The important work of (church) politics

Published in EFAC Essentials, 1 June 2026

In the mid 90s a group of lay and ordained members of EFAC Victoria decided to form a group to be called "The New Cranmer Society". Their intention was to work within the Melbourne Diocesan Synod process to uphold Biblical and orthodox teaching and practice and to encourage clergy and lay people to be mission-minded in reaching our world with the Good News about Jesus. The group was formed independently of EFAC as some members at the time were concerned about being engaged in political action rather than gospel promotion. Now 30 odd years on Andy Judd reflects on the purpose and effectiveness of this Melbourne organisation.

As a member of the New Cranmer Society, I'm often asked what the point of us is. Why do we need a group that meets together to organise around political goals? Some feel uncomfortable with the idea of political associations in principle, while others just don't see the need — now Melbourne has elected an evangelical Archbishop, what is there left for you to do?

These are great questions, because they get us to the heart of the difficult but vital work ahead for evangelicals who are committed to the renewal of the Anglican church.

Politics is not (necessarily) of the devil. Australians by default are cynical about politics and politicians. But "politics" is ultimately just the citizens — the "politai" — working out what to do. In the Old Testament, before there were empires and royal courts, the main political unit was the household, and the primary political space was the town gate. Here the elders (presbyters, in Greek translation) would speak on behalf of their families to resolve conflicts and decide how to respond to everything from a stubborn son (Dt 21:19), to an unusual marriage situation (Ruth 4) to what kind of hospitality to show some visiting angels (Ge 19:1). The alternate to politics is unaccountable exercise of power by a despot.

Whenever I am tempted to bemoan the messy necessity of politics, I really should be thanking God for the privilege of having a say in how our church is run.

We need lots of people with lots of different gifts to fill lots of different roles. Discerning gifts and appointing suitably qualified people to oversight roles is one of the most important things that a synod does. This is people-work, which means it is political work. Every year at synods across the country there are be ballots for dozens of key positions. These are all very important roles, which require an unlikely mix of character, competence and Anglican convictions.

For synods to elect great people into these roles, two things need to happen.

First, there need to be names to choose from. This is an obvious point, but is often overlooked. Truth is, people aren't always lining up to volunteer their valuable time and high level professional skills for volunteer roles on Anglican committees they've never heard of. The work that needs to be done by evangelicals in the lead up to an election synod is not about back room deals or clever campaigns. It's not about tactics to wrestle control from the "other side" (whoever that is!). It's about sending the emails and making the phone calls to make sure that there are candidates in the first place.

Second, synods need information to be able to discern the best people for each job. Once the job of finding and encouraging people to nominate for these roles is done, we need to ensure that they have a good chance of getting elected.

I learned this lesson the hard way a few years back. I remember spending hours on the phone and over coffee trying to convince a wise, godly and very busy lay woman with extensive ASX-listed board member experience to stand for one of our diocesan committees ... only for her to narrowly miss out to less qualified but more familiar names! (Her financial governance skills would have been pretty handy in our diocese the last few years.)

The problem is, nobody knows everybody in the diocese. We might nominate half a dozen immensely skilled young lay people from culturally and linguistically diverse parishes … but they won't get elected unless we coordinate our voting.

This is why many evangelical groups (including New Cranmer Society in Melbourne, and the Anglican Church League in Sydney) produce a ticket, with suggested names in preferential order. For obvious reasons we are not always able to share publicly all the information we have about the candidates. But we can put together a ticket that we think will lead to electing qualified candidates who we think will help pursue our vision for renewal.

These tickets vary in their scope and criteria. Some will only endorse evangelical candidates. On the other hand, the wide spectrum of theological views in some dioceses might make it prudent to list people on a ticket who are not evangelical but will be easy to work with on common ground issues. Preferential voting systems, and the likelihood that candidates will pull out over time, make it prudent to have one or more backups.

Of course, synod members are always at liberty to vote according to conscience and decide to depart from our advice at any point. But as the fruit of much prayerful discussion and consideration a ticket can be a helpful starting point. Our experience over many years in Melbourne synod is that it is a highly effective way of serving our synod by providing good candidates and good information to go on.

Third, evangelicals need to organise to present a winsome case at synod. Synod politics is wonderfully non-partisan in most dioceses, which means that votes come down to persuasion. Evangelicals often need to form a majority by appealing to a coalition in the middle. We often can make progress, but only when we make sense.

Lining up the right speakers for debates is an important part of an effective strategy. So is running pre-synod breakfasts, WhatsApp groups and mailing lists to ensure people have information in front of them and time to digest it. For those new to Anglican synods, or for whom English is not their first language, these briefings are an important community service. (I still find synod confusing, despite having a law degree and 40 years of experience as an Anglican!) A related benefit of this kind of political coordination is an improvement the quality of the discussion at synod.

Sometimes the voices we most need to hear from, for example members from culturally and linguistically diverse parishes, need encouragement to get up and speak. At other times, we can gently suggest to our more hot-headed friends that taking a stand on a certain issue is unlikely to achieve the result they are after.

As Anglicans, the way we do things is democratic. We are not ruled by edicts from a distant centre like a McDonalds franchise, Catholic Archdiocese or American megachurch. We do not wait for a call from the nuncio to find out who our next Archbishop will be! Our town gate is the synod. Being both "episcopally led" and "synodically governed" means that we are committed to the sometimes messy process of letting hundreds of clergy and lay parish representatives all have a say in what happens.

When evangelicals fail to show up to the town gate, we get the decisions and leadership we deserve.

Andrew Judd is a lecturer in Old Testament at Ridley College Melbourne. He serves as President of the New Cranmer Society and attends City on a Hill Melbourne where his wife Stephanie is Senior Associate Minister.