With drugs, money, heresy trials, prison sentencing and domestic violence on our agenda you could be forgiven for thinking the Church of England was obsessed by sex money and violence. Perish the thought. But there were also Christmas stamps, marriage law, liturgy, trade justice, mission partners et al…

We had an interruption in the Sunday service in York Minster by Fathers 4 Justice. Following damage to the Minster and tackles in the aisle, the leader was allowed to speak. He spoke humbly, asked for forgiveness for interrupting the service, but pleaded his cause. After that they went away (but stayed on the roof) and we had an uplifting service.

In several matters on the Agenda, Synod was asked to give a "steer" as to which way a Working Party should proceed. This felt like being involved in policy making rather than being presented with drafted legislation as more or less a fait accompli.

We received an interim report on proposed changes in Church Marriage Law. The Government are in the process of changing the law relating to civil formalities and the Church is working alongside this. Synod had to decide to what extent to change our strict rules entitling a person to marriage in a particular church. The current rules state that a person must be resident in the parish or be on the electoral roll (have worshipped there for at least 6 months). Our choice in Synod was whether to change to entitlement to marriage in any church, or to marriage in a church with which a person has a "demonstrable connection" (another set of rules!). Synod chose the latter by a small majority and the Working Party will now draft legislation.

We debated a Private Members Motion on whether we should retain pay differentials for church "dignitaries". This was hotly contested (not by all the dignitaries). The point is that a stipend is a maintenance payment for a calling by God to His service rather than remuneration according to merit and responsibility. We voted to retain the differentials.

A sudden gap of 15 minutes was available just before Monday lunchtime. We passed a motion requesting the Royal Mail to issue Christmas stamps with Christian themes every year - at 10 minutes, possibly the shortest debate on record!

We debated an annual report by the Archbishops' Council which sets out the amazing amount of work involved in running the Church and its various Councils. We passed the Budget for 2005 amounting to £32,667,663 of which £24,840,115 is to be raised from the Dioceses. This includes 5 figures: Training for ministry, National Church responsibilities, Grants, Mission Agency pension contributions (transferred from the Church Commissioners) and CHARM (Church's Housing Assistance for the Retired Ministry). The amount to be raised from the Chester Diocese is £812,542, 3.27% of the total.

Dr Keith Clements, General Secretary of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) addressed Synod. CEC is a regional fellowship of 126 Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, and Old Catholic Churches. It was founded in 1959 and together with the Roman Catholic Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE) the 2 organisations represent the vast majority of mainstream churches in Europe. Synod's debate opened up what is going on between the Churches in Europe and encouraged us to develop a European consciousness of belonging together. It was said that Europe is a very elusive concept. We tend to think of Europe as its institutions but in fact it is the people first and the Institutions second. In our debate attempts to involve the politics of Europe and its proposed Constitution were thrown out and the motion among other things endorsed the stated aims and avenues of opportunity set out in our report as a framework for developing the Churches' common witness and mission in Europe.

As always at Synod I was aware of the involvement of members of Synod in ministry in other ways. This was highlighted when a lady Chair of debate was congratulated on being commissioned as an Officer in the Church Army, and one of the legal team (there is always one on duty during debate) had been ordained deacon. Also we often have speeches from our representatives from other Churches.

We had a debate on Domestic Violence. This is recognised as a crime by the Home Office and the police. We had a heartfelt speech from a lady who had been emotionally abused by her clergy father and subsequently by her husband. We called for national guidelines to be issued by the Archbishops' Council for those with pastoral care responsibilities as to the appropriate relationship with both victims and perpetrators and urged Dioceses to work in partnership with other agencies. It was stressed that we are talking about people including children in our schools and Sunday schools. Domestic Violence is no respecter of class or any other barriers - a dreadful problem that must not be ignored.

The Archbishop of York gave an exposition of Scripture to Synod on Jesus calming the storm. He spoke about times when we are overwhelmed by problems, either individually or as a Church, or as a nation - a time to rest in Jesus to receive His love and be renewed and refreshed.

There are 2 groups trying to make Synod more effective, and also to make it more user friendly. As part of this debate we discussed whether we should use the electronic voting system being installed at Church House, London. This would save time, although there is something very proactive about the procedure of voting by Houses - having to get up out of our seats (sometimes a relief!) and walk through the appropriate door. We agreed various ways of streamlining debates (limit on number of amendments to a motion, and on length of speeches). There is also documentation being prepared for publication.

