Diocesan Synod Report

Our Diocesan Synod met on 10 March at Palmerston Place Church in Edinburgh (toasty warm unlike our own cathedral which was frosty cold!). What did we discuss?

1. Firstly we had a superb sermon by Bishop Brian on the reading of the day which was the Prodigal Son - or the parable of the 'Troubled Family' as he put it. You can guess who the family was.

2. Then we discussed the new Marriage Liturgy which is in its final stages of revision. One or two wee grumbles about the Ruth and Naomi prayer. Someone seemed to think it was unseemly to have a prayer about the relationship between two women in a wedding. (The theme is Journey) I don't happen to think it is unseemly at all. I like the Liturgy and in fact am using it with two couples at the moment who are about to be married. We like the choices available.

3. We had a report from my own Mission and Ministry Committee. Nancy announced that we now have enough congregations signed up to become a Fair Trade Diocese so that's good news. Michael reported on the current programmes in CMD 1-3 (my lot) and CMD 4+. There are some new events there to look out for. Elspeth reported on the Adventures in Faith programme which must surely be the best in the Province! And Ann proposed a new link with Diocese of Cape Coast Ghana. (It passed)

4. The Mothers Union gave a report. It is still around and not just for mothers either, apparently.

5. Elections for Synod members passed without any votes needed.

6. I asked who had the authority to make changes to Daily Prayer and the newly formatted 1982 Scottish Liturgy. (The Psalter in DP is on mid-blue paper which I can't read.) It would appear that I've to put it in writing to the Liturgy Committee.

7. The Rule 10 Motion from last Synod is to be discussed in Area Councils. We agreed that the Standing Committee should have other folk on it, not just Chairs of Boards who may have a vested interest in their own budgets. We had a good old discussion on Representation at General Synod and on how it could be worked out proportionally. (Poor old Argyll!)

8. Finance was almost exciting for a change with lovely pie-charts to look at and clear explanations. Some naughty folk are not paying their Quota but it seems that nothing can be done about that. (I have some ideas but I want to keep my job so I'll keep them to myself for now!)

9. We revised a few Canons but not in a major way. (We just added 'vulnerable adults' to some)

10. I'm afraid I missed the Synod Clerk's bit on Statistics as I was comparing my own to others at the time. (Interesting to see that we in St M's had just as many communicants making communion as one of the very large congregations). The Synod Clerk is also the Retreats Secretary and he made a plea for more folk to come. (In my case it was to do with the Retreat Leader this year.)

11. Sadly the Dean did not give us a laugh as usual with his report. Very sad and sorely missed.

And that was that. Quite a good Synod, I think. And I was proud to say that St M's was represented by the youngest Alternative Lay Rep (by about 50 years!)