16 October 2026

“Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”     Matthew 18. 20

Probably misquoting – and from memory – and certainly adding my own spin and spittle – I remember Rowan Williams once saying that the Church is ‘that bunch of women and men who have been so impacted by the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that – and by the power of the out pouring and indwelling Spirit – they have formed a community around him, and living by his values and following in his way, they are seeking to change the world.’ 

And, yes, I know that bishops – and archbishops – and synods and elected synod delegates, clergy and laity, carry heavy responsibilities for the governance, safeguarding, good ordering and well-being of the institution, the organisation, of the Church, but at every synod, and whenever we meet to weigh and discuss these heavy responsibilities, I believe it is wise to remember that first of all the Church is not an organisation, but a community. And at that, a community created by the living and dying and rising of Jesus, a community that is reconstituted and literally remembered around this table every time we celebrate the Eucharist, and a community charged with a mission, to share with other others the good things we see and receive in Jesus. And, yes, to change the world. Though our manner of changing the world is always going to be one heart at a time.

Admittedly, over the centuries – and from very small and precarious middle eastern beginnings – we have become a very large community; the gospel having been carried – sometimes in the teeth of terrible persecution and sometimes stymied by our own terrible failings – to every corner of the world. And even though in some parts of the world today the Church struggles (and taken that growth is always erratic and unpredictable), in others it is flourishing. But everywhere we offer the world a different narrative of what it means to be human and how we might inhabit the earth. It is a narrative our world urgently needs at the moment. 

Therefore, as we are a large community, we require effective and trustworthy organisation. 

We need good governance, good safeguarding, sound financial management, HR, and all the rest of it. It is vital. It is vital, and our mission is imperilled without it. 

But it is in order to serve a larger purpose: to enable the flourishing of that bunch of women and men who have been so impacted by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that they have formed a community around him. They are following him, are trying to live his way, and are seeking to change the world. 

And whether that bunch of men and women is simply two or three, or whether it is thousands, what makes us the church is that Jesus Christ is in the midst of us. Jesus is the one who calls us. Jesus is the one who feeds us with his own life in the sacraments of the Church, calling, cajoling and commissioning us afresh through the words of scripture. Jesus is the only interesting thing about the church and Jesus is in this synod and around this table, feeding and blessing us in his name.

So, as you go about our business in this synod, please remember what your business is for. Remember that these heavy responsibilities – even says Jesus that what we bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Let us seek to find and learn the mind of Christ. It is his church, not ours. Let us seek the consensus and agreement that comes when we come to Jesus, agreement even across our difficult divisions. 

Therefore, as your Synod is about to meet tomorrow, what else can I possibly say to you, but the consoling words that Paul wrote to the Colossians which we heard in our first reading: ‘Beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, weakness, and patience. Bear with one another. Forgive each other, just as the Lord has forgiven you. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, for it is this which binds everything together in perfect harmony… Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.’

Where two or three are gathered together. The tiniest little gathering of the Church in the most difficult and pressing circumstances. Or this synod. Jesus is among us. We are the Community, the Body, the people who have been formed by him to be his presence in and for our world: for this province, this diocese and the parishes where you serve.

At the moment, our precarious world shifts nervously from foot to foot on the precipice of disaster, disaster brought about by our own intemperate greed, the rapidly accelerating impact of climate change, the strutting tyrants who walk rough shot over international law and the norms and protocols that had been so hard won. Across our world we see again horror, sadness and confusion, actual conflict and the threat of more. What our world needs are the good things that we see and receive in Jesus Christ, which is also why it is for me, as your guest, so good to see that as well as business tomorrow, you are discussing, for instance, the potential impact of AI, food relief, the needs of refugees and asylum seekers, reconciliation, support for the persecuted church, and introducing the new festival of Creation in Christ. These are the things we need in order to be faithful to Jesus. 

And since we are that bunch of men and women that have been formed by his dying and rising, and since we are trying to follow in his way, may indeed his peace rule in our hearts. May your decisions at this synod be for the good ordering of the Church, enabling the Church in all its many manifestations to flourish, and may the Church in this great diocese, province, and nation be one in Christ for the single purpose that the world may believe, and that Christ’s kingdom may come in earth.