General Synod Election Candidates 2026

My vision of the
church is one which
is larger than now,
more varied, with
more integration
between differing

segments.
——— #9

Proposers

Proposer: Helen Simmonds,
member at St Margaret's
Wolston and Lay Dean for
Rugby.

Seconder: Marcella King,
member at St Mark's
Leamington and Diocesan
Synod member, Leamington.

In Summary

e Broad view.
e Good listener.

e Integrated church.

we

Sarah
Judith Matthews

Standing for the House of Laity

MX [email protected]

About Me

Well, first of all: My name is Sarah and! ama
woman of nearly sixty. | am a longstanding
resident of Warwickshire, just outside of
Coventry. | have worked in the city of
Coventry for 25 years as a general
practitioner.

| am married and have two adult sons, both
of whom are running up to the end of their
Masters year at university. My husband, Paul,
is a hospital doctor, also based in Coventry
although his tendency to be most evidently
Welsh comes to the fore in the rugby season.

And, then: | worship at St Margaret's,
Wolston, which is a lively, mid-sized church. |
am a member of one of the small bible study
groups which is based there, and am most
involved with the worship team, where | sing.

We have guitars, a piano, voices and a
dulcimer player of mixed ages and abilities
but all believe in creating joyful worship
together. Often our vicar will play with us for
some of the morning and | hope he always
feels welcome within the team.

Thank you for considering me for your first place vote.
If you have further questions please do contact me.

Sarah Judith Matthews

You may be wondering about any skills

or interests | have:

As a GP, | naturally have a primary interest in health and
illness, but have always had a very wide perspective on what
drives this. In Coventry, | have been the doctor to a wide
ranging group of patients: those with long roots in the city,
those more recently arrived, asylum seekers and refugees, and
students coming for a time. All of these have taught me
differing things, but | have generally seen myself as a doctor at
my best in parts of the city under pressure due to deprivation
and have worked hard to facilitate access to available services

in my locality.

| have a longstanding interest in mental health. | have also
been involved in medical politics for about a decade and am a
member of the General Practitioners’ Committee at the BMA.
This gives me an idea of working in a large group to try and
further the common good of the profession. | have led the
workstream there for Education and Training for several years.

So, how did I come to stand?

lam currently a member of my PCC and
Deanery Synod. Previously | was on PCC at
another local church for some years, and
served there as secretary. | was wanting to
increase my service currently and my friend at
church suggested that she thought | would be a
good member at the deanery synod ‘because
you have a broad view of the church, and have
worshipped in different settings.’ This is true.
Although | became a Christian at university in
London, and worshipped then at one of the HTB
church plants (St Barnabas), my life afterwards
has taken me to an Anglican evangelical church
in Loughborough, an ecumenical church plant
in Cardiff, a traditional church with more formal
services and a robed choir and now to where |
find myself today.

In the last year, you might have found me at my
own church (largely), at a Taize service, a
cathedral evensong, an ecumenical group
service based in Coventry's Chapel of Unity, an
LGBT friendly charismatic service and an open
air communion. | would be comfortable to
worship in all of those contexts.

My Vision

My vision of the church is one which is larger
than now, more varied, with more integration
between differing segments. If | was successful
in joining the General Synod, | would work hard
particularly with those agendas which prioritise
those with a reduced voice: whether due to
disability, ethnicity, neurodiversity, poverty, sex
or gender identity. | hope to encourage the
wider church to aim not only to grow but to
diversify. My aim would be a church that looks
less like me. We have much to learn from one
another, sometimes with those who might make
us most uncomfortable or challenge our views.

We don't all agree, but often position ourselves
with those where we are in agreement and
hope to drown out or ignore the other ‘noise’.
As a small example of this progressive position,
we find that in our church we have been to a
wide range of festivals this year. Our Licenced
Lay Minister (LLM) is hoping to arrange a
session where each of us shares what we have
learned, whether at Spring Harvest, Wildfires, in
Keswick or at Greenbelt. A healthy church can
have those discussions and be stronger.

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