Elections 2025

This year we need to elect

• Clergy and Lay Members to the Diocesan Board of Finance
• Clergy and Lay Members to theElectoral College
• Clergy and Lay Members to Governing Body
• Clergy Members to the Disciplinary Tribunal

What is the Diocesan Board of Finance?

The Diocesan Board of Finance (DBF) looks after the financial resources of the Diocese to ensure that the mission of the Church can be supported now and in the future. With an annual budget of around £7m, it needs lay and clerical members from each Archdeaconry with skills and experience in finance and property matters to serve for three years.

The DBF is both a company limited by guarantee and a charitable company and its 22 members are therefore both Directors and Trustees. The Board’s primary purpose is to fund the provision of parochial clergy within the Diocese.

Over two-thirds of the Diocese’s income comes from the Common fund to contribute towards the costs of front-line ministry, and a further 25% from the wider Church in Wales and the remainder from investments and sundry income. The Board is responsible for making the best use of that money to maintain a wide range of activities and resources to promote the whole mission of the Church in both individual Ministry Areas and the Diocese as a whole.

In the near future, the DBF will be responsible for a neat end to the RB Evangelism Fund grant and DBF Vision fund programmes, and development and oversight of a possible RB Church Growth Fund proposed programme to support the next phase of the diocesan vision.

How does it operate?

The Board has four evening meetings a year, usually in Llandaff or online.

Specialist sub-committees cover specific areas of work such as Property, People and Communications, Grants, and a small Budget and Investments Committee monitors income and expenditure on a quarterly basis. All members of the Board will, however, be expected to engage with both financial and property matters and to contribute to discussions about strategy and priorities for the future.

Who’s on the Board?

The Board has up to 21 members plus a Chairperson appointed by the Bishop:

Ex officio: The Bishop and Assistant Bishop (if appointed), the three Archdeacons, the DBF Chair and the Chair of the Diocesan Parsonage Board

Elected members: 3 clerical and 6 lay

Co-opted: up to 6, to supply particular skills and experience the Board may require.

The Electoral College is the Church in Wales body which elects the Archbishop of Wales and the diocesan bishops. When an episcopal vacancy arises the Electoral College is convened shortly afterwards in order to elect the next bishop. The Electoral College is made up of electors from all dioceses with each diocese being represented by its bishop and lay and clerical representatives – bishops, and the Archbishop, are therefore elected by the whole province and not just by the diocese that is vacant.

The role of the Electoral College is set out in detail in Chapter V of the Constitution. The Governing Body has made regulations relating to the election of the Archbishop and the diocesan bishops which are set out in the Regulations to Chapter V of the Constitution. In April 2023 the Governing Body made changes to Chapter V and its Regulations, meaning the Electoral College is now operated slightly differently to in the past.

Subject to the Constitution, each Electoral College makes its own rules of operation which are agreed by the College at the beginning of its work.

When electing a diocesan bishop the Electoral College is held in the diocese that is vacant, usually in the cathedral. The vacant diocese is represented by six lay electors and six clerical electors: each of the other five dioceses are represented by three lay electors and three clerical electors, plus the diocesan bishop.

Electoral College meetings may last for up to three consecutive days, but will conclude whenever an election is made, which may be at any point within the three days of the meeting.

The Electoral College to elect the Archbishop of Wales follows very much the same format as the election of a diocesan bishop, except that all dioceses are equally represented with three lay electors and three clerical electors, plus the six bishops. The archiepiscopal Electoral College takes place in Holy Trinity church, Llandrindod Wells. It also may last for up to three consecutive days.

Each day of the College’s meeting begins with an act of worship.

Diocesan electors (lay and clergy) are elected by the Diocesan Conference and these elections are required to be undertaken at the first meeting of each newly elected Diocesan Conference (that is, at the first meeting of each new triennial period of Diocesan Conference membership).

At these elections six lay electors and six clerical electors, plus a supplemental list of up to nine lay electors and nine clerical electors, should be elected by the Diocesan Conference. Electors should be listed in order of votes received so a ranked list is compiled.

When an Electoral College is to take place it is from these lists that diocesan electors will be called. The electors (lay and clergy) with the most votes and therefore at the top of their respective lists will be called first with any necessary alternate electors being sought from the list, in rank order, as necessary.

Regulations to Chapter V of the Constitution sets out the eligibility criteria for episcopal electors:

An episcopal elector shall be:

ü A lay person who is under the age of seventy-five years and qualified to be a member of the Governing Body.

A lay person who is appointed an episcopal elector shall continue as such only whilst residing in the diocese by which he or she was appointed save that this paragraph shall not apply to an episcopal elector holding diocesan office or whose name is on the electoral roll of a parish in such diocese.

ü A cleric who is under the age of seventy years and qualified to be a member of the Governing Body.

A cleric who is appointed an episcopal elector shall continue as such only whist holding a licence from the bishop to officiate and residing in such diocese, provided that an episcopal elector who at the time of appointment was a cleric in the full-time stipendiary ministry of the Church in Wales shall cease to be an episcopal elector when he or she ceases to hold office in the full-time stipendiary ministry of the Church in Wales.

All proceedings of the Electoral College are strictly confidential and electors take a declaration of confidentiality at the start of each Electoral College meeting.

Electoral College meetings are arranged on the basis of being three-day in-person meetings, perhaps with part of a preceding day for travel in order to allow the College to commence reasonably early on the first morning of its meeting. Electors should be aware of this time commitment before indicating their willingness to serve as an episcopal elector.

