This year the Church of Ireland General Synod took place in the home of the Metropolitan in Dublin, Christchurch Cathedral. In the more recent past Synod has used the facilities of one of the city's major hotels, facilities which a cathedral could not and would not claim to match. However, the cathedral had in the past been used for many different purposes during its near 1,000-year history and it provided for the Synod an atmosphere wholly unlike any secular conference. One could argue, as did the Dean, that when the Synod is meeting in Dublin Christchurch is its rightful home.
There was one area in which the use of Christchurch enjoyed a major and significant advantage over the larger hotels. It was a whole lot cheaper; and it was not long before it was brought home to members just how important the associated saving was.
PENSION FUND
The first and the only major piece of legislation to be brought forward related to the Pension Fund, which as of September 2009 showed a significant actuarial deficit related to the Minimum Funding Standard under the relevant legislation. To address this deficit a funding proposal was brought forward for presentation to the authorities. This sought to spread the pain over the existing pensioners, central Church funds, serving clergy and the parishes. The proposals involved a significant injection of capital from central funds over a five-year period, coupled with a rise in contributions to 30 per cent of ‘pensionable stipend’, split between clergy and parishes. ‘Pensionable stipend’ is not the same thing as ‘minimum approved stipend’, although fixed for this year at the same level. The Bill defined ‘pensionable stipend’ as ‘the figure approved annually by the General Synod on the recommendation of the trustee and the representative body having regard to the financial status of the fund and having received actuarial advice and shall not be a figure lower than that for the previous year’. It can be seen that pensionable stipend and minimum approved stipend may diverge. Provision was also made, in the event of the deficit not being wholly dealt with, for a rise in contributions to a total of 34 per cent in 2014 if necessary.
There is no denying that the clergy pension scheme, one of the surviving final salary schemes, is expensive. However, maintaining it has, over more recent years, been regarded as a high priority. It may be that this is due to a sense of collective gratitude for the liberality of the original pensionable and serving clergy at the time of disestablishment, whose generosity, by way of commutation of their pensions, provided the fledgling Church of Ireland with the greater part of its central capital. The Synod, for whatever reason, concluded that the pain of the increased contributions was worth the gain of the fund's continued solvency and the legislation was duly passed.
OTHER LEGISLATION
Apart from two Bills, one to reorder a number of parishes grouped with the National Cathedral of St Patrick in Dublin and another to reorganise the board of St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast, there were no other Bills to be considered by the Synod. Both these Bills were duly passed. There was one resolution for the introduction of a Special Bill next year which will require to be passed by a two-thirds majority of each order. This resolution proposed to introduce a Bill to provide, in the Book of Common Prayer, for a prayer for Northern Ireland and specifically for its Assembly and Executive. At present provision is made for prayers for the Queen (in Northern Ireland) and for the President and the Dáil (in the Republic of Ireland). The resolution was duly passed with the necessary majorities.
The Synod also approved guidance documents for use by Select Vestries or equivalent bodies who will be obliged to register as charities under the new charities legislation. Consideration had been give, centrally, to the possibility of registering as a single entity or on a diocesan basis but it was ultimately decided that registration at parish level was preferable. The Synod also commended the existing Green Charter which had been adopted by the Diocese of Cashel and Ossory and a proposed Code is to be presented in 2011 with a view to its possible endorsement.
ECUMENISM AND THE COVENANT
Another important piece of business flagged up for next year arose out of the report of the working group of the interchangeability of ministry between the Methodist Church and the Church of Ireland. The working group has been able to discern personal, communal and collegial episcope in both denominations and has accepted that all three expressions of episcope are essential to the polities of both traditions. If further progress is to be made with regard to bringing about the full interchangeability of ministry, as envisaged in the Covenant between the two Churches, some legislation will be necessary. Full proposals are to be brought forward to the General Synod and to the Methodist Conference in 2011. This has to be a significant, perhaps defining, stage in realising the aspirations expressed in the Covenant between the two Churches.
The Synod also considered, without much comment, the final text of the Anglican Covenant. This has been referred to the Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue by the Standing Committee with a view to recommendations being brought to the General Synod 2011 as to what the appropriate action may be in relation to the Covenant. With the Methodist Covenant and the Anglican Covenant to deal with, 2011 looks like an interesting year.
