Our Barnabas work, racial justice, nationalism and more were on the agenda at a busy meeting of Diocesan Synod on Saturday, June 13 at Holy Trinity Boar Lane.
Synod began with worship led by members of the East Leeds Deanery, before the Rt Revd Toby Howarth, Acting Bishop of Leeds, gave a thank you to all who have served on General Synod for our diocese in the most recent session, which ends in July.
There are elections coming up this autumn, and more will be shared on this soon.
Bishop Toby then gave his Presidential Address, speaking of the value of every person as children of God, and how this view informs all our work.
Bishop Toby’s full address can be read here.
Bishop Toby then gave a presentation on the Living in Love and Faith process, which was ended at General Synod in February 2026.
Bishop Toby acknowledged the pain that the handling of this process has caused to people, before sharing some of the outcomes, including the Prayers of Love of Faith being commended for use in church services.
He also shared what is going on in our diocese, including the licensing of the Revd Andrew Howorth as LGBTQIA+ Chaplain for the diocese.
More on this can be found here.
Bishop Toby ended by celebrating how well we have held this issue in our diocese, working together well despite our differences, and called for prayers that this will continue.
As part of an item receiving the annual reports from our boards and committees, Synod heard from the Revd Simone Bennett, Diocesan Director of Education, speaking about how the diocese supports over 65,000 pupils in 233 church schools.
Simone shared about how schools are supported today to have a theologically rooted vision appropriate to their context before encouraging Synod members to pray for schools, encourage churches to get involved in working with schools, be voices for the church in education, and to work to recruit more governors for our schools.
The motion receiving our annual reports passed.
After a coffee break, Synod gathered again to hear from the Rt Revd Smitha Prasadam, Bishop of Huddersfield, on our work to move racial justice forward in the diocese.
Bishop Smitha spoke about we have appointed new racial justice officers, as well as set up a Racial Justice Board, before talking about our goal to create a Covenant of Belonging owned by all to further this work.
Bishop Smitha spoke of the need for deep engagement in partnership on this issue, and how God uses covenants to change things, and so should we, working in love, faith and action.
Synod then broke into small groups to look at some questions to provide feedback on what a covenant should include.
Synod then heard from Canon Irving Warnett, Chair of the Diocesan Finance, Assets and Investments Committee, and Geoff Park, Diocesan Chief Finance Officer, about our diocesan finances.
Irving began by discussing the difficult financial situation we are in, and how we can respond to this, including by increasing parish share contributions.
Irving shared that early signs from our Parish Share Agreements process (where share requests are discussed and agreed by parishes and the diocese at face-to-face meetings that look at local circumstances and available support) are positive, and thanked all those working on this process for their hard work.
Geoff then gave a presentation on our financial position, as well as an update on our 2026 finances.
The motion receiving our 2025 Leeds Diocesan Board of Finance Annual Report and Financial Statements passed.
Synod then heard from the Revd Canon Jude Smith, Diocesan Director of Mission and Revitalisation, who gave an update on our Barnabas: Encouraging Confidence work.
Revd Jude told Synod that over 60% have engaged with Barnabas in some way, before sharing about our recent award of over £11 million from the National Church to support this work.
These funds will be used to significantly invest in children and young peoples’ work, developing more leaders in our churches and supporting the next wave of grafts and plants in the city of Leeds, as well as other aspects of our work.
Revd Jude also spoke about our Compass and Personal Growth and Leadership programme offers.
More on Barnabas: Encouraging Confidence can be found here.
The final item Synod looked at was a presentation and discussion around the issue of nationalism from the Rt Revd Arun Arora, Bishop of Kirkstall.
Bishop Arun shared how the context around this issue has changed since Diocesan Synod met last, including with recent local elections and episodes of violence in the UK.
Bishop Arun spoke of the importance of engagement with our political leaders on this issue, as well as standing with those who are scared following recent violence, calling for our responses to be prayerful, pastoral and relational.
After a time of small group discussion, Synod fed back, with good responses looking at how we can share narratives of hope to counter despair.
Synod closed with a prayer from David Ashton, General Synod member and Father of the House for General Synod.
It will meet again in October 2026.
Bishop Toby’s presidential address can be read below.
“Reports from Belfast last week of masked thugs working their way down residential streets breaking down doors and burning houses based on the colour of the occupant’s skin are shocking. We have heard the distressing story of a local pastor pleading for just ten minutes to evacuate terrified congregation members before their home was torched.
