will be two sessions today; the first between 11am and 1pm and the second between 7pm and 9pm. The main business will be the consideration of five Bills.
Tomorrow (Friday) business is scheduled for 2.30pm to 4.30pm will include a motion to re–launch the Bishops’ Appeal for World Aid and Development and the reports of the Standing Committee, the Commission on Ministry, and the Church of Ireland Youth Department. The reports of the Representative Church Body – the central trustee body of the Church – and the Council for Mission will be considered in the evening session between 7.30pm and 9pm.
On Saturday from 10am, the General Synod will again consider the Bills being brought before this year’s meeting, and also the reports of the Board of Education, covering educational issues in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the Church of Ireland Marriage Council, the Liturgical Advisory Committee, the Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue, and the Covenant Council (which oversees the Church’s relationship with the Methodist Church in Ireland).
www.synod.ireland.anglican.org