General Synod 2025
The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church took place in St Paul’s and St George’s in Edinburgh on 5–7 June. We’ve chosen some of the highlights from the Scottish Episcopal Church’s daily reports, which you can currently access from the front page of its website.
On the first day, members of the Provincial Youth Committee (pictured above) outlined their hopes for Synod and highlighted the issues of importance to them, including gender justice, climate justice and financial justice. Sage Vause (fourth from right), one of the Diocese of Edinburgh’s youth reps, addressed the Synod on youth inclusion. View the SEC video about the Provincial Youth Committee session here and find out more about the first day’s events on this page.
On day two, Synod members gave overwhelming backing to a friendship agreement that articulates and supports a deepening relationship between the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Catholic Church in Scotland. This Declaration of Friendship will be known as the Saint Ninian Declaration.
The Most Rev Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh (pictured above), was present as the motion was debated, and warmly welcomed its acceptance: ‘My friends, thank you very much for agreeing to this Declaration of Friendship. I think it will bear fruit. It might be slow, it might be fast, but it gives an opportunity to all of us to put it before our people and to say that our two institutions have agreed to this – let’s see how we take this forward as friends together.’ Find out more about the Saint Ninian Declaration on the SEC website.
On the same day, Synod voted that Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell be included in the Scottish Calendar. Liddell was born in China in 1902 to Scottish missionary parents, and returned to the UK to attend school and university in Edinburgh. After his success on the Olympic running track he returned to China to teach the children of missionaries. He died in an internment camp in 1945 of a brain tumour.
Rev Nick Bowry, Rector of St James the Less, Penicuik and St Mungo’s, West Linton (pictured above), who nominated Liddell’s inclusion in the Calendar, said: ‘Liddell upheld Christian values and showed Christ’s love to all he encountered including his Japanese captors. His positive influence on so many people and his example as a Christian in the most dire of circumstances make him a worthy role model and someone I believe we should honour and remember.’
On the final day of Synod, members backed a motion which affirmed that transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex people should be accorded the same dignity, respect and rights as cisgender people, and can and should participate fully in the life, worship, mission and ministry of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
The motion was brought to Synod by the Rev Amy Jo Philip (pictured above) of St Catharine’s, Bo’ness in the Diocese of Edinburgh, who highlighted that trans+ people face higher rates of violence, personal crime and domestic abuse, and lower employment rates and pay, than cisgender people. She described the experience of trans+ people since the recent Supreme Court ruling that a woman is defined by biological sex under equality law, saying:
‘The SEC welcomes you. We are all familiar with this phrase. We all assent to it, we want to live it. Trans+ and intersex people are however fearful about where we are welcome. We always have been and we are even more so since the Supreme Court ruling. But God is love and there is no room for fear in love.
‘Are we welcome in the SEC? I know I am, personally, but are my trans siblings? And moreover, do they know it? This motion is about making that welcome clear.’
The motion was carried with 92 votes for, 12 against, and five abstentions. Find out more about the third day of the General Synod here.
Photo credits: The Scottish Episcopal Church
