General Synod Election Candidates 2026

I am currently the Rector of the Wye benefice where I have been very happy since I arrived in 2010
and, until recently, I thought that I would probably be here until I retired. However, in March I
received a strong call to the vacant Trinity Benefice in Folkestone and, that call having been affirmed
by the relevant people, I am due to be inducted as vicar there in October. So, I am both excited about
a new and very different challenge and pleased to be staying in the diocese.
I originally decided to stand for synod because, as the proud father of a lesbian daughter and
someone who has campaigned for greater equality and inclusion in the church since my ordination in
2005, I wanted to do my bit to try and resolve the current impasse on the issue of same-sex
marriage.
I know that there are strong feelings on both sides of this debate but I really don’t see why we can’t
resolve it by adopting the same sort of policy that we have with regard to remarriage of divorcees i.e.
those who want to do it, can and no-one can stop them; those that don’t, don’t have to and no-one
can make them!
I suspect that this is where we will end up eventually but, as I said, I would like to help make this
happen as soon as possible because our inability to bless same-sex couples or allow LGBT priests to
marry, negatively impacts a lot of people and, as our former Archbishop Justin said, is catastrophic
for the witness and mission of the church.
Of course, people on the ‘other side’ see things differently but that’s precisely why I favour – and
would campaign for – an approach that acknowledges this reality and allows individuals to act in line
with their own conscience. Meanwhile, I try, as much as possible, not to think in terms of sides or
‘Them and Us’ at all and I do not fit neatly into a box or more to the point a ‘tribe’.
As I write, I am working on a project with a group of people – several of whom have radically
different views from mine on the issue of human sexuality – but who, like me, were deeply
concerned by the synod’s recent response to the Kairos 2 document which has caused distress to
many in the British Jewish community.
I am aware that saying that may alarm many of those who would be with me on equal marriage but
my whole point is that I judge each issue on its own merits rather than voting with my tribe and I
think that that’s a good thing; and what it means to be a catholic or broad church which seeks to
hold people together rather than splintering every time we disagree.

In the same way, I am broadly sympathetic to the Save The Parish movement. Certainly, I believe that
the vision of a flourishing church in every parish is what makes the Church of England the Church of
England and is worth preserving.
Of course, times have changed and we need to too. However, when people say ‘Insanity is repeating
the same mistakes and expecting different results’ in order to justify abandoning the parish system, I
find myself thinking that that warning could apply equally to whatever the latest well-intentioned
scheme is (who remembers the ‘Decade of Evangelism’ in the 90s?!)
For reasons I don’t fully understand, most Save The Parish people seem to be Telegraph or Spectator
readers and, while I have been featured in The Telegraph (in a piece called ‘The First Former Satanist
to Become A Vicar’ in 2003) and been a guest on the Spectator’s Holy Smoke religion podcast on a
couple of occasions, I more regularly read (and write for) The Guardian but, again, that simply
demonstrates my desire to engage with everybody and not demonise anybody.
My spiritual journey is similarly eclectic. I was brought up as a Roman Catholic. Then, after a few
years in the wilderness of, first, atheism and then New Age Paganism (not Satanism, whatever you
may read in the Telegraph!) I came back to faith in a Pentecostal church.
When that particular church went off the rails, I sought refuge in an HTB-style Anglican church which
is where I got married. My wife and I then joined a Baptist church when we moved from North to
South London.
No sooner had we settled there than the Lord, in His wisdom, called me into the Church of England –
which came as a shock to me because, at that time, I regarded the CofE as a ‘lukewarm church’.
However, I quickly found myself appreciating the breadth and freedom of it and, to the horror of my
Pentecostal and Baptist friends, became one of the dreaded ‘Liberals’ I would previously have railed
against. But I’m much happier now! And still ‘charismatic’ in my spirituality in that the most
important thing for me is being open to the voice and guidance of the Holy Spirit in the present not
just in the past.
So, that’s me. And if you’re kind enough to vote for me, I will endeavour to stand up for what I think
is right while seeking to treat everyone with respect and remembering that, as Rowan Williams said,
’Only the whole church knows the whole truth’.

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