General Synod Election Candidates 2026

General Synod Election Address 2026
Noah Hawkett

Mobile: 07368541494
Email: [email protected]

Proposed by: Dr Julie Maxwell, Basingstoke
Deanery
Seconded by: Philippa Aslet, Basingstoke
Deanery

Hi! I’m Noah, I’m 22 years old and I am a member of Christ Church, Chineham,
Basingstoke. I sit on my Church's PCC and Deanery Synod and I love opportunities to
represent and advocate for my fellow Christians particularly in the Church of England.

As well as serving my local church, I’m also a Software Engineer. I’ve had two roles as a
Software Engineer/Web developer, and before that I was a Helpdesk Engineer - which is
essentially tech-support service. Between all of that, at some point I worked at Pizza Hut - so
in the secular world I’ve always been involved in serving others!

I used to go to Christ Church, Chineham as a small child with my grandparents, though I
stopped going around the age of 7. However I came back to faith and I returned back to my
grandparents' Church. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to preach a few times at Christ
Church under the oversight of my Vicar and I’ve also had the opportunity to work with young
people. What I love about the community at Christ Church is how welcoming and loving
everyone is - we are a Church family and support each other in and outside the church which
is one of the values which unites all of us in the Church of England.

My relationship with God is most felt, I feel, when I'm in quiet prayer and reading the Bible.
The reverence and peace of liturgy forms a large part of my devotional life, especially using
the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Jesus has helped me tremendously with my anxiety;

before knowing Jesus I wouldn't leave the house unless it was essential, but His love and
grace has worked wonders in my life, for which I am ever grateful.

My priorities for Synod:
If elected to the House of Laity of General Synod, I would first andforemost prioritise grace,
mercy and truth because, simply, this is what Christ would have us do. The Church of
England is at its best when it lives out the love of Jesus Christ and we must not forget this.
Further to this, I firmly believe that several topics deserve the special attention of the next
quinquennium of General Synod:
-​
Parish funding - Local parishes across our Diocese urgently need extra and
accessible routes for funding. In my own Church, we had some issues with our boiler
since it was very old and resulted in no heating for about 5 months. While we were
able to fix the issue, not every church is so lucky and not just in regards to heating but
also church buildings, especially church roofs. Too many of our Churches struggle to
afford maintenance costs and I would advocate for Synod for increased financial
support for parish Churches, especially those with places of worship which are
non-listed buildings.
-​
Youth strategy - As a young adult in the Church of England I feel very strongly about
contributing to the national debate in our Church about how to reach people in my
generation. Most young adults and teenagers are not raised even nominally Christian,
let alone Anglican, in modern day England and the Church of England's evangelistic
strategies for bringing in young people must take this into account. I will push for the
Church of England at a national and Diocesean level to provide support for parish
churches to help them reach the unchurched and unreached, particularly young
people.
-​
Support for parish choirs - One of many effective evangelistic tools is a brilliant
church choir, not only because it attracts people who like quality singing to the
congregation, but also because, as many non religious people also enjoy singing in a
choir, many priests find themselves quite literally preaching to the choir! While the
Church of England has reached many via the Fresh Expressions project, national
evangelistic strategies must consider substantial support for traditional parish choirs.
-​
Supporting stipendiary Clergy - Since the year 2000 there's been an over 30%
reduction in the number of stipendiary clergy posts in our Diocese. I firmly believe
this is not the right way forward and that the only way to reverse decline in church
attendance is to increase funding for stipendiary clergy posts. This is something which
the Church of England nationally must provide support for. In time, more ministers
means more preaching of the Gospel and more people coming into our churches, God
will provide financially for us through those who are reached who will otherwise not
be.

Please do consider voting for me as your first preference choice for the House of Laity.
Thank you very much for your consideration!

Noah Hawkett

NHawkett

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