General Synod Election Candidates 2026

Peter Barrett
Standing for the House of Laity in the General Synod
Nominated by Professor Helen King, General Synod member
Seconded by Julie Dziegiel, Vice-Chair, Oxford Board of Finance and General Synod
member
Why am I standing?
I am standing for re-election to General Synod, having served my first
term (2021-26). I’ve a very good understanding of how the church of
England works – at all levels. On General Synod, I’ve promoted LGBT+
equality, racial justice, safeguarding and the environment, as well as the
role of AI. Here are some background details and the topics I would
support, if re-elected.
My church and town
• I’ve been a member of All Saints church in Wokingham (Berkshire) since 1996, a PCC member for 17
years, a Sonning Deanery Synod member for 14 years and a member of the Diocesan Synod for eight
years, including three years on Bishop’s Council. I’m an authorised preacher, intercessor, communion
server and lead two bible study groups (Mark, Acts). All Saints is a Silver eco-church and a member of
Inclusive Church.
• I’ve been chair of the Wokingham Christian Aid group for the last decade, working with the churches in
our town to raise funds for the poorest people on the planet.
My background
• I’ve worked in all sorts of church settings over the years, including charismatic, Anglo-Catholic,
evangelical and liberal and worked with other denominations too.
• In the 80s/90s I was a board member of the Greenbelt Arts festival and worked on a number of
committees (helping with their retail business, writing for their magazine, interviewing bands, setting
up their web site and giving the odd seminar). I’m still a regular attender.
• I’ve worked in sales and marketing for global technology companies for the last 20+ years, including AI.
I worked with the Bishop of Oxford (Dr Steven Croft) on The Future of Work motion at the last General
Synod and spoke on the role of AI.
• I’ve helped launch brands as well as work on some large IT deals (my biggest was a five year global deal
for a billion dollars – which we won). I did a stint of management consulting, mainly strategy and
marketing, for eight years, mostly in Europe and Asia.
• I’ve been a supporter of Everton FC since I was a boy (I lived about a mile
away from their ground for most of my childhood).
• I’m an active supporter of the YMCA and was on the board of Action for
Children, a youth homelessness charity.
• I write and perform poetry, play guitar and review contemporary music
for The Church Times.
• I’ve just finished my first year of an MA in Christian Spirituality at Sarum
College.
I’m the Oxford contact for the Together for the Church of England, who are
committed to equality in the church regardless of disability, economic
power, ethnicity, gender, mental health, neurodiversity or sexuality.

My areas of interest
These are the topics I want to promote. I believe in building bridges with people who have very different views
from myself and have tried to do so over the last five years, with varying levels of success! I would genuinely
welcome the opportunity to discuss these topics with you.
I hope this gives you a reasonable picture of who I am and why I am putting myself forward.
If you want to contact me I would be very happy to hear from you:
[email protected] Thank you for reading this. I hope you will give me your first
preference vote.
LGBTQIA+
I want the Church of England to be a safe place
for my LGBTQIA+ sisters and brothers, a place
where they can use their gifts and where they
can be valued, respected and loved and given
positions of leadership in the life of the church.
I am a believer in same-sex marriage and I
don’t see this as inconsistent with scripture. It
has saddened me immensely the way the
Church of England has treated this group over
many years. We now have blessings for same-
sex couples and we all agreed to get rid of the
Issues in Human Sexuality document. Although
the Living in Love and Faith project is finished,
we now have the Relationships, Sexuality and
Gender working group to ensure this work
continues.
Race
If you don’t think the church of England is still
institutionally racist, then you should listen to
the objections to Project Spire that come up in
every Synod question session (Project Spire is a
charity set up by the church of England to put
£100 million towards reparations for chattel
slavery). We set up a Racial Justice Board but
progress has been ‘glacial’ (to quote from one
of their reports) and funding has been reduced
for the next phase of work. The Board has now
finished its work and is disbanded. Here’s one
example of what they found: UKME/GMH
applicants are much less likely to be appointed
to clergy posts compared to White applicants
(2024 report). Racial justice needs to be a key
priority for the next agenda of the Synod.
Climate
Although the Church of England won’t hit Net Zero by
2030, we’re a lot further ahead than if we’d gone for 2050!
We still need to disinvest from banks who are investing in
fossil fuel companies (as many denominations are already
doing). Again, you’d be surprised that some Synod
members think climate change is simply not happening,
despite the scientific evidence and our own experience
here in the UK. We are stewards of creation and
responsible to our children and grand-children for the way
we look after our fragile blue planet. There is no Plan B.
Safeguarding
There’s been a lot of good work done in this area, but there
are still significant steps ahead as we move to an
independent safeguarding model (which is not a simple
thing, given we have 42 dioceses to move into it!). The
shock of the Makin review on John Smyth is still
reverberating around the Synod and new evidence keeps
coming to light of yet more victims of abuse by church
leaders (e.g., Jonathan Fletcher, Mike Pilavachi, Chris
Brain). The church struggles with complex goals and needs
good project management experience to get to an
independent model quickly. Having led large complex
assignments in my business career, I can help.

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