General Synod Election Candidates 2026

E L E C T I O N A D D R E S S
Christine Keyte
House of Clergy · [email protected]

GROWING UP IN TWO TRADITIONS
For much of my life, I have been interested in how people and communities find ways of working together when
they do not see things in the same way. I think that comes partly from growing up in South Africa, in a Greek
Orthodox and Methodist family, and from being involved in church committees and synods from a young age.
I was involved in Methodist committees and synods from the age of sixteen, including work with young people
and ministry in communities divided by apartheid, when even meeting together for services or worship could
be profoundly difficult.
SEEING THINGS DIFFERENTLY
My understanding of what the Church can be was also shaped by the Anglican witness I encountered as a young
person. Trevor Huddleston was a particular inspiration. I was deeply moved by Desmond Tutu’s account of
meeting Huddleston as a child. It said something very important about the kind of community the Church could
be. I later had the privilege of being stationed in Soweto as a minister, at a time when South Africa was working
out how to build for the future. My experience there reinforced for me that reconciliation does not require us to
pretend that our differences are not real. It requires us to find ways of living and working together despite them.
A WAY OF BEING CHURCH
That is part of what has drawn me to the way the Church of England works: how we make decisions, how we
live with difference, and how our structures can help us build for the future. We live in a deeply divided society
and world, and the Church is not immune from that division. I am concerned about what happens when
positions become entrenched and we lose the ability to hear one another. I don’t think the answer is generic
agreement. That is neither possible nor, I suspect, particularly Anglican. Scripture and tradition give us
something deeper than our individual opinions. Our Anglican tradition gives us a way of debating, reasoning
and listening, while still seeking common ground. It is not about being right or winning the debate, but about
discerning how we might continue to live together as the Church of Christ and for me, that is what being in
community is about.
THE REALITY OF PARISH LIFE
The Church is not simply an organisation. It is people gathered in particular places: the cure of souls, prayer for
the community and for the world, and the real, sometimes challenging, privilege of walking alongside people in
the reality of their lives. It is incarnational ministry — being there, day after day, holding on to peace, hope and
charity when the world around us is uncertain. After thirty years in ministry, I am increasingly aware of how
much the structures around parish life matter. Complexity, competing expectations and fragmentation can have
a real effect on the people who are trying to serve their communities. I would want to bring that experience into
the conversation about how we shape our structures so that they support, rather than hinder, clergy and all
people in our parishes.
AN INCLUSIVE CHURCH
I also believe that this understanding of community has to include everyone. Inclusivity is part of what it means
to be the Church: a community centred in Christ, embracing different experiences, identities and convictions.
For me, that means marriage equality, and fully recognising the gifts and vocation of LGBT+ people within the
life of the Church. At the same time, I recognise that we come to questions of theology and identity from
differing perspectives, shaped by our own experiences and convictions. I believe profoundly that we are all equal

in Christ. No particular way of being should be viewed as better than another. That does not mean that our
differences disappear. It means living in community with those differences, recognising that they are part of the
framework in which we are called to be Church.
WHAT I WOULD BRING TO SYNOD
My experience of different traditions — South African, Methodist, Greek Orthodox and Anglican — has left me
with a deep respect for the breadth of the Christian tradition. I would bring to Synod a reflective and listening
perspective, shaped by that experience and by thirty years of ministry. I am not looking for grand solutions or
easy answers, but I would hope to be someone who:
— listens before speaking
— is prepared to ask difficult questions
— is comfortable with disagreement
— takes seriously what another perspective has to teach
HOPE IN OUR DIVERSITY
We have inherited a long tradition that has, over the centuries, found creative and careful ways forward in the
face of enormous social change and deeply held differences. I would like us to keep doing that — making space
for mutual flourishing and seeking always to hear one another. I am hopeful about the future of the Church of
England precisely because we are so varied. The vastness of our community and the richness of our traditions
are among our greatest strengths.

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