General Synod Election Candidates 2026

Nicholas Brent

I live in Much Hadham Hertfordshire where I have
worshiped at St. Andrew's for nearly 30 years. I have been
on the PCC for much of that time and have been a
Churchwarden for four and a half years. In that time I have:
helped to steer the parish through an interregnum;
overseen the replacement of a large part of the Church roof
(with non-traditional material) including obtaining a Faculty
and planning permission, and helped to commission and
fund (by grant and subscription) a life-size sculpture of Saint Andrew for our
Churchyard (again including obtaining a Faculty and planning permission). I have
just been elected to our Deanery Synod.
I am retired and before that spent 44 years as a practising commercial solicitor in
the city of London.

My experience of dealing with the diocese during the interregnum brought home to
me the threat to the future of small parishes (some with large parish share
requirements): the possible future imposition of a part-time rather than a full-time
priest; being made part of an expanded benefice and so on. At about the same time,
I became aware of the work of Save the Parish so joined that organisation and I am
one of the Hertfordshire representatives.

If elected I will concentrate on these areas:

1. Ensuring that much more of the income from the Church Commissioners’

investments (currently valued at £11.6 billion) finds its way to frontline parish
ministry. Currently only 8% of the Commissioners’ annual distribution is ring -
fenced for that purpose.

1. A more balanced workload for parish priests. Far too many report: depression

( 29%); loneliness (40%) and hardly any (only 3.9%) consider they are well
managed. Last year more priests resigned than retired. Plainly this needs to
be rectified and that can be done by:
– not cutting stipend posts in order to balance budgets;
– stopping the use of managerial metrics more suited to the world of
commerce; and
– limiting the number of manageable parishes (to 5 possibly?) which can
be put into one benefice.

1. Trying to rebalance expenditure between dioceses and parishes. Dioceses

employ on average one member of staff for three and a half parish clergy. In
the charity sector overall the ratio of what one might call head office staff to
front line staff is one to eight. Staffing structures should move towards that sort
of ratio by 2031 with the resultant savings used to bolster the work of mission
in the parishes (not least by a reduction in the parish share).

1. The position of Churchwarden needs to be made less onerous and time-

consuming. Many Churchwardens (in some parishes increasingly there is one
only) would retire/resign if they could find someone to take over. It is
increasingly difficult to find people to stand for the post. I will campaign for the
removal of two internal and procedural compliance rules for each new one
imposed (apart from those to do with safeguarding). Legal requirements are
one thing; diocesan "wish lists "quite another. Vacancies must if it all possible
be time limited. The longer the period without a full-time priest, the more
attendance, and hence giving, falls .

My list, above, forms part of the Save the Parish manifesto (you can read the whole
document at www.savetheparish.com). Save the Parish has already achieved some
successes and gained momentum. In the last five years we have: changed the
nature of the debate around the parish and its future; stopped the first draft of the
Mission and Pastoral Measure (the law covering closures, mergers and the
dispossession of priests); built a coalition that amended the National Church
Governance Measure to restore in law priority for the parish; won a substantial
increase in Lowest Income Community Funding and persuaded Synod to
commission a complete review of how the Church is funded, the findings of which
will be debated early in the new Synod .

As to other "headline "matters, I am in favour of ecumenism (our church is one of a
small handful of mediaeval churches with formal sharing agreements in place with
the local Roman Catholic congregation). I also want to ensure the continued use of
the Book of Common Prayer.

I am not in favour of: Project Spire; the headlong rush to net zero and " Living in
Love and Faith ".

If these points chime with you, please give me your first or at least a high preference
vote.

I'm happy to discuss any of this so please feel free to make contact. My email
address is [email protected]. 

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