Diocesan Governance

The General Synod is the national assembly of the Church of England. It decides on key issues in the life of the Church, ranging from legislative and policy decisions, such as the ordination of women as bishops or the approval of new forms of liturgy, to more routine matters like the fees for church weddings. 

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Meeting three times a year, usually in April, June and November, Diocesan Synod is the statutory governing body of the Diocese. It is elected with representation across the Diocese with broadly equal members of clergy and lay (not ordained) people meeting together with the bishops and archdeacons quarterly.

The Bishop’s Council is the Standing Committee of the Diocesan Synod. It plans the business of the Synod, advises it, and transacts its business when not in session. As Bishop’s Council, it advises the Bishop, appoints members to various committees, and formulates, discusses and co-ordinates policies relating to the life and work of the diocese. 

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The role of the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) is to work with and advise churches on how to make the best use of their buildings so that they are a positive and valued part of their mission and outreach. In offering advice, the DAC has to balance legislative requirements with the desire to preserve heritage and the need to make church buildings valued and useful spaces fit for the liturgies and technologies of the twenty-first century.

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The Sheffield Diocesan Board of Finance (DBF) is a Registered Charity, number 245861. The Board is also a company limited by guarantee, company number 196087 with the members of the Bishop’s Council as Directors. The DBF finances stipendiary ministry and funds the mission of the Church in this Diocese through the re-distribution of funding from Common Fund, the use of Church Commissioners’ selective allocation to the poorer Dioceses and the application of other resources and investment income wherever possible.

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The Diocese of Sheffield Board of Education (DBE) is committed to the development of effective collaboration with, and between, our Church Schools; to the celebration of the excellent work that has been, and will be, carried out in our Church Schools; and to the supporting and enrichment of Church Schools’ distinctive offering of teaching and learning within a Christian context.

The Diocese has five areas of mission in relation to schools:

• Cultivation of Christian distinctiveness in the ethos and practice of our schools
• Securing of excellence for all children, with schools meeting and, in time, exceeding, core expectations
• Strong leadership and capacity to improve within our service
• Networking leading to excellence through the sharing of school-to-school development across the diocese
• Offer of service beyond the diocese through schools affiliating and drawing upon our provision, in the wider community

This translates into four expectations in all schools:

• Distinctively Christian ethos
• Attaining floor targets in all three measures
• Good or outstanding teaching
• Leadership, with vision, that delivers.

Find out more – See also Education Provision pages

This board aims to develop a passionate, confident and prophetic vision of the distinctive contribution that churches in our Diocese can make towards establishing communities which are more just, sustainable, hospitable, and places of sanctuary.

Find out more – See also Social Transformation

Deals with reviewing arrangements for pastoral supervision and care in the diocese; preparing strategies or proposals which may include reorganisation, and making recommendations to the Bishop; carrying out responsibilities in relation to the future of churches no longer required for public worship.