The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church met for a second time this year on Tuesday (9 September 2025) to amend the Canon for electing bishops.

The special meeting, which was held online, was arranged for the specific purpose of making an amendment to the Canon in time for use during the forthcoming episcopal vacancy in the Edinburgh Diocese.

Canon 4, which describes the electoral process, went through a process of revision which was approved by the 2023 meeting of the General Synod. Subsequent Episcopal elections have taken place under this revised process in the Diocese of Argyll & The Isles and the Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway.  Feedback on the experiences of people involved in the process in those Dioceses led to a further round of amendments to the revised canon.

The amendments were put to the General Synod meeting in June this year, where they passed first reading. To be put into effect, they had to be passed at a second reading, which is normally at the following year’s General Synod. The decision to hold an additional meeting of the General Synod this calendar year rather than wait until General Synod 2026 ensured that the amendments will be in place ahead of the Episcopal election in Edinburgh, following the retirement of Bishop John Armes last month.

The motion was brought to Synod by Dr Samuel White, Convener of the Committee on Canons, who accepted a series of amendments from dioceses which can be read here.

An additional amendment was brought by Dr Beth Routledge, seconded by the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, both Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway, who proposed that the election of a bishop should be by an absolute majority. This subsequent amendment was also accepted by Dr White.

Synod members backed the amended text of Canon 4 as read for the second time, with a two-thirds majority in each house.

A consequent motion that Synod directs that the amended Canon 4 should have effect as of Tuesday 16 September 2025 was carried.

The meeting had opened with a Celebration of the Eucharist led by the Primusand the Rev Canon Dr Marion Chatterley, at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, and was closed with confirmation of the Acts of Synod.

Main image: Dr Dee Bird, Secretary General; The Most Rev Mark Strange, Bishop of Moray, Ross & Caithness and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church; and Gavin McEwan, Legal Assessor to the General Synod.