Dear delegates and alternates

Our records indicate that you have been elected as your parish's delegate or appointed as the alternate for the 2023 in-person sessions of the 20th Convention of General Synod.

Last month we sent this Synod eNews update (#15) to your LCA email address. It is possible that you do not regularly check your LCA inbox, so we are sending this email again, this time to your private address. From here on, however, we will be sending Synod updates only to your LCA email address, so please check it for essential information about your role as a delegate or alternate.

If you do not know how to access your LCA inbox, please contact our IT helpdesk team at itsupport@lca.org.au

(Pastors and parish chairs, please check that your parish delegate has received this eNews and that they know they need to monitor their LCA inbox for updates.)

If you are not the delegate or alternate, please contact us. Your parish will need to complete these two forms in order for the new delegate to be entered into the Synod contact list:

• Parish Details form: LCA General Synod delegate (Word  PDF)
• LAMP2 form (Word  PDF)

These forms are also available on the Synod website, Delegates page.
 

Alternates

If you are not able or willing to attend the in-person sessions, your parish will need to appoint an alternate.

An alternate is appointed to attend the Convention sessions only, in the event that the elected delegate is not able or willing; that is, they do not replace the elected delegate for the three-year synodical term. The delegate and the alternate may not both attend the Convention sessions.

1. An alternate may only be appointed if we already hold your delegate details in LAMP2. In other words, your parish must elect a delegate (even if the delegate cannot attend the in-person sessions) before it may appoint an alternate.
    
2. If an alternate was appointed for the online sessions in 2021 they are not automatically re-enrolled for the 2023 in-person sessions. If the elected delegate is not able to attend the in-person sessions, a new appointment for an alternate needs to be made – for the same person (who attended the 2021 online sessions) or a different person.
    
3. Every effort should be made to elect a lay person alternate to stand in for a lay delegate. In some circumstances, however, it may be possible, with the permission of the District Bishop, for the parish pastor to be the alternate for a lay delegate (By-Law 7.1.4).

If no-one from your parish is willing or able to attend the in-person sessions as an alternate, you may need to register an apology, which can be done in our Convention online event management system. This will open in November.
 

Website

The General Synod website will be updated regularly as new information becomes available. In the meantime, please read the FAQ section, which might answer some of the questions you already have about the in-person sessions of the 20th Convention. You might like to bookmark this page in your browser, for easy reference. You will find these Synod eNews archived under the News and Delegates Updates tab.
 

Delegate training

Whether you are an experienced Synod delegate or attending in-person sessions for the first time, we advise you to take up the opportunity for delegate training, offered by ALC on its iLearn platform. Click here for access details.
 

Questions?

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us at synod@lca.org.au or on 08 8267 7300.

Dr Nigel Long
Secretary of the Church