General Synod Election Candidates 2026

Revd Canon Andrew Paul Hutchinson, General Synod election address 2026

Revd Canon Paul Hutchinson
Rector of St Neots Team Ministry
St Neots Deanery
Proposed and seconded by: James Shakespeare and Eleanor Whalley

August 2026

With roots in County Durham and elsewhere the North, I came to St Neots from
near Teesside early in 2020. My two sons are now in their twenties, whilst my wife Alison, an unpaid
assistant priest through much of their childhood in multi-parish rural benefices, is now a full-time chaplain.

When I came to Ely Diocese, I had represented York Diocese at General Synod (GS) for 6 years.
I stood as a candidate for Ely in 2021 to ensure that there was a wide range of experience on the ballot
paper. Though not among those elected, I might have found myself serving again if a vacancy had arisen.
Now I am more familiar with the Diocese, I offer that experience again.

All my ordained ministry has been inside the parish system: in former mining communities in NW Durham;
at Sunderland Minster (while University Chaplain); and then in market town & rural ministry at Penrith
(Carlisle Dio), then Stokesley (York Dio), and now St Neots. Whilst happy to work alongside new church
initiatives (including in St Neots currently), and with several experiences of chaplaincy, my heart remains in
the parish as the core of our vocation to be the national church.

Before ordination, I was a Newcastle solicitor (defendant civil litigation), having read Law at Trinity Hall
Cambridge (worshipping regularly then in chapels, at St Edward’s and GSM, and as a member of university
Ecumenical Fellowship Groups). Alison and I trained together at Cuddesdon (in an inclusive broadly
central-catholic tradition of ministry) and were ordained together at Durham in 1997.

Ministry since ordination has, in addition to its general challenges, developed four particular interests:

• Music & Liturgy. A choir member and organist (including at Diocesan Synod), I have been active
with church music and liturgy organisations (currently the Cambridge & Ely Church Music Group);
and various church and chamber choirs. I contributed several times to GS debates on liturgical
matters and was a regular contributor to GS worship.
• Education. I have two church primary schools at St Neots and Eynesbury, having previously been
a non-church secondary school governor (and chair) in my last post. Further back, there were
chaplaincy roles (full-time Sunderland University Chaplain; part-time campus chaplain at Newton
Rigg, Penrith); service on two Diocesan Boards of Education and other church school governance. I
still have Higher Education contacts in various places.
• Ecumenism. My involvement in ecumenical structures has been less active in St Neots, but in
York Diocese, I was Ecumenical Adviser for Cleveland Archdeaconry for five years, connecting into
a variety of regional and national ecumenical networks. Before that many of my previous roles also
had specialist ecumenical dimensions.
• Law. I have been a member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society for nearly 35 years, helping me to stay
informed about some thornier legal issues. It’s been invaluable in helping to understand the
legislation that GS deals with. I have also been in GS’s Criminal Justice Group and other work of
the Mission and Public Affairs division. I have been a Surrogate for Marriages here since 2021.

Over the years, ministry has also brought me to other chaplaincy roles; to Diocesan Synods and pastoral
committees; to fair-trade, disability, rural and asylum seeker networks; active contact with NSM/SSM
ministries and LLMs/Readers; some contributions to local radio; work as a training incumbent (with
colleagues from various settings); and happy working relationships with neighbouring parishes.

Revd Canon Andrew Paul Hutchinson, General Synod election address 2026

My approach to General Synod has been to engage with the full breadth of Synod’s concerns: I have not
frequently made big set-piece speeches, but have more often given time to questions, to points otherwise
missed in debate, to being one of those who attends to the legislative work, to effective group work and to
fringe discussions (such as on safeguarding, cathedrals, and ecumenical issues). I have also made a point of
reporting, in print or sometimes in person at Deanery and Diocesan Synods – in terms that my own
parishioners can engage with – on the debates and discussions that I have been part of at each session.

The bulk of GS’s work requires patient attention, open listening, and responsive flexible judgement. In my
GS years, I have tried to embody those qualities alongside the experience that I have brought: when I first
joined GS in 2013 it was just such working that enabled the Ministry of Women as Bishops (something of
which I had long been in favour) to come finally to fruition.

But I am also aware that a candidate should be open about basic convictions on those areas that – though
the minority of Synod business – are the issues that often attract publicity and become matter of public
conflict. I am prepared to be persuaded of the rightness of positions other than my own, but among my
basic presuppositions are:-
• The parish is the bedrock of the Church’s ministry in England. That said, much of my ministry has
been close to over-stretched rural multi-parish benefices (I know that the system in some parts of
the countryside is in crisis); I have sometimes worked not far from very challenging urban
environments where ‘parish’ has little meaning; I have had many reasons to value strong Diocesan
teams; and I know that all churches depend on a continuing supply of willing volunteers, whatever
their size or tradition: so I know the Church needs not simply to treat parishes as fixed and
absolute. But I have not been heartened by what I have heard of radical reorganisation schemes in
Liverpool, Leicester and Truro Dioceses, and believe that the Church needs to continue to seek
more effective ways of supporting Mission locally than through high-profile initiatives alone.
• Safeguarding is a matter of paramount concern, and the Church has rightly transformed its
approach to Safeguarding in the years since I first joined GS (and was part of the discussion of the
Measure & Canon that now govern Safeguarding). Clearly, there remain issues to be resolved and
shocking cases that call for appropriate justice – but it is also important to remain clear about what
safeguarding is and is not. Moreover, the question remains whether the “seal of the confessional”
should hold firm in cases where there are safeguarding concerns. I have heard the contributions of
those who are more regular practitioners than I am, and I remain of the view that the seal’s
removal is likely to cause far more harm than its retention.
• Finally, on the wide-ranging set of questions that gather around issues of human sexuality and
identity, I have long held the theological conviction that same-sex relationships are no more sinful in
themselves than those between people of the opposite sex, and that creation is more diverse and
complex than a simple binary divide on sex and gender. I continue to hope that the Church can find
its way to a more boldly inclusive position than its current official stance, and I would be pleased to
see a move to same-sex marriage (with conscience provisions) within the Church of England, which
also needs to be more focused on other issues of inclusion as a matter of gospel principle, justice
and equity.
When colleagues around Teesside encouraged me to stand in 2013, I would not have readily thought of
myself as a GS member. But I have learnt that the role needs a range of different skills, and a willingness to
speak and ask questions (which I have done, sometimes from the local perspective) when more dominant
views command the floor. I hope you will be willing to give me your vote – if not first preference, then
second or third. All preferences can count in this election!

Paul Hutchinson - St Neots with Eynesbury

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