General Synod Election Candidates 2026

In 2025 The West Lindsey Churches Festival very kindly allowed me to add 14 North Lincolnshire
churches as a test. The experiment was a success and the festival had more visitors, the churches
made more money and the festival had more incredible volunteers. We added 14 further churches
this year together with our first churches in North East Lincolnshire and it will be a record setting
year. We have had requests from Lincoln churches to churches near the Humber all asking to join in
1.

This has given me an incredible opportunity to see just how different our churches are from very
small churches to the cathedral of the Wolds. In each of the churches there are people doing
amazing things with a drive and passion, however the one thing that is so clear is the lack of clergy
and the incredible pressure they are under to look after additional rural parishes.
With this in mind I joined our Deanery Synod and Save the Parish have said I can stand in this
election on their manifesto.
Save the Parish is a grassroots movement working to resource the parish system across the nation,
ensuring the poorest communities are not abandoned, and that dioceses and the national church
have, at their core, the call to put their parishes first. Their Mission is to sustain a thriving, cradle-to-
grave, parish system with well trained clergy providing regular worship, pastoral care, and
sacraments, fully embedded in and serving their local communities.
Save the Parish in the next Synod
Parish
1 Restore Church Commissioner’s funds to their founding purpose: stipendiary parish ministry
2 Direct the parish share to mission and the cure of souls.
Priest
3 Adopt a Charter of Care that values our clergy and guards them from mental and physical
exhaustion.
4 Renew rich theological resourcing for theological education which is ordinand-centred not budget-
centred.
People
5 Adopt a ‘Churchgoers’ Chater’ that honours the volunteers who hold our parishes together.
6 Reform the Mission and Pastoral Measure
If you support me, I will commit to supporting Save the Parish in the next Synod.
Thank you.
With all best wishes,
Paul

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