At the synode

It is difficult to explain what a French synode is like. The closest thing I can imagine is the Grace Assembly - or what you'd get if you crossed the Grace Assembly, the Annual Assembly of the AECW and the European Parliament.

Why ?

Well you get a booklet. I was not an official délégué so I didn't get sent my booklet through the post, I had to collect mine from our Secretary General, a heroic man who battles with Parkinson's disease yet who fulfils his role amazingly. I asked him if he'd slept well. "No", he said, "I forgot my sleeping pills." Certainly he seemed very tired but he kept going.

The booklet is 100 pages of A4 and contains reports from every department of the union of churches which in theory you read beforehand and are ready to discuss. I had in fact read them - in the car on the way !

Then everything is done according to strict business meeting order : the motion - any amendments ? - any discussion - ? vote on the amendments - vote on the motion ... etc. The moderator was a friend from Montauban who struck just the right balance between utter strictness ( ah no ! the time for that is past ! ) and good humour.

It is hard to convey the charm of these Cévennes towns - Bagard is in the foothills, not that far from Montpellier, so it is set amongst rolling hills. Few vineyards, but lots of olive trees. It's very southern with houses with deep-set windows and double or triple roofs to insulate from the hot summer sun.

We were welcomed by the mayor who is also a member of the church council. I chatted with him later - he was born in Bagard but had spent his working life as an army accountant in Paris, Berlin, all over. Now he was back home, though, and serving his community. Down there pretestantism is establishment. It's another world. (It reminds me a lot of the South Wales Valleys.)

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