accountability,conservative,gospel,inclusive,pcc,prayer,young people,youth

General Synod
Election Address 2026
House of Laity

SIMON INGRAM
Email: [email protected];
Mobile: 07909 141325
BSc Aeronautical Engineering 1980.
Computer Consultant, last 20 years in Switzerland.
Retired 2018.
Worship at St Nicholas church, Ulceby, Diocese of Lincoln
since 2019.
PCC member and Deanery Synod representative since 2020.
Church Army, Volunteer since 2022.
Churchwarden, since 2024.
Foundation Governor at St Nicholas Church of England primary school 2026.
Proposer: Andrew Drummond Hunt. St Marks, Grimsby.
Seconder: Albert Bennett. Abbey Group.
Dear Elector,
I am writing to seek your vote to represent the Diocese of Lincoln in the House of Laity at
the General Synod.
The Church of England is an old institution and the current feeling seems to be that we
need to ‘revitalise’, to ‘engage’, to move with the times or be left behind! We need to pour
resources into youth, into governance and accountability. We need to pay up for past sins
and apologise. We need to be very nice to everyone, offer lots of cake and coffee, invite
them to our jumble sales, just like the Apostle Paul used to do.
In many areas of life, old white men, like myself, are being encouraged to step aside.
Male, pale and stale as they say. Being English, in a Church of England that wants and
needs to express its global and inclusive credentials, is a disadvantage and we definitely
do not want the Church to become a club, or worse, the Conservative Party at prayer
(Note: The Conservative Party used to pray). But the Church is not a humanly created
institution! We are the custodians of something eternal - a divine revelation. An
unchanging gospel that changes lives. More than this, as God’s people, we are called to
be a community no matter how difficult that is to achieve in practice. As a Christian it is
immaterial whether I am old or young, black or white, male or female. What we can say,
when speaking of identity and representation, is that a black woman will always
understand the issues facing black women; what we cannot say, is that a white man
cannot understand or empathise with these issues. The love of God is poured out and
what every oppressed person needs, is for those outside their circle to have this love,
even if he is an old white man.
So, what am I bringing to the party? A strong sense of dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction
sounds like a negative, but it is motivational. If you are upset enough, you are liable to do
something. But God has told us flatly: ‘without Me, you can do nothing’. God has a
formula for success - we preach the gospel, He makes it work. We do not try to engage
God in our activity, we must align ourselves with God’s activity! To see growth in the
Church, we need to make preaching the gospel the focus of what we do, and it has to
come from the top. My ironic mention of Saint Paul earlier may suggest that I am ‘having
a go’ at the lay members of the church, those who break their backs doing all the

General Synod
Election Address 2026
House of Laity
unglamorous community relations work that actually does, eventually, win converts. I am
not. What I am saying and believe with every fibre of my being, is that if we do things
God’s way, we will see revival in the Church of England.
It is the job of the clergy to equip the laity to be ministers. As laity, we need training, we
need to renew our minds with the Bible, we need to learn how to deal with hostile atheism
and total indifference. We need to learn how to share our faith and to pray. We need mid-
week meetings. We need bigger multi-church events to which we can bring our non-
Christian friends, we need special days of repentance, we need formal, advertised
services at which the gospel is presented and alter calls are made. The CofE evangelists
are out there, but do we give them a platform? I have to ask the question, are we
quenching The Spirit?
My personal Damascus road
I became a Christian as the result of arguing with atheists on various blogs and websites.
Although an atheist myself, I was playing ‘God’s advocate’ for the simple reason that I
could always find holes in what atheists had to say. But there are difficult questions to
answer. For example, how do we deal with Numbers Chapter 31 which, atheists argue,
endorses genocide and sexual slavery? Christians have to learn how to deal with such
claims or lose the social media debate. It was in confronting these issues that the walls of
my own atheism came tumbling down. Finally there was nowhere to go. I kneeled down
to pray, expecting nothing much (as usual). I had been a Christian years before, gave it
up, why would Jesus listen to me now? But He did. That was in 2018.
It is often said that new converts are over zealous and naive. I have been that convert
until I realised that God is playing a long game and that this world, with all it’s pain and
suffering, really is the arena in which He is working and winning. The CofE may seem to
some to be in decline, but look in the Bible; it’s always been like this! God is working and
looking for partners who will do the difficult thing: preach the gospel!
If elected…
If elected to the Synod, I will work, tirelessly, to promote a more gospel focused agenda.
Vicars need to encourage their hearers to respond to Christ, not just to listen and nod. I
will challenge them. The gospel is confrontational and we have to overcome our English
reticence! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Bishops spent more time among the small rural
congregations? I will (respectfully) suggest it. God would surely appreciate their humility
and sacrifice, the old people will certainly feel more loved. If we want to fill the church
with young people, we need to get the old people praying. We need to build the rural,
isolated churches into communities, connect the congregations, organise local events,
give Alpha and other courses and get the churches supporting each other. We have
started to do this in the Abbey Group in North Lincolnshire, we have no illusions that it will
be anything other than a long, hard slog. Of course, in banging the gospel drum I am not
unaware of the other issues facing the church. I will not neglect them.
It’s easy to say what we need to do, another thing entirely to deliver it. With your vote, I
will have a mandate to talk to those with influence, to build relationships and perhaps
friendships. I will seek to persuade and negotiate but only with the Holy Spirit can one
hope to stir up a holy fire. I dare to believe that if we take the gospel seriously, God will
take us seriously. So, give me your vote and dare to believe, with me, that revival is
coming.