Election Results!
I am very pleased to be able to send you details of our election results, now that the various different dioceses and constituencies have been accounted for. The headline news is that 77 candidates who stood for Save the Parish and signed up as supporters of our manifesto were elected. On top of that an increasing number of candidates from both houses have been in contact to tell us that they will support us in Synod, even though they didn’t stand with us. This will probably take our number over 90, and possibly over 100.
As I am an electoral nerd, I thought I would share with you some of the highlights of our electoral analysis.
The exciting news is that we won 50% of the seats or more in the House of Laity in Blackburn, Exeter, Manchester, Oxford, Peterborough, Rochester, and St Alban’s. We won 50% of the seats from the Universities and Theological Education Institutions. In Salisbury we won over 50% in both Houses of Clergy and Laity.
Overall we did considerably better among the Laity than among the Clergy (56 seats as opposed to 21), which partially reflects considerably fewer clergy being willing to stand with us.
The fact that the elections use the Single Transferable Vote means that the way in which electors vote, and the order in which they vote, matters. In certain dioceses it was clear that electors followed the STP list quite well, in others there seemed to be no overlap. This will, of course, reflect the fact that people are voting on multiple issues (including, but not limited to, questions related to sexuality, net-zero, project spire) and those may take priority when voting down a list. The diversity of opinion within Save the Parish regarding these issues is a great strength in the Synod itself, but a weakness on the ballot paper…
Congratulations, therefore, to all those who stood with us and won. Thank you to those who stood and were not successful. I’m very sorry that we couldn’t bring the whole team with us – I know how much time and effort goes into preparing statements and speaking at hustings.
You can find the full results of the election here, if you want to know who won in your diocese or constituency. I hope we will now be able to advance the cause in General Synod itself!
Rev’d Marcus Walker,
Chairman of Save The Parish
