Diocesan Synod – March 21st 2026
Brothers and sisters, today in the Church’s calendar we mark the day we remember Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died a martyr’s death on this day in 1556. 470 years later we are about to see the installation of the first woman as Archbishop of Canterbury. Archbishop Sarah will need our prayers for all she faces in taking on this challenging role of leadership at a time when our world feels very vulnerable. I shall be joining other women across the Anglican Communion to pray for her on the morning of the service, and leading prayers for her. Please can I invite you to join in prayer for her too and for each of us as we share in the work of the Gospel.
Prayer is such a necessity for us as we face the challenges ahead. It is only with God’s strength that we can face the future before us. We meet today at a time when our world is feeling anxious and concerned about what is to come. The geopolitical situation is such that fear of difference threatens those in power and shapes responses of anger, and war feels increasingly close. Near to home UKIP plans a march today from the Met Cathedral in Liverpool, claiming Jesus as their inspiration. Church leaders have joined together to refute the message of division and to remind us of the call to love both God and our neighbour as ourselves. (click here to read the joint CTMR statement)
Yesterday, myself and other Church leaders, met with some of our MPs and shared our concerns about how we need to come together to work for a better future. We shared with them the Manifesto of Hope which Churches Together across Liverpool and Merseyside have published to mark the 40th anniversary of the Faith in the City report. (Click here to read about the 40th anniversary of Faith in the City). This outlines some of the challenges we face as a society and pledges a desire to work together to combat them. Many of your churches will already be engaged in serving your community in ways which contribute to the commitments made in the Manifesto. We would love to hear more of your stories giving evidence of this as we seek to really put into action the hopes we share for the 1.6 million who live within our diocese.
Hope was a theme of my address at our last Synod and it continues to be the foundation of the Christian message we have to share with a world that needs to hear that there is hope. As we approach Easter we know that this is exactly what the Gospel is about. We have a gospel to proclaim that opens up the horizon, showing us there is life beyond death and a way to find God’s forgiveness, despite all those things that we recognise have separated us from His love. This is the good news of reconciling grace.
Reconciliation will be the theme of our Chrism service at the beginning of Holy Week and I want to invite all of you who are able to come and join with other disciples across
the diocese to commit ourselves to play our part in the reconciling ministry of God’s grace.
It is a year since I joined you here in Liverpool and as we look back it has been a year of recovery. Recovery from the events surrounding the departure of Bishops John and Bev and the subsequent Charity Commission review. It has also been a year of hard work as we have sought to move to a more secure financial position, where we have resources to invest in a new future. I believe we now need to see this next year as an opportunity to move into a place where we begin to live out something of that reconciling grace of God, giving attention to deepening our fellowship and becoming more like the community that Paul invited the Colossian church to aspire to.
An important feature of such a community is to address the culture of our diocese and ensure that all of us and those whom we welcome, feel safe, valued and loved. I invited Bishop Jackie Searle to undertake a review of our culture and recommend ways in which we can become a community where each person’s wellbeing is enhanced. Thank you to those of you who participated. I have just received her report and will be discussing that with the Bishop’s Staff team on Monday and sharing the learning with you after Easter.
Today our focus is on safeguarding and we will be spending much of our time reflecting back on the past year as we discuss the report of our safeguarding team; and as we hear updates on the Charity Commission’s comments and the INEQE audit. We will have the opportunity to engage in some group work, and then to debate two motions which will bring focus to work that we need to do here within the diocese, and that which the Church of England as a whole, also needs to attend.
I am really grateful to Debbie Innes-Turnill who will be leading us in this work today. Debbie has joined the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisory Panel as the interim Chair. She brings huge experience and expertise, not least from chairing the Gloucester diocesan panel. In addition, I would like to thank our diocesan safeguarding team for all their hard work in case work, training, and in preparation for the INEQE audit. A vast task! Which brings me also to thanking you all, for the almost 1000 surveys completed across the diocese to give the auditors some understanding of what we have got right and what needs to improve. Thank you!!
We have already received some verbal headlines from the auditors which have recognised the progress being made and indicated the areas we need to address. Increasing the resource of our safeguarding team is part of that and you will be hearing more about that soon. But our diocesan safeguarding team based at St James’ House is only part of the picture. We could not do the work of safeguarding without all of the parish safeguarding officers who give their time, care and vigilance in helping us all to
play our part. So, a big ‘thank you’ to them and to each one of you. Safeguarding is the business of us all.
Today’s Old Testament reading from Daily Prayer is from Exodus and speaks of the encounter between Moses and Pharaoh in which Moses uses his staff to enact the power of God. Moses was someone who felt himself to be powerless when called by God to lead the people to leave the land of slavery and find a place where they were free to worship God. It was God who told Moses to use what he held in his hand, his staff.
As we meet today, I’m reminded of the very brief comments I made to you at the Synod this time last year. I shared with you the words on my pastoral staff, words from Micah 6:8, words that will be familiar with you.
‘What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’
There is much that makes us feel powerless today. The state of the world and nation. The challenges we face in seeking to keep people safe. The desire to share the reconciling love of Christ with all. Let us renew our hope by reminding ourselves of what we have in our own hands, the ability to act justly, to love with mercy and to ensure that walk closely and humbly with God.
+Ruth
