abuse,church commissioners,marriage,prayer,redress,safeguarding

General Synod, Sept 2026, Election address Andrew Robinson, Powder Deanery, Truro Diocese

13 Carvoza Rd, Truro TR1 1BA [email protected] 07543 656898

In the Church of England we are faced with change. The secularization of communal life and

falling attendance (in particular after the pandemic) have deprived us of income by, for instance,

the liberalisation of marriage, and the Church is no longer part of the system of governance of

the country as a whole.

The parish has for over 1,200 years been the principal nexus of how we organise
ourselves, but the parish as such is not mandated in the New Testament. Limited
resources, fewer members willing to serve as ordained, and less money, mean that we
must explore new ways of embodying the love of God, even though such change is
painful, uncertain, contested, and difficult. It will take time, and trial, to find a sustainable
way forward. Which is unlikely to include retention, no matter how much we might love
them, of all our beautiful buildings.

Itis entirely valid to acknowledge, address, and repent the institutional sin of the slave
trade. But the performative application by the Church Commissioners of our funds to
foreign projects is not the best way to do this.

Our history of abuse, silencing, and exploitation of vulnerable people is a scandal. But
this does not necessarily mean that we should devote ourselves to the development of
vast systems of safeguarding which become sclerotic and dysfunctional. | fear the
devising of systems so perfect that nobody needs to be good. We need to be confidential,
but this does not justify pathological secretiveness, which has led to and continues to
draw us into all kinds of abuses.

Fortunately, our Church is not a democracy.

But the model of ministry, whereby ordained individuals hold an office, and are not
employees as such, needs reform: to provide clear, public, and accountable avenues of
redress when questions are raised.

Why should the Church be the only profession in which career and reputation can be
ruined without the individual concerned having any right to know what it is they are
alleged to have said & done wrong?

Why should the Church be the only institution in which a temporary leader [here, A
Bishop] can claim that There is a Problem, but never state what the problem is;
commission a report, which is never published; and arbitrarily require compliance with
their conclusions, which are never justified.

How am | qualified to serve as a member of Synod? | am a trained listener. In my professional life
lam used to analysing evidence & argument, sorting the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from
the goats, and the nonsense from the good sense.

| am published in my profession (the law), and as a poet. | have the capacity, essential in my
profession, to see things from your point of view. How can you be persuaded, unless | have an
understanding of how you have reached your present conclusions? | am open to persuasion, by
evidence and argument. What | might devise, what | might desire is not a reliable guide except
when it fits with the wider vision, of which you might have a clearer perception than me. | don’t
need to be right, but | do need to be true.

In prayer my first action is to listen, What is the will of God for me, for us, in this situation? Please
give me the willingness and the strength needed to act within Your will. My constant prayer is,
God save me from people who know they are right. Including me. My own perspective is
incomplete, and might be false. Similarly, my own conscience.

My experience is that | discern and tell the truth, and people don't like it, and they don't (or won’t,
or choose not to) believe me, or have regard to the evidence | point to; they blame me, and tell
me lam wrong. And then, later, when it becomes apparent that the situation was in fact much as
| at first described it, the truth speaks for itself.

As for the public, interactive role of being a member of Synod, to seek to represent the Diocese
of Truro, all! can do is my best: To listen, to speak, to contribute my voice.

This is how | would represent the Diocese of Truro as a lay member of General Synod.