“As we meet as Synod in these weeks after Pentecost, against the backdrop of these events, it is an appropriate time for us to reflect on what it means to be church, what it means to be filled with God’s Spirit and sent into all the world with the good news that God has come to be with us in the person of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead.
“And not just any church, but our specific calling as the Church of England.
“I was invited yesterday to contribute to an academic conference in Oxford called “Reimagining Humanism”. Scholars from all over the world, from many different faiths and backgrounds were talking about how their traditions enable us – or hold us back – from engaging with all that it means to be human.
“In some ways, it felt a million miles between that conference taking place among the dreaming spires of Oxford University and the smouldering streets of Belfast, but the nagging question informing both contexts was the conference’s subtitle: “How can we build a common life in our fractured world?” And what does our Christian faith, what does our church have to offer to this common life?
“Can we afford to leave the reimagining of our common life to Gianni Infantino, Donald Trump and FIFA?
“I was asked to speak about the theological understanding I bring to my work, particularly with people and communities of different faiths as a bishop in Bradford.
“The core understanding, as I shared it, is that God is love and God is therefore essentially relational. I get that from understanding God through the person of Jesus Christ, living out of an intimate relation with his heavenly father in the power of the Holy Spirit. I understand God’s love from watching how relational Jesus was in his life, not least in his encounters with people from a different faith background. Think of Jesus with the Woman at the Well in John’s Gospel, Chapter 4, or with the Roman centurion whose daughter he heals.
“I talked about how the deepest affirmation of our common humanity comes from God taking our flesh as a human being: what we call the incarnation. If God became human in Jesus Christ, then humanity is sacred. Every person, made in the image of God, has intrinsic dignity and worth, whoever they are and wherever they are from.
“And if human beings are caught up in the life of God by Jesus becoming one with us, then all human endeavour, all of culture, of art, of science, of reason, of politics – this is all touched by God and all something in which God’s church is called to participate and engage.
“As a Church of England bishop, I also shared how important it is to me that our responsibility to all of human life and work is not confined to our faithful congregations who come into our buildings, or to those beyond the church simply in terms of evangelism, although Jesus does give us that joyful task.
“But as Anglicans, we have an obligation, even a legal obligation, in a lovely phrase which I’ve picked up from the House of Bishops, ‘to every blade of grass, every beating heart’ in each of our parishes, right across our whole, huge, beautiful diocese. Our calling is legitimately, based in our theology, to engage with environmental concerns, with our schools, as we will do later this morning when we hear from our superb Education Team, with politics, as we think about so-called “Christian Nationalism”.
“This underlying theology also informs our understanding of what it means to be church, and we will have a discussion together later this morning on our Racial Justice work and what it might mean for us as a diocese to agree a ‘Covenant of Belonging.’
“Sometimes we approach the issue of racial justice with the aim of fixing something that is broken, either in the church or in our wider society – and clearly something is broken if people’s houses are being set on fire based on the colour of the occupant’s skin. And if we are open to listening, we continue to hear some very troubling stories from black and brown people within our churches or about how Muslims are talked about within our churches.
“But the idea of a Covenant of Belonging asks us, rather, to exercise our imaginations: what would our churches look like that would make our wider society sit up and think: that’s different! That’s something I want to be a part of. That’s already happening, of course, in all sorts of ways across our diocese, but are we there yet in terms of how really at home our black and brown sisters and brothers actually feel in our churches and how the power dynamics actually work?
“It is hard to get our head around just how scandalous it was to people living in the Roman Empire that the first Christians saw other people as fully human, regardless of class, gender or ethnicity. It was precisely the distinctive nature of these followers of Jesus who genuinely had a common life together because they were one in Christ that made the church so attractive, and also such a threat.
“In the words of one of the professors at yesterday’s conference, “To follow Christ is not simply to await salvation in some distant future, but to begin participating here and now in forms of common life marked by justice, generosity and mutual care.”
“That’s where the discussion of our Annual Report and Financial Statements comes in.
“There is an urgency to all these discussions, and we need one another to find the wisdom and strength of the Holy Spirit to rise to the challenge.
“So let’s encourage people to stand for Synod and pray for those who are involved in the leadership of this diocese and church. Let’s continue to pray about the appointment of our new Diocesan bishop. The Crown Nominations Commission has met, and we await further news, hopefully within the next few weeks.
“But this is about all of us praying, talking, strengthening the relationships that we have, especially with people who have different views and passions.
“As Jesus says in the passage set for Morning Prayer today, “When you see a cloud rising in the west you immediately say, “It is going to rain”, and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”
“May God give us wisdom and joy in our time together.”