General Synod Election Candidates 2026

Election Statement for General Synod Election 2026 – House of Laity

David Lamming

Proposer: Steve Smith, lay chair of Lavenham Deanery Synod.
Seconder: Mandy Turner, member of Sudbury Deanery Synod.

Dear Electors,
Why I am seeking re-election to General Synod. I served as a member of General Synod 2015-2021
and am now seeking your support to represent our diocese on the synod for the next five years.
However, a question you may reasonably be asking as you read this is why you should be voting for
a candidate who will be aged 80 next year. The Synod needs members of all ages, and the diocese
deserves and needs a strong voice in Synod: I believe I provided that during my previous service,
ensuring that the diocese continued its reputation of ‘punching above its weight.’ I attended every
group of sessions bar one, and I spoke in debates at nearly every meeting.
One of synod’s principal functions is as a legislative body – the Church’s ‘Parliament’ – and during
my time on Synod I served on the revision committees for two Measures. With my legal background,
I see this as an area of the synod’s work where I can make a positive contribution.
Transparency and Accountability are (or should be) two of the watchwords of Synod, and at nearly
every group of sessions I took advantage of the opportunity to ask probing questions, especially on
or relating to safeguarding issues, often being ‘the grit in the oyster’.
More about my background: I grew up in a Christian family, becoming a Christian at the age of 12,
and since my 20s I have been (successively) a member of four different PCCs. For over ten years I
served as lay chairman of my deanery synod. My early years were in suburban London, moving to
Essex in 1970 and then to Suffolk in 1996. I am a member of the diocesan synod (on which I have
served for 29 years) and the Bishop’s Council. I am also a member of the Diocesan Board of Patronage
(since 2025 serving as its chair) and the Governance Committee of the DBF. In 2025 I was one of the
six elected representatives of the diocese on the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) which
nominated Bishop Joanne Grenfell to be our next diocesan bishop. Currently, I live in a village in
southwest Suffolk, one of five in multi-parish benefice. This experience, both at diocesan and ‘grass
roots’ level, has been invaluable. Now fully retired (I was a practising barrister for 41 years), but fit
and active, I have the time and energy to serve again on General Synod.
These are among the important issues which the new Synod will be facing:
• As I wrote in 2015, promoting the mission of the church and how, most effectively, we can
‘proclaim afresh’ the good news of Jesus Christ to our nation and in our diocese. With
congregations aging and shrinking (as the media are often quick to point out), this is a clear
priority.
• Promoting the role of the parish church, with its presence in every community while, at the
same time, supporting initiatives, such as ‘Lightwave’ here in Suffolk, that seek to introduce
people to the Christian faith in other settings. It has to be ‘both/and’, not ‘either/or’. The

‘Save the Parish’ campaign has, rightly, highlighted the need to focus on the parish church as
the local centre for mission. Financial support for parishes – both for ministry and for
maintaining church buildings, and how the Church Commissioners use their historic
resources – will be a key issue. Whether the Commissioners should be allocating £100m to
address perceived historical issues of transatlantic slavery (‘Project Spire’) must be
reconsidered.
• The Church of England, with its unique position as the established church, must continue to
promote Christian values as vital for the health of our nation in an increasingly secular
society. General Synod has an important role, to which I would hope to contribute, on issues
such as international aid, assisted dying, caring for creation, and climate change.
• Same-sex marriage. The ‘Living in Love and Faith’ process dominated the agenda in the last
quinquennium, but a divided Synod left the issues relating to it unresolved. I continue to
believe (as stated in Canon B.30 and as the last Synod affirmed) that marriage is “a union
permanent and lifelong, for better for worse, till death them do part, of one man with one
woman.” Accordingly, I shall consider carefully any proposals which the House of Bishops
may bring to the new synod, and how best we can ‘live with difference’ in a divided church.
• The role of Synod. The last Synod exposed significant tensions between roles of the House
of Bishops and the Synod. I believe that Synod needs to be more assertive, especially in
holding the bishops to account and in securing greater transparency and accountability.
The issue of governance reform, including the role of the Archbishops’ Council, will need
to be addressed following the failure of the proposed Governance Measure to obtain
parliamentary approval.
• Safeguarding and CDM reform. These are areas on which I took a particular interest
during my time as a Synod member. The issue of clergy discipline has been resolved
(hopefully) with the enactment of the Clergy Conduct Measure (yet to come into force),
but that of safeguarding reform remains. We must get this right for the sake of the mission
of the church, while seeking to ensure that it is not the ‘block’ to volunteering that is the
experience of many at parish level.
Thank you for reading this. Having done so, I hope you will feel able to give me your first preference
vote or, if not first, a high preference.
Should you wish to contact me before voting, I should be more than happy to speak with you, or to
respond to an e-mail.
“Having already served on General Synod, David will bring to this election a wealth of
experience and knowledge that will ensure this diocese is at the forefront of the
important debates and decisions the synod will have to make in the next five years.”
– Proposer, Steve Smith
Some personal details:
Aged 79, married for 56 years to Pauline, with four children and five grandchildren. Barrister by
profession, now retired but maintaining an interest in, in particular, ecclesiastical law. Member of
the Ecclesiastical Law Society.
Other interests: Cricket, which I’m passionate about and still play the occasional game—when
selected! Former chairman of the North Essex Cricket League and regular club reporter for the Suffolk
Free Press and contributor to Wisden. Music. Photography, with my pictures printed from time to time
in the Free Press and East Anglian Daily Times.
Contact details:
20 Holbrook Barn Road, Boxford, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 5HU
Telephone: 01787 210360
Mobile: 07968 791135;
E-mail: [email protected]

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