All electors will also need to engage with written submissions made by candidates for election in advance of the Electoral College meeting.

Additionally, the electors will meet online in advance of the Electoral College meeting itself to agree the regulations for the conduct of that particular College, and to consider provisions for the advertising of the vacancy and the shortlisting of candidates.

Electors serve for a three-year period and may be re-elected should they wish to be. As Electoral Colleges are only called when an episcopal vacancy arises it is possible for electors to serve a three-year period during which no episcopal vacancies arise, and therefore without being called; equally, it is possible for a three-year period to include several Colleges if a number of vacancies arise. Electors may be available to participate in some Colleges and not others, depending on availability.

Episcopal electors have no other commitments. The detailed arrangements for each Electoral College vary and full information is communicated to electors in advance of the College meeting.

Accommodation and meals are provided and reasonable travel costs reimbursed.

For further information please contact John Davies on 029 20 348 239 or via johndavies@churchinwales.org.uk

Governing Body membership

General eligibility criteria

Clergy

Every cleric who holds a dignity, cathedral preferment benefice or office in the Church in Wales, or a license from a diocesan bishop is eligible to be a Governing Body member, unless that cleric is:

• A full-time salaried employee of the Representative Body, a Diocesan Board of Finance or any other such provincial or diocesan body in the Church in Wales;
• Disqualified from acting as a trustee or senior manager of a charity under the laws of Wales;
• Retired or who has reached his or her seventieth birthday;
• Belonging to a religious body not in communion with the Church in Wales; or
• Is arrested on suspicion of a criminal office for which the cleric would be liable under the laws of Wales as a result of conviction for that offence (or who is charged with such an offence without being arrested) shall not attend any meeting or vote in any proceedings of the Governing Body or any committee or sub-committee until the conclusion of those criminal proceedings.

Lay persons eligible

Every lay confirmed communicant over 18 and under 75 years of age who either:

• Resides or has resided for a period of 12 months in a Church in Wales ministry area; or
• Whose name appears on the electoral roll of any ministry area in Wales.

Lay persons not eligible

A lay person is not eligible to be a member of the Governing Body if they:

• Are a salaried employee of the Representative Body, a Diocesan Board of Finance or any other such provincial or diocesan body within the Church in Wales;
• Are disqualified from acting as a trustee or senior manager of a charity under the laws of Wales;
• Have reached his or her seventy-fifth birthday;
• Belong to a religious body not in communion with the Church in Wales; or
• Are arrested on suspicion of a criminal office for which they would be liable under the laws of Wales as a result of conviction for that offence (or who is charged with such an offence without being arrested) shall not attend any meeting or vote in any proceedings of the Governing Body or any committee or sub-committee until the conclusion of those criminal proceedings.

GDPR statement on use of personal information in communicating with Governing Body members and for the administration of Governing Body meetings.

Information on how your data is held and how it is processed can be found at:

https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/privacy-notice. If you have any queries or require additional information please contact the Legal Department via legal@churchinwales.org.uk or by telephone on 02920 348 200.

The Disciplinary Tribunal

The Disciplinary Tribunal of the Church in Wales has the power to hear and determine a complaint against any Cleric of the Church in Wales, any Churchwarden or Subwarden and any lay Member of the Church in Wales who holds a Licence or Permission to Officiate from a Diocesan Bishop of:

a) teaching, preaching, publishing or professing, doctrine or belief incompatible with that of the Church in Wales;

b) neglect of the duties of office, or persistent carelessness or gross inefficiency in the discharge of such duties;

c) conduct giving just cause for scandal or offence;

d) wilful disobedience to or breach of any of the provisions of the Constitution or of the Statement of Terms of Service published pursuant to the Clergy Terms of Service Canon 2010;

e) wilful disobedience to or breach of any of the rules and regulations of the Diocesan Conference of the diocese in which such person holds office or resides;

f) disobedience to any judgement, sentence or order of the Archbishop, a Diocesan Bishop, the Tribunal, or any Court of the Church in Wales.

The Tribunal has 24 members, including legally and medically qualified members, appointed lay members and elected clerical members. The latter comprise two from each Diocese elected by the Order of the Clergy of the Diocesan Conference of that diocese.

Members of the Tribunal hold office for five years and are eligible for re-appointment, save that membership shall cease on the member’s seventieth birthday or earlier on retirement in the case of a member who is a Cleric except for the purpose of completing the hearing of a complaint in which the member is already engaged.

Further information about the Disciplinary Tribunal may be found in Chapter IX of the Constitution of the Church in Wales.

PART TWELVE

ELECTIONS TO THE DISCIPLINARY TRIBUNAL

12.1 When required under Part II of Chapter IX of the Constitution of the Church in Wales, the clerical members of the Diocesan Conference shall elect two of their members to the Disciplinary Tribunal. Such elections shall take place in the manner set out in Part Five of the Diocesan Constitution subject to the following specifications:

12.2 Candidates are not required to submit a personal statement.

The number of votes cast for each candidate will determine who will become members of the Disciplinary Tribunal. The two with the highest number of votes becoming the members and the next two, in order of the number of votes received, shall form the supplemental list as required by paragraph 10.4 of Chapter IX of the Constitution of the Church in Wales or as amended from time to time.

General Provisions as to elections

12.3 (i) Those elected shall take up office on 1st January of the following year and shall serve for five years.

(ii) In respect of casual vacancies occurring, the provisions of paragraph 10.4 of Chapter IX of the Constitution of the Church in Wales or as amended from time to time, shall apply.