Having just been privileged to attend the Abbey service to see the successor to St Peter (hence the Rock) praying at the tomb of St Augustine, I came down to earth with a succession of local church meetings and headed for the General Synod hustings this weekend. The hustings were the hard place. Why? Every 5 years we put ourselves up for election and go through the mill of preparing an election address, obtaining a proposer and seconder and then "meeting the electorate". Well, I don't know how it was for you but this was my experience this year. Nine of the Eleven lay candidates for 5 places attended as did 8 voters and the "chauffeur" of one of the candidates. So, altogether with the Dean of Wells as a Chairman and the Diocesan Returning officer to ensure fair play there were 20 people present. There are about 1200 electors across the diocese. Was it worth it? I trust you know that I don't major on cynicism. I actually found it valuable for me and for the other candidates but for different reasons.
My main benefit was that I got to see the whites of the eyes of the other candidates and was able to observe them. But for the others, 7 new to the electoral process, got their first taste of having to promote themselves in public. And I felt that they all acquitted themselves well. This would be a great test of whether they were up for it. One person said beforehand that they didn't realise they had to give a speech and that they might as well pack up and go home straight away, but in the end performed very well. So the hustings were not as hard for any of us as they could have been in terms of the hustings themselves.
However, the really hard bit is that one puts oneself through them and to practically no avail. The electors who didn't present themselves will only be influenced by the address – those at the hustings would only influence a small circle of other voters at best. My opinion is that we need to do something to make the election to General Synod a more vibrant affair.
Still there are some positive pointers to be taken from the 2010 experience. At least one candidate was influenced by the letter sent out by the Bishop encouraging people to stand. As this was the Open Synod Group's leaflet topped and tailed by the Bishop, I took a lot of joy from that.
The other good thing was an innovation that the Diocese put together to make a virtual hustings. Every voter was able to ask questions on line that were fed to candidates with an invitation to respond within 24 hours.
The answers were then put onto the website for all electors to see. I was impressed.
As I write this there is still over a fortnight to the count. When you are reading this the results will be known and it may be that you are surprised by the results. Whatever has happened – welcome to the new synod and I hope 5 years of further surprises.
Tim Hind : Chair,OSG
