Technology will play a part in elections from the diocese to General Synod this September. For the first time, should elections be required, instead of the normal pre-election meetings to listen to candidates views, known as ‘hustings’, this year there will be ‘virtual hustings’. Candidates will be given the opportunity to say what they stand for and their views on issues via the internet.
Presiding officer, Ashley Ellis, said, “We have thought very carefully about how to encourage as many people as possible to be involved in the General Synod elections and we have decided to adopt an innovative approach to holding hustings, should it be needed, by creating an online hustings event.”
Nominations are being sought across the country from every diocese for a new five year term of General Synod which normally meets three times a year in London or York. The General Synod is the national assembly of the Church of England, commonly referred to as the Church's Parliament. It considers and approves legislation affecting the whole of the Church of England, authorises new forms of worship, debates matters of religious and public interest, and approves the annual budget for the work of the Church at national level.
Find out more:
https://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/structure/general-synod/about-general-synod.aspx
The Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales will elect a total of ten clergy and nine laity to the new General Synod, the highest representation of any diocese in the country except London.
Elections, and hustings, will be held in this Diocese in the event of more candidates being nominated than there are places. Candidates can be nominated for either lay or clergy places on General Synod anytime between now and September 4th. Nomination papers have now been issued and are available on request from the Presiding Officer, Ashley Ellis by emailing elections@westyorkshiredales.anglican.org
Clergy in the diocese vote for clergy candidates, while lay members of deanery synod vote for lay candidates – although those nominated for the House of Laity needn’t be members of a deanery synod or PCC.
The election timetable:
4 September – Nominations close.
17 September - 9 October Copies of candidates’ election addresses on the website.
18 September – Voting papers go out.
19th - 24th September, 2015
Questions for the candidates can be submitted during this period via the diocesan website using a question web-form. The question web-form will contain a tick-box allowing people to direct the question to all the candidates for the Proctors in Convocation, all the candidates for the House of Laity, or both – depending on which election(s) are taking place.
25th September, 2015, Morning
The Presiding Officer will choose the questions to be presented to the candidates.
25th September, 2015, Afternoon - 29th September, 2015
Candidates will be sent login details by email for special accounts which allow them to access the questions and complete a form for each answer. These answers will have a word limit attached to them. Candidates will have until midnight on 29th September, 2015 to submit their answers.
30th September, 2015 - 9th October 2015
Questions and answers from all the candidates will be available on the website. This will give voters one week in which to read the answers, before posting their ballot papers in time for the closing date of 9th October, 2015.
9 October, 12 noon – Voting closes
For more information contact elections@westyorkshiredales.anglican.org.
(Picture courtesy of Keith Blundy)