ai,bullying,crime,finance,gender identity,gospel,lgbtq,ordination,ordination of women,pcc,project spire,sexuality

Election address for application for General Synod 2026-31

Name: Morgan Llewellyn-MacDuff
Nominator: Susan Dyke
Seconder: Gwilym Stone
Email: [email protected]
Lay Candidate for General Synod
Winchester Diocese
Bournemouth Deanery

Why choose me for General Synod?
I have spent a significant portion of my life in church, attending regularly since I
was 3 days old (20 years). As I grew up, I became increasingly involved. I
volunteered at my parish church during covid, assisting with the risk
management and joining the PCC when I was 16, as well as becoming a regular
server. I also learned and played the organ in church until chronic pain forced me
to stop. As a scholar at a church school, I was admitted to the foundation of
Rochester Cathedral which gained me valuable experience of wider church
structures and rooted me in Cathedral life. I have therefore not only a deep
experience of Church, but a wide one as well, stretching from rural to town
centre to cathedral.
I moved to Bournemouth when I was 18 to start a technology apprenticeship with
JPMorgan Chase, currently the largest bank in the world, while studying remotely
at Exeter University. By working and studying simultaneously I have
demonstrated that I can balance multiple high-pressure priorities while still
performing well. I am currently worshiping at St Andrew’s Boscombe where I
hope to become as involved in church life as I was in Rochester.
Although my membership of the Church runs deep in my sense of self, I have
nevertheless already witnessed exclusion and bullying, and, indeed, experienced
it myself. I am therefore strongly motivated by a push for inclusion. For me, an
important thread of the gospel that we bring is the call to welcome the outcast
and the disenfranchised. It is the gap between that call and my experience in and
of the Church that is driving me to stand for General Synod.
Therefore, should you elect me to represent you at General Synod, I would vote
to encourage the Church of England to act meaningfully to root out exclusion in
the Church – whether the exclusion demonstrates itself in the field of education,
social standing, race, sex, sexuality or gender identity.

If elected I will:
• Use my knowledge as a technologist to assist General Synod as it seeks to
equip the church in a world where new technologies, particularly AI, are
affecting jobs and human dignity as well as fragmenting and polarising our
communities.
• Push for the integration of the General Synod paper 2449 "Promoting unity
in our Nation" into our wider policies on race, class and education. In
particular, I will speak to encourage the investment commitment of Project
Spire into communities affected by the transatlantic slave trade.
• Vote to keep the church active in its work against its own polarisation. We
must speak out against the rising hate crime in this country. The Church of
England represents a major institution in this country so in our
conversations on gender and sexuality we must recognise the weight of
what we say.
• Campaign to root out exclusion in the Church. It is time we fully recognise
the ordination of women - without tolerating the intolerance against their
vocation. It is time we stopped turning away from the LGBTQ+ community
and welcomed them fully into our churches.
I bring to synod:
• Extensive experience in large scale technology, useful not only for synod
work on the implications of the information revolution, but providing
extensive problem solving and systems testing practice.
• Experience in advocacy, including volunteering at my school’s Gender and
Sexuality Alliance and tutoring for the 11+ exams, for local underprivileged
children. This affects my perspective, but also means I am effective at
representing people and bridging between policy makers and grass roots.
• As a young, disabled person, I represent 2 demographics whose
perspective General Synod has declared itself short of.
I have systems in place to ensure that my chronic pain
will not interfere with my duties if elected.
• Experience making high-stakes ($300,000+ a year),
real-world decisions. I believe this will be useful for
debates involving matters of finance and could be
useful for relevant working groups for Synod.
I sincerely hope you vote for me for General Synod. Inclusion
starts with us.
“Silence in the face
of evil is itself evil:
God will not hold us
guiltless. Not to
speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act.”
~ Dietrich
Bonhoeffer