The process of church legislation can be long and complicated starting with Reports and Reviews, but eventually legislation arrives at Synod. The process of reducing the size of Synod and making other changes to the synodical system started with the Bridge report in 1993. Last year we agreed General Synod should be reduced in number from 581 to 462. At this Synod we passed the final stage of the legislation. The numbers will be as follows: 44 Diocesan Bishops, 7 Suffragan Bishops and the Bishop of Dover, 5 Cathedral Deans, Armed Services: 3 clergy and 3 laity, 1 Dean from the Channel Islands, 2 lay religious, 2 ordained religious, 6 University reps, Chaplain-General of Prisons, 1st and 2nd Church Estates Commissioners,184 elected clergy, 187 elected laity and 14 specified others. The number of elected laity from Chester Diocese is expected to reduce to 7 from 11. A new electoral roll will be made in churches in 2007, a year early to enable a better flow of elections to the various Synods. The age limit for election to PCC is reduced from 18 to 16. Retired clergy can now be on Deanery Synods and elected to General Synod. Notice of PCC meetings can be given by e-mail (not by text!).

A matter given considerable attention by the media was the debate on an interim report from the House of Bishops on Clergy Discipline (Doctrine). When I first joined Synod in 2000 the Clergy Discipline Measure was just completing approval by Synod. This relates to discipline of clergy for bad behaviour. It had been decided to separate bad behaviour from bad doctrine (heresy!). Both will replace the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963 which is outdated and potentially very expensive. It has never been used, but the process could have been started by only 6 members of a Church's Electoral Roll, and a trial would involve secular Judges. The proposed new system could be started by a Churchwarden with the support of 2/3 of the laity of the PCC, or someone acting on behalf of 10% of the House of Clergy or House of Laity of Diocesan Synod. In the debate there were objections that there should be a higher threshold for starting off the process, too much power for the Bishops who decides (in consultation with a panel of theological experts) whether or not a Doctrinal Disciplinary Tribunal should go ahead… The question is whether the system is workable and would it serve the integrity or credibility of the Church. In the end on a vote by Houses the motion was narrowly defeated in the House of Clergy.

Much attention was given to the issue of Trade Justice. As well as the Synod debate, I went to a fringe meeting addressed by Dr Daleep Mukarji, the Director of Christian Aid. 2005 will be an important year. A G8 Summit will be held in Edinburgh in June, Great Britain will be President of the EU from June to December, and there is also a strong possibility of a General Election. - a lot of lobbying to be done. The Government is sympathetic to this issue and on Monday announced they would increase the Foreign Aid budget by 9.2%. But Foreign Aid is only of limited use - it is issues of trade that are most helpful. Ghana produces cocoa beans and there is a 3% European import tariff. If the cocoa is made into chocolate in Ghana the import tariff can be as high as 27%. We were assured that postcards and lobbying of politicians are very effective. This is a global issue in which we are all involved. The principal aim is to eradicate poverty.

We also debated "Rethinking Sentencing" - a report about the current debate on sentencing in the criminal justice system. Does prison actually "work" in terms of rehabilitation of the offender and reduction of re-offending. England currently has a prison population of 76,000 which is growing. The emphasis has to be on Restorative Justice for both the offender and the victim. The Church gives a huge amount of voluntary assistance in this area. It is too easy to respond to the instant reaction to lock up offenders, particularly for short periods. There has to be some chance of working with the offender. There are problems of mental health and also the impact on women and children. The Judiciary were accused of too readily sending offenders to prison. This was contested by a Crown Court Judge - he said it is a last resort and there is judicial support for restorative justice. This was a heartfelt debate with people involved from many perspectives. The purpose of punishment is to prevent or limit re-offending. We had some very moving stories. The motion was carried unanimously.

Other debates included Alternative sources of funding for married ordinands, Mission Agencies, the Church Commissioners' annual report, Drug misuse, and new liturgy.

Security was very tight at the University central hall where we had our meetings. We have to wear our Synod passes the whole time. I was amused one morning to see the Archbishop of Canterbury being challenged to produce his pass, by a security guard who did not know him!

As you can see this was a very varied and interesting Agenda - as always focussed on God and His Church.

Our Alpha Course will again run on Wednesday evenings, beginning on 14 January 2004, and will include a day session on Saturday 28 February. This time, we're opening the course to any interested adults - existing church members, baptism parents, marriage couples, those considering confirmation, anyone! We've all got questions to ask! Please consider it for yourself, or suggest it to a friend.