General Synod Election Candidates 2026

General Synod Election 2026 - Election Address

Ven Bill Braviner
2 Vicarage Gardens, Brighouse HD6 3HD
[email protected] Mob: 07980 751 902

Dear Colleagues,

Having served on General Synod from 2016 until I moved to Leeds Diocese
in 2022, it is my privilege to be standing for election this year as one of the Diocese’s
representatives (Proctors) in the House of Clergy for the new quinquennium.

General Synod is of course primarily a legislative body. It considers and passes Measures
which become the law of the land. My experience on the synod to date, including my
continuing membership of the Church Buildings Council and other national bodies, has given
me a good understanding of the processes and systems by which good outcomes can be
achieved. As a member of the Implementation Group for the Covenant for Clergy Wellbeing,
and now as Chair of the CofE Mental Health Working Group, I have much useful experience
regarding how decisions of the Synod can be translated into concrete outcomes that will
make a real difference to clergy, day to day. Currently, as Chair of the CofE Net-Zero Carbon
Building Services Committee, I am working with colleagues to administer national funding to
achieve good outcomes in our parishes.

Synod is also a debating body, which addresses many of the subjects and issues that are live
in the church today. Input from members, whether on the floor of the chamber during
debates, or between meetings and somewhat behind the scenes, really do make a
difference. The relationships I have built up over many years have provided real
opportunities for me to make contributions to progressing important agendas in the
national church, not least in the areas of accessibility and digital provision, but also in
providing the perspective of someone with long parish experience to some of the vision and
strategy debates that are ongoing. I am passionate that the Church’s ongoing agendas
around mission and renewal must be worked out through flourishing parishes which enable
flourishing communities.

Debates about vision and strategy are important business of General Synod. We need of
course to be a Church that is responding to the nation which we serve, and seeking to
proclaim the faith afresh to its present generations, while also valuing the richness and
depth of the church we have inherited. The local church and parish, serving its local
community and context, cannot be anything other than the heart of the church as we evolve
into the future; additional forms of church - whether chaplaincy, fresh expressions, etc - will
inform, nourish, grow from and into, and enrich what our parishes are offering. Central
funding for strategic development and transformation needs to be shaped and directed to
enable dioceses to best support the local church, as parishes work hard to serve and reach
out to our communities. Local missional energy needs wider missional support, to
encourage healthy missional activity everywhere. National policies and initiatives have to
make sense on the ground, and make a contribution to concrete mission and ministry in the
reality of our local contexts.

As we respond to, and reach out to our communities, we recognise how they are changing.
We are dealing with many issues which often were not even on the radar for our forbears.

Financially, we know that things are tight, especially in a region and a diocese like ours. We
must have a voice in the national debate which is rooted in an understanding of the local
reality. My engagement at all levels, from people in the pews to work and debates
nationally, coupled with my background as a Chartered Accountant, mean I have a good
grasp of the issues, the pressures, and the options open to the national church.

Finances are an immediate concern, but so of course is the environment. Synod has done
much work on responding to the climate emergency, but there must be ongoing
engagement with the steps we need to take if the required progress is to be made - not just
in setting targets, but also in policies for investments, and using the ‘clout’ that the church
has in this area. Ultimately, if we don’t get the right action on climate issues, we won’t need
to debate any of the others, since we won’t have a sustainable planet to live on.

We must also keep engaging with the need to both welcome all God’s people and celebrate
our diversity, while always seeking to maintain the strongest possible unity across the
church. I pray for a church that is inclusive of everyone, including those with whom I
disagree. We must find ways to walk together, not to be polarised and fractured into
separateness. We follow a God of healing, and we must seek reconciliation and relationship.

By no means least, we must also put our energies into embedding good Safeguarding into
the culture of our Church nationally and locally, and in working with survivors of abuse that
we may learn, change, and grow in understanding and good practice. We must be and
become a Church that is safe for, and nurturing to, all.

I would be honoured to serve as one of your representatives. I ask you please to give me
your support - with your first preference vote if possible, or as high as you can.

Thank you.
Bill Braviner

abuse,chaplaincy,clergy wellbeing,dioceses,environment,finances,fresh expressions,inclusive,mental health,mission,missional,net zero,safeguarding,survivors,survivors of abuse,vicarage