General Synod Election Candidates 2026

Dr Hanna J. Lucas
[email protected]

Proposer: Nigel Gibson
Seconder: Vivienne Anderson

Dear Deanery Synod Members,
Hello, brothers and sisters in Christ!
I am putting my name forward for General Synod
and I would like to ask for your vote in the 2026
General Synod Elections. Please allow me to
introduce myself.
Personal:
I am originally from Canada, and I have lived in the
UK with my husband and four children for ten years.
I came to the UK to study at Durham University, where I researched early Christian initiation
and catechesis practices. We as a family have felt called to stay and serve in ministry in the
UK – my husband as an ordained minister, and myself as a theologian, writer, and teacher. I
am involved in the life and growth of the church from several angles (see details below),
and in each of these I seek to communicate, support, and contribute to the Church’s
mission to preach Christ crucified and risen. I believe that recovering and receiving the
ancient faith handed down through the generations is indispensable to the renewal and
refreshing of the Church. I have a heart for the local parish: I am deeply involved in our
parish, Parish of the Upper Skerne (which includes 5 churches and covers 10 villages), and
I love to see God’s hand and His gospel touching the ordinary lives of neighbours and
friends. I also have an international perspective: I have experience working with Anglicans
from across the global communion, not only back in Canada, but also in America and the
Global South. I worked with a group of Anglicans from around the world on a catechism
renewal project, the fruits of which have just been published, The Hope in Us: A Catechism
for World Anglicans. This group included clergy and theologians from the Arctic, Egypt,
Tanzania, Uganda, Singapore and America. https://livingchurch.org/anglicancatechism/
Church Involvement:

Clergy Spouse: I’m married to Rev David Lucas, Parish of the Upper Skerne

Co-ordinator of our parish’s Sunday School Team

Praise Band Leader

Director of a parish discipleship group: ‘Skerne Scriptorium’

Professional Life:

Lecturer at Lindisfarne College of Theology: teaching Church History and New
Testament Greek
o previously, lecturer at College of the Resurrection, Mirfield

Newly-Appointed ‘Ministry Experience Scheme Enabler’, Diocese of Durham
o I coordinate and lead the formation component of Durham Diocese’s
‘Ministry Experience Volunteer Scheme’: a ministry and discipleship gap-
year program during which young people spend a year volunteering in church
ministries and exploring their calling and relationship with God.

Author of Sensing the Sacred: recovering a mystagogical vision of knowledge and
salvation, Wipf & Stock (2023)

Why I feel called to take part in General Synod:
• I care about the governance of the church, and particularly about the impact of
church decisions and policies on clergy, their families, the local parish, and the
church’s mission. I am involved in and care deeply about theological education
ministerial formation.
• I believe that receiving and proclaiming the Gospel necessitates theological clarity
and humble fidelity to the apostolic faith.
• I care about our duty and vocation to care
for creation, and I want to support the
church in finding ways to do that creatively.
• I desire to work toward real church unity.
• I can offer a perspective informed by the
early church, and by the contemporary
global church.
•
I have a diverse vantage point on what
Anglican faith and ministry looks like and
feels like on the ground: as a theological
educator, as someone involved in ministry
formation, as a clergy spouse and a mother
trying to raise her children in the faith, as a
leader of children’s ministries, and as a
regular old lay person who loves the Lord!
Thank you for your consideration, Hanna Lucas

discipleship,fidelity,global south,gospel,mission,sunday school,theological education,young people