General Synod Election Candidates 2026

D r Vivi an H a LL Standing for the House of Laity (Truro) on General Synod

About me

lam aregular and committed member of the congregation of St Nonna’s, Altarnun, in
the benefice of the Three Rivers, in the Deanery of Trigg Major, as well as a former PCC
member and churchwarden of the same. | am an independent historian and a graduate
of the universities of Oxford, Exeter, and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. | am
also an active member and former committee member of the Prayer Book Society here
in Cornwall, alongside being a former licensed Lay Worship Leader. It has been my
privilege to serve you on General Synod for the last five years and to experience the
variety of churchmanship, backgrounds and people who make up the Synod body. The
discussions have often been lively, and | should expect future discussions to replicate
this. | believe we must always value integrity, and not the tyranny of the current
orthodoxy and | champion the three Anglican guiding principles of Scripture, Tradition
and Reason. While on General Synod | have taken an active part in the discussions,
which have been a dramatic Christian contrast to my experience of local government.

A Rural Representative

As a member of Synod, | have represented the often-neglected rural parts of our church
and, if re-elected, | should do so again. | have consistently voted to promote the voice of
the rural parish in meetings of the whole Synod, but also spoken at the Rural Affairs
group, and the Environment group. Likewise, | have taken an active part in liaising with a
variety of fringe meetings including the Churches Conservation Trust, and the Church
Commissioners. | am a countryman born and bred, and it is vital that rural voices are
heard both at a diocesan level and at the centre. We must encourage our small
parishes, and | know that with only three lay Synod representatives for over 300
churches in the diocese this can be tough. On key issues like Parish Share, | realise that
many local clergy and congregations struggle to meet demands and too often there
appears to be a ‘tin-ear’ or worse to these concerns at the centre.

The traditional parish is not a failed model as some suggest, but a key part of the future
of our mission: | assert that the real work of the Church is done at this local level. It is
not through red tape that God’s word is promoted, but through personal contacts
showing forth His love in our communities. | believe that the parish system is a central
element of Anglicanism, especially in rural areas such as our own. Our church buildings
are a prized inheritance; not as museum-pieces, but as hymns to the greatness and love
of Almighty God amid our populations. It is mistaken to suppose that congregations
should travel miles across country to worship at churches more convenient for the
administration than for themselves. We must inspire congregations and increase
numbers, not view them as flexible assets. Money should support parish ministry and
not be diverted to well-intentioned, but often short-term, extra-parochial models.

A liturgy grounded in tradition alongside modernity

| believe the Book of Common Prayer epitomises Anglican worship and remains what
has been called the official doctrinal standard of the Church of England. | should wish
to extend the opportunity of using the Prayer Book for as many parishes as possible.

The Future Quinquennium

We must not allow power to be stripped any more from local congregations and PCCs.
The Church is the people of God - it is not just the bishops, the bureaucracies, or the
administrators. We do not need forced, top-down cuts; we need active, supportive
deaneries and dioceses which facilitate the worship and mission of God’s people in
Cornwall and the parishes should be given the means to operate effectively, freed from
fears of either over-regulation or competition for resources. Nor should we cap the
numbers of clergy just because an area is largely rural or difficult to serve.

| believe we should be focusing our resources (particularly the Strategic Development
Fund), on proclaiming the Gospel, administering the sacraments, and sustaining and
supporting our clergy and congregations, and not indulging in what can too often be
seen by the parishioner as expensive virtue-signalling projects to appease fashionable
metropolitan opinion, a view often expressed to me. Above all we must seek to bring
Anglicans together unafraid to face outward to confront the rampant secularism of
much of modern social discourse and present a Christian message that renews and
transforms the lives of those who hear it. If re-elected, | should seek to represent the
Cornish Anglican in the pews and fight for your needs at Synod. My five priorities for the
next quinquennium would be:

e To engage with and adjust the National Church Governance Measure which the
Ecclesiastical Committee has asked us to revise and in so doing fight for a
Parish-centred approach to governance and administration;

e To fight to avoid novel schemes which aim for short-term headlines over
traditional parish ministry, in all areas. This includes championing the
importance of evidence-based research and the focus of low-income parish
ministry in the direction of funding at all levels;

e To ensure that better funding for our hard-pressed clergy’s well-being is
implemented, including a rise in stipends and pensions improvements;

e To promote, pray for, and restore Christian communities in peril abroad, amid an
ever more dangerous world; and, last, but not least,

e To uphold Biblical truth on life, marriage and death. This is particularly true with
the current government’s ongoing determination to reintroduce the so-called
Assisted Dying Bill. | for one cannot think it right for us to support the current bill.

If you wish to contact me, | should be delighted to answer your questions. Please email
[email protected] and put ‘General Synod Election Query’ in the subject line.

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