General Synod Election Candidates 2026

General Synod Candidate Address
Anne Scott
I am passionate about Creation Care, Church Growth and Safe Churches.
I have been married to Alex for 32 years and we have 2 adult
children. For 27 years of my life, I was a primary school teacher in
Leicester and I am now the lay leader of a small church
community and facilitator of an Outdoor Worship Network.
I have been a follower of Jesus since I was a child: growing up in a
Christian family, I attended a small Anglican rural church in
Staffordshire. I grew in faith and developed in leadership skills
throughout my childhood. Since living in Leicester, I have been an
active member of a city centre church where I have led
homegroups, supported a number of small group leaders and
have pioneered a Missional Community focused on connecting Christ, Creation and
Community.
In my spare time, I enjoy gardening, walking, working in my shared allotment and reading. I
am also starting to enjoy cycling for pleasure!

I would love to represent Leicester Diocese at General Synod and I feel that I would bring a
positive contribution in the following areas:
Care for Creation
I have always enjoyed being in nature, but only experienced an environmental awakening
when I was in my early 30’s through watching Al Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth”. I
adapt my own lifestyle to reduce my impact on the planet and have studied Creation Care
theology through the CRES (Christian Rural and Environmental Studies) course run by the
John Ray Initiative (JRI) which works to connect science and theology: I am now a Director
for them. I long for the Church to care for all creation as part of mission and discipleship: I
have led creative Eco Church projects within my own church communities and have
organised Diocesan Eco Church conferences to encourage and equip greater engagement
within both our rural and urban congregations. I was encouraged to read “Hope for all
Creation” from the House of Bishops and would love to see this impact our local churches.
I have been encouraged to see the way in which General Synod has been prophetic in its
leadership of Net Zero Carbon and I have been an active member of the Leicester Diocese
Net Zero Carbon Steering Committee helping to reduce energy - saving money and carbon.
Despite the Net Zero Carbon target being unrealistic, I am keen to encourage General Synod
to support parishes to make significant changes to their buildings and communities and to
care for all that God has made, enabling it to flourish and give Him glory.

Church Planting and Fresh Expressions of Church
I am currently employed as a Lay Church-Planting Pioneer as part of the Resourcing Church
project at Belgrave St Peter’s. We are based in a deprived, city estate and have developed
community within and around the local C of E Primary school through engaging, family
based services. These accessible services have introduced people to Jesus with some coming
to faith. We also serve the local community by facilitating a local food bank and running a
community cupboard (making surplus food from supermarkets available to those in need.)
As the facilitator of the OWL (Outdoor Worship Leicestershire) Network, I develop and equip
lay leaders who run outdoor expressions of church. These reach into the 95% of people who
do not normally connect with faith. I lead a monthly Forest Church celebration which allows
people of all ages to worship God within a woodland and to explore creation as part of their
worship.
I feel that my experiences will be valuable as General Synod explores lay leadership and
future church growth; sustainability of church plants and small worshipping communities;
and wrestles with how this impacts on our engagement with the sacraments.
Safeguarding
I have been heart-broken to see the failures of systems within the Church of England in
dealing with safeguarding issues over the past 50 years. However, I feel that the church is
moving forwards in terms of accountability, procedures and training. Personally, I have
appreciated working with the Diocesan Safeguarding Officers with various situations linked
to the church plant I lead, and I have been impressed by the rigour with which they deal
with each case.
I am encouraged with the discussions around independent scrutiny and governance
arrangements to ensure fair and robust practises and I look forward to aiding the
establishment of a reliable safeguarding system which is fit for purpose.

My heart and desire is to follow Jesus and follow where he leads. I long to see the body of
Christ flourish and reveal the Gospel to all creation, welcoming all people with grace and
truth. I love the diversity of the Church of England and am keen to see all expressions of
church finding a home, including lay-led worshipping communities and society parishes. I
uphold and support the inherited Church of England teaching on marriage, and I desire to
see all areas of the church open and welcome to all.
Thank you for considering me to be your representative on General Synod. I look forward to
serving you well.

Please feel free to contact me:
[email protected]

accountability,church growth,church plant,church planting,church plants,creation care,discipleship,eco church,environmental,food bank,fresh expressions,gospel,house of bishops,marriage,mission,missional,net zero,safeguarding