General Synod Election Candidates 2026

H O U S E O F L A I T Y · D I O C E S E O F E L Y
Andy
Gordon
Standing for election to the House of
Laity of the General Synod of the
Church of England, 2026.
“I have given them the glory that
you gave me, that they may be one
as we are one … so that they may
be brought to complete unity.”
JOHN 17:22–23
Proposed by Felicity Cooke
General Synod 2021–2026
Seconded by Jonathan Chaplin
Diocesan Synod and Bishop's Council
“The breadth of your experience,
Andy, and the way in which it speaks
to how you live out your faith in
practice is hugely impressive. I am so
glad you are standing for GS as a
candidate for Ely.”
CANON FELICITY COOKE
Member of General Synod
Scan or click
to watch my
two-minute video.
I am standing for General Synod because
I'm passionate that we be friends not factions,
I can help the church engage with AI,
I'm committed to the Diocese of Ely,
and I love the Church of England.
W H O A M I ? — T E C H T E A M , F A I R B I T E , A N D G O D I S A D J
I am the son of a Scottish manse, and
have lived in Cambridge most of my
working life. I came to faith as a
young adult on a visit to Iona Abbey.
Today I worship at our parish church,
St Paul's, and I have come to love the
Church of England dearly, in its
wonderful diversity. I'm married; our
daughter and son, both born at the
Rosie, are now at university.
I've been in the Tech Team at St
Paul's since 2015, doing sound and
projections — a particular pleasure
being our God is a DJ sessions at
church weekends away. I produce
and publicise our public talk series,
including Inclusive Theology and
Faith and Empowerment, running the
livestream and YouTube channel and
designing the publicity.
I served on the PCC from 2017–2023
and returned in 2025; I was on
Deanery Synod 2020–2023, and
again since 2025. In 2021 I helped
propose an inclusive candidate for
General Synod.
I chair St Paul's Compassion
Committee, which oversees our
community programme — weekday
meals, the Friday Foodbank, and
Fairbite — and advises the PCC on
charitable giving. I shaped our
framework for giving, using the
Anglican Five Marks of Mission to
balance support across responding to
need, social justice, creation care,
teaching, and telling the good news. I
volunteer at Fairbite, a social
supermarket where members shop
with choice and dignity. Volunteering
has deepened my conviction that the
church is at its best when it works
alongside rather than for people.
I am a Christian and a scientist. I had
a full-time career in computer
science research at Microsoft
Research and as a Professor at the
University of Edinburgh. Now I work
part-time as Science Advisor for an
AI startup in London and at ARIA, a
government research agency.
Last year I nearly left the
Church of England, over
safeguarding failures and
its treatment of women
and LGBT+ people. I
chose to stay. I made a
very conscious decision to
recommit.
“Andy is a passionate and faithful
member of St Paul's. He actively
contributes in our PCC. He co-
founded our Inclusion Group, and is
a dedicated volunteer at Fairbite.
I can recommend him as someone
who will be a hard-working and
effective member of synod.”
THE REV'D IMOGEN NAY
Vicar, St Paul's Cambridge

What I would bring to Synod
A N D Y G O R D O N · H O U S E O F L A I T Y
Safeguarding
The previous Synod passed a new Clergy Conduct Measure
(CCM), a redress scheme for survivors, and the next phase of
safeguarding reforms, including external scrutiny. The next
five years are about whether it is actually delivered:
safeguarding that is properly funded, consistently
resourced in every diocese, independently scrutinised.
That is unglamorous, detailed work, the kind I am good at. I
will read the reports, follow the money, and keep asking
whether survivors are better served this year than last.
Safeguarding is also changing shape. AI-generated abuse
images and chatbots are new routes to harm, and dioceses
are already deciding which platforms they can be present on
at all. I can help Synod ask the right questions about AI and
safeguarding before the damage is done, not after.
Clergy well-being
As the son of a minister and a deaconess, clergy well-being
is close to my heart. The Trust and Trustworthiness report
reached an uncomfortable conclusion: much clergy
exhaustion comes not from ministry itself, but from an
institution that too often feels remote and unsupportive. I
want the church to reduce administrative friction, improve
housing and care standards, and offer robust legal and
emotional protection.
The old disciplinary system (CDM) left clergy in years of
limbo over complaints that should never have become legal
battles. The new measure is a real improvement, but a
measure (CCM) is only as good as its administration. I will
watch whether the new grievance track genuinely calms
things down, and whether the promised support for
everyone caught up in a complaint actually appears.
Inclusion
I support women's ministry at all levels, including bishops.  I
affirm people in same-sex relationships — in 2020 I brought
a motion to our PCC supporting equal marriage — and
support the full implementation of the Prayers of Love and
Faith. I back the ongoing work of the Archbishops' Racial
Justice Commission. I am committed to equality for
everyone, in every role within the church, regardless
of disability, economic power, ethnicity, sex, gender
identity, learning disability, mental health, neurodiversity,
or sexuality.
I welcome Synod's affirmation this July that neurodivergent
people are a blessing to the church. Now it needs to be
made real: a neurodiversity champion in every diocese,
training led by neurodivergent people themselves, and the
barriers to ministry and lay leadership actually taken down.
Artificial intelligence
Leading a Lords debate in June 2026, Archbishop Mullally
drew on Pope Leo's encyclical Magnifica humanitas to warn
that we risk “unleashing AI into our lives and societies
without the theological, philosophical and spiritual
framework” to direct it. Her question should guide the next
Synod: does AI make human life more human?
Cambridge is an epicentre of the UK's AI industry, and I
bring deep personal expertise from my career in computer
science research. I want to use that experience to help
Synod bridge the gap between high-level ethics and parish
reality. Stretched clergy could genuinely benefit from AI to
draft rotas or funding bids, but we need safe, practical, and
unified national AI guidelines. For now, we rely on a
patchwork of local policies and external guidance.
W H Y M E ? — A N D Y T H E S P R E A D S H E E T G U Y
You need a representative who gets into the details. I am
unafraid to ask awkward questions about a budget or
spreadsheet — as our parish Treasurer will tell you! Synod
oversees multi-million-pound assets. I have long experience
reading dense briefings and making consequential collective
decisions. Ely is a diocese of contrasts: city and market-town
parishes alongside rural benefices in Huntingdonshire and
the Fens. I will read and question with all in mind.
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y & R E P O R T I N G B A C K
You can be confident that I have the time, capability, and
dedication to serve you well. I will build networks and I hope
friendships across Synod to get things done effectively.
Having regularly reported back to my parish from Deanery
Synod, I will feed back faithfully to the synods of the Diocese
of Ely and work to restore the practice of joint reports.
Thank you for reading. I'd love to hear from you.
Please vote me first, or as highly as you can.
Andy Gordon · [email protected] · linkedin.com/in/andrew-d-gordon
D O N ' T F O R G E T T O V O T E
Votes must be in by
Tuesday 13 October

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