General Synod Election Candidates 2026

General Synod Elections 2026
Rev’d Canon Vincent Whitworth
Election Address

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Having just completed a full term of serving on
General Synod representing our Diocese, I would like
to take this opportunity to share with you why I
would like to stand again for Synod and continue to
serve you in this way.

My Background
I am currently Team Vicar of St Andrew’s Over
Hulton (Deane Team) and Vicar of St Bede, Bolton-
Le-Moor in Bolton where I have served since 2012. I
have significant experience in education, through
school governance, and I currently hold a number of
governance roles both as a governor in an LA school
and governance roles within a MAT context.
I am also a trustee of a local Christian charity;
Create Bolton, which uses the arts to bring people together and form a safe place for
people to explore faith.
Throughout my ministry in the Diocese of Manchester, I have always been significantly
involved in the wider life of our Diocese; serving as Area Dean of Bolton (2015-19) and
Area Dean of Deane (2019-21) and serving as Bolton Archdeaconry Reader Chaplain
(2014-19). I have also served as a member of Diocesan Synod over many years.

I am actively involved in supporting the ongoing work of the Places Project, a renowned
national church funded project which seeks to equip the local church in Bolton to reach
out to children and young people and help them on their discipleship journey. I also
currently serve as a member of the ‘Growing Younger’ Board as we pursue our
Diocesan (and national) vision to grow younger across the whole Diocese, utilising the
significant funding we have received from the national church.

My significant experience of ministry in both local parish contexts and ministry across
the broader Diocese and wider church has equipped and enabled me as a former
General Synod member over the last 5 years to share important insights in national
conversations at General Synod and represent you, our Diocesan family here in
Manchester, and I hope if I am elected again I can continue to serve you in this way
and ensure that the Diocese of Manchester has a voice at General Synod.

Why am I standing again for General Synod?
Here are some of my priorities that I would like to push for if I am elected to General
Synod this year.

I have a real heart for mission and evangelism, and I long to see more people across
our nation come to know Jesus and for our communities to be transformed by the
Gospel. I believe our local churches here in our Diocese and across our nation are
integral to the mission and evangelism of the church and making disciples. As such; it
is vital that we ensure local churches are properly resourced, in terms of clergy, lay
leadership and support. If elected I will continue to campaign for national spending
plans to be used to support the local church.

It is also important that the national church continues to invest in resourcing mission
and evangelism in areas of poverty, particularly in many northern towns and cities such
as exist in our own Diocese here in Manchester, and if elected I will continue to support
LinC funding which is vital to us in Manchester.

Alongside resourcing the local church, I also believe we need to reimagine our approach
to vocations nationally across the C of E. Declining clergy numbers mean that
increasingly even if parishes are able to appoint a new incumbent, they cannot find
candidates to appoint. How do we equip and raise up new leaders, both lay and
ordained, across the church? I believe we need a new conversation at a national level
around vocations and setting all God’s people free.

Taking into account my own experience and ministry amongst children and young
people, I have been encouraged by the steps we as a church have made in recent years
to grow younger and enable children and young people to have a voice in the wider
church. If elected, I would continue to support this work within the church, and seek
to share what we are doing here in Manchester as I think we have much here in our
Diocese that the national church could learn from as we seek to be a younger church.

One issue that continues to dominate discussions in the national church is the ongoing
debates around human sexuality and relationships. Whilst I continue to support and
uphold the church’s current traditional position on marriage and relationships, I think it
is vital that whatever our viewpoint on this issue is, that we continue to listen to one
another and work together to find a way where all feel loved and welcome in the
church. Whatever our differences, we need to ensure we work together in unity and
pray for guidance as we seek to move forward as a church.

Please do contact me if you wish to have a further conversation with me and I would
be grateful if you could give me your 1st vote in the election.

Yours in Christ

Vinny

Rev’d Canon Vincent Whitworth
St Andrews House, Crescent Avenue, Over Hulton, Bolton, BL5 1EN
Tel: (01204) 658921

E-mail: [email protected]

Proposed by: Rev’d Nicola Butterworth (Team Rector: Horwich and Rivington Team)
Seconded by: Rev’d Alan Saunders (Vicar, St Peters Halliwell)

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