General Synod Election Candidates 2026

Rev Canon Barney de Berry

Vicar St Mary Bredin (SMB),
Canterbury.

Representing the clergy of Canterbury Diocese on
General Synod since 2015 has been a great
privilege. I am standing again as I feel I continue
to have something to offer. As part of synod, I
haven’t been a prolific speech maker but I have
served for the last quinquennium on the Standing
Committee for the House of Clergy and more
recently as a member of the Diocese Commission both of which have given me a chance to
advocate for the parishes and clergy of Canterbury Diocese particularly in the areas of clergy
welfare and conduct.

About Barney
I have been part of Canterbury Diocese for over 16 years, becoming Vicar of St Mary Bredin
(SMB) in 2010, having previously served in Cambridge and Derby. I love being the vicar of
SMB but even more I love being part of the family of God at SMB. Since 2019 I have also
been the chaplain to Kent County Cricket club which has given me an insight into the great
benefits and opportunities of chaplaincy.
I am married to Ruth who is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at the William Harvey Hospital
in Ashford, and we have three boys (19,17 & 14). This means I am fully aware of the pressures
that many in our congregations’ face in our busy and demanding society and the need for our
churches to support and encourage them in their day-to-day ministry rather than to add to those
demands. We love living in East Kent, it is our home and I tell everyone I know what a great
place it is to live and minister in. I also grew up in a vicarage as my Dad was a vicar in a number
of inner-city parishes. In my spare time I love watching sport particularly cycling, rugby and
cricket and whenever I get the opportunity I like to jump on my bike and ride up a hill.

Priorities
There are some really important issues facing Synod in the next five years, these include:
Continuing to respond to the climate crisis, to continue to advocate for racial justice in all that
we do and have done and to continue the difficult but vital discussions around human sexuality
and the gospel. But there are also a number of areas that I feel drawn to be particularly involved
in and feel I have something particular to contribute:

Growing the church: The greatest blessing we can be to someone else is to introduce them
to Jesus as someone once did for us, so they too might receive his grace, mercy and salvation.
This mission to witness to Jesus and lead others to him should be at the forefront of all we do
as a church. We live in a time of great spiritual hunger with the younger generations rejecting
the secular humanism of their parents and so there is a great opportunity for us as a church to
proclaim the message of the good news of Jesus, being confident that this good news answers
the most profound searching and satisfies our deepest desires. I will continue to advocate that

the Good News should be at the heart of and the motivation for all that we do and each one of
us in our various settings and parishes are given every opportunity and resource to witness to
this great good news and point people to Jesus.

Growing Younger: At St Mary Bredin are very blessed as a church to have people from
every age and stage of life and over the years have seen growth
among 0-18s & 18–30-year olds. To illustrate this every few years
at one of our All-Age services we do something called age bingo
where we cross off as many ages from 0 – 100 as we can. As you
can see from the picture, we are very blessed to have so many
different generations present. Sadly, many of these age groups are
missing from many of our churches and the mission to them I
believe needs to be the church’s number one priority. My call to
stand for synod has always included a strong call to advocate for these age groups both in and
outside of the church, and to challenge the church in its mission to these generations.

Growing vocations: I believe in the parish system but simply diverting money there won’t
save the parish as the church is facing a crisis of vocations. There are simply not enough clergy
at the moment resulting in the current clergy being asked to shoulder more and more, simply
to keep the show on the road. It has been a great privilege of mine to send many people forward
for ordination, a number of whom still minister in the diocese and so I will continue if elected
to push to make addressing this crisis a priority for the national church.

Growing clergy wellbeing: As an elected member of the Standing Committee for the
House of Clergy at General Synod I have been involved in work around clergy welfare. I
believe that being a vicar is the best calling but that doesn’t always mean it is the easiest job.
Of course, we all understand that with any calling there is cost but the church also has a
responsibility to care for those who it calls. We have made some progress in recent years with
the rise in stipends and the pension reforms but many clergy are still be asked to carry too much
I would continue to advocate for clergy so that we can say it is the best job as well as the best
calling.

Growing confidence in the Gospel: A question I often challenge myself with is,
thinking back to my conversion, ‘Would I have been led to the Lord through my current
ministry?’ If no I must challenge myself why because although we might present it afresh in
each generation the gospel remains the same. As a church we need to regain confidence in the
gospel and the word of God and rather than be embarrassed that it is so counter to the message
of the secular world, to embrace that difference. In their spiritual hunger the younger
generations don’t want a Christianised version of the secular message that they are rejecting,
they are seeking something radically different and the gospel is that, being the very words of
eternal life.

If you did feel you could vote for me then I would be very grateful and if not your first
preference could I ask you to consider putting me down as your second or third preference.

Please feel free to contact me about any of this.
Rev Barney de Berry St Mary Bredin, 59 Nunnery Fields, Canterbury, CT1 3JN.
Tel: 01227 453777 email: [email protected]

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