One complaint from the progressive wing of the Anglican Church is that the Diocese of Sydney has inflated its delegate numbers on the General Synod (national church parliament), manipulating the system. The system allocates delegates based on the number of ordained clergy. – the whisper is that Sydney encourages church staff to be ordained
For example, Melbourne Layman Colin Reilly wrote in The Melbourne Anglican in 2022 “It could be said that the constitutional formula, with its emphasis on the ability to pay clergy, favours the better off dioceses. If places were allocated according to the number of Anglican dioceses as measured by the census, Sydney would have 47 members (19 per cent), Melbourne would have 29 members, and the rural dioceses 58.”
But Anglicans are not evenly distributed. Melbourne, for example, has less than half of the numbers of Anglicans attending church as Sydney, despite the two cities being about the same size.
After progressives lost their majority on General Synod in 2022, Journalist Muriel Porter told the readers of the Conversation of “Sydney Diocese’s huge representation on the synod following a couple of decades of what is often referred to as “branch stacking” within church circles.” The Other Cheek understands that what Porter referred to was a suggestion that Sydney encourages church staff to be ordained. But the numbers employed by local churches is a reflection of how many people attend.
But there is a way of checking Sydney’s proportion of Australian Anglicans because Sunday Attendance figures are available.
According to the NCLS publication Australian Church Pulse Check 2020-2024, the 2024 Anglican weekly attendance was 118,000
According to The Sydney Anglican year book 2024 to 2025 , 2024 Weekly Average Service Attendence was 50671. (Both figures are like-for-like and include under-18s.)
Sydney had 42.9 per cent of the Anglican Church of Australia’s Sunday attendance.
Comparing this to the General Synod delegate numbers: There are currently 236 members of General Synod, 73 from Sydney. This means Sydney has 30.9 per cent of the delegates.
It is arguable that Sydney is underrepresented at General Synod if membership were proportional to how many go to church.
If church planting moves as planned in Melbourne succeed, then Sydney’s dominance will reduce with each new church.
Correction to the date
Image: Moore College Principal Mark Thompson addresses General Synod
Correction to the date of Muriel Porter’s 2022 article.
John, I still cannot understand why the Sydney Diocese is allowed this level of influence by an almost monetisation of the congregation numbers as a reason to dominate. Surely a fairer solution could be found by only including individual church congregations instead of Dioceses? Would that not be more representative of the Australian Anglican family. First up, how many individual congregations – then, how to provide each with an equal voice to others in national debate instead of the current Diocesan model.
Andrew, the GS formula is based on how many ordained clergy are employed, which is a rough approximation of how many people are in church. The Sydney Synod runs on your suggested basis, with each Parish (not congregation) having two lay reps and their senior minister on the Synod. In rural dioceses you might have five or six churches served by one minister. (Example https://ballaratanglican.org.au/parishes/) I would think that doing it by church building/congregation would be too much of a gerrymander, but by Parish might work.