The Governing Body of the Church in Wales met in April and September 2024. The spring session was held once again at the International Conference Centre in Newport, and the September session returned to the Lampeter campus of the University of Wales, Trinity St David, for the first time since 2018.
The April session included a ‘Sacred Synod’ during Evening Prayer at Newport Cathedral confirming the appointment of the Right Reverend David Morris as Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Bangor. Following an amendment to the Constitution of the Church in Wales in April 2023, the Diocesan Bishops of the Church in Wales assigned a titular See (the See of Bardsey) to the Assistant Bishopric. Bishop Morris becomes the first Assistant Bishop in the Province to hold a titular See since Thomas Lloyd, who served as Bishop of Maenan (an Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Asaph) from 1928 to 1935.
April
In his April Presidential Address, the Archbishop of Wales focused on an upcoming summit, ‘Restoring Welsh Rivers’, to be hosted by the Church in Wales in November 2024. Whilst emphasising that the Church in Wales is not called to be an NGO or an arm of Government, he strongly asserted the Church’s right and compulsion to speak out on secular issues where it believes something is out of place. The Presidential Address was followed by a presentation the following day on the crisis facing Wales’s rivers and waterways.
The Archbishop also spoke of the need to learn from one another across the Province as the system of Mission/Ministry Areas (a revised parochial structure of teams of clergy and lay ministers serving a number of churches together) beds in across Wales.
Monmouth Review Implementation Group
The work of the Monmouth Review Implementation Group was formally brought to an end at the April session. The Group had been established to monitor implementation of the recommendations contained in a Review report chaired by Bishop Graham James, former Bishop of Norwich. The Bishop of Monmouth noted, however, the ongoing need and challenge to pay careful attention to the culture of the Church in Wales, and to ensure that the positive progress in implementing culture change was maintained beyond the lifetime of the Implementation Group.
Daily with God
The Bishop of St Asaph formally marked the launch of Daily with God, a daily prayer manual for private prayer and devotion, including short forms of morning, evening and night prayer, and a weekly lectionary.
Constitutional amendments
Minor constitutional amendments were made to the powers of bishops to appoint Honorary Lay Cathedral Canons and to the holding of the Archbishop’s Registrar’s List (a list of clergy who are subject to formal ecclesiastical discipline, or have relinquished their Orders). Debate on a Private Members motion relating to clergy wellbeing was cut short by a procedural motion, but the issue returned with a revised motion in the September session.
September
At Lampeter in September, the Governing Body was honoured to host Bishop Anthony Poggo, Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council. Bishop Poggo preached at the opening Eucharist and addressed the Governing Body on the following day, followed by a question and answer session. He spoke of the current priorities in the work of the Anglican Communion Office, including peace-building and advocacy for Anglican Churches in areas of conflict around the world.
The Archbishop’s Presidential address focused on the phrase ‘Better Together’, speaking both of the Church in Wales’s relationship with the Anglican Communion and how models of traditional parochial and pioneering ministry co-exist within Wales. This new model, said Archbishop John, demonstrated a Church better placed and shaped to reach out creatively in loving service and in Christ Jesus.
Conversion therapy
In response to a question, the Bishop of St Asaph confirmed on behalf of the Bench of Bishops their opposition to conversion therapy in all its forms and announced that the Bishops were undertaking a review of its 2002 statement on human sexuality.
Church Growth Fund
The Provincial Secretary responded to a question regarding spending from the Province’s Church Growth Fund, a £100m ten-year fund offering both small grants to individual Ministry Areas and larger grants to Dioceses.
Clergy terms and conditions
A proposal, based on a Private Member’s motion in April, to extend the clergy’s rights to time off duties returned and was passed unanimously. The Church in Wales Clergy Terms of Service were amended to give clergy an additional Sunday off in Christmastide and Eastertide, and to ensure that a continuous 48-hour rest period is taken once a month.
Faculty jurisdiction
The first part of Professor Norman Doe’s two-part report on the faculty jurisdiction of the Church in Wales was presented by the Chair of the Standing Committee. Part 1 of the Report considered in methodical detail whether the Church in Wales should seek to continue to benefit from the Ecclesiastical Exemption from Listed Building Control. The Governing Body endorsed Professor Doe’s recommendation that the Church should seek to retain the exemption. Part 2 of the Report will consider changes to the Faculty process itself, and will return to the floor of Governing Body in 2025.
Methods of working
The meeting concluded with a self-reflective debate in small groups about the Governing Body’s methods of working and frequency of meetings. Further reports and discussion of ways of working will follow, but the Governing Body also agreed dates for its biannual meetings to up and including 2030.
