Unity is a big thing for Anglicans – about a third of candidates in the current elections prioritising it in their addresses. The problem is there is no agreement as to where that unity is to be found – and thus any call for ‘unity’ ends up excluding those who take a different approach.
This was seen very clearly in a different vote – which took place this week at the North Lambeth Deanery Synod.
The North Lambeth Deanery is diverse, gentrified and home to the ‘nones’. Stretching south from the Thames, it includes Waterloo and parts of Lambeth, Kennington, Clapham and Brixton. It is made up of twenty churches and eighteen benefices, served by twenty-eight clergy. It is also where two key figures in the battle over the future of the Church of England reside. Revd Dr Bączyk-Bell, a trustee of the liberal grouping Together for the Church of England, is based at St John the Divine, Kennington and Revd Jago Wynne, a director of The Alliance, is the vicar of Holy Trinity, Clapham.
Not only that, neither man holds his theological position in isolation. The Revd Dr Bączyk-Bell is joined in the deanery by Revd Giles Goddard, Revd Sally Hitchiner and a number of others who serve in ‘Inclusive Churches’. While on the orthodox side, Holy Trinity alone has three curates and a self-supporting minister and there are at least two other churches in the deanery which would describe themselves as evangelical. This would suggest the make-up of the deanery synod offers an informed testing ground for controversial topics.
Turning to the events of this week, when [the] Revd Dr Bączyk-Bell placed a long and complicated motion before the deanery synod.
Nothing much ever changes with the revisionist approach in the @churchofengland- ‘unity’ means everyone accepting that truth is plural i.e. everyone being revisionist. Really good from @AnglicanFutures https://t.co/igRcXa1f7J
— Dan Leafe (@DanLeafe1) October 9, 2026
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