Nominating and Election Procedures

For use at Sessions of the General Synod

Procedures for electing the Council of the General Synod

1. Each diocese is asked to submit to the Nominating Committee, prior to a time designated by the Agenda Committee, three nominations from among its own members, one from each Order. A diocese shall not nominate a person who has been a member of the Council for the two previous terms. A diocese may also nominate its youth member for election to the Council.
2. At a time designated in the agenda of the General Synod, the members of the Synod shall assemble in groups according to their Ecclesiastical Provinces.
3. The Nominating Committee of the General Synod shall assign one of its members to chair each of the provincial assemblies, such member being a resident in that ecclesiastical province. Such person shall have the right to vote.
4. If, at the time of the members so assembling, any diocese has not submitted its nominations, the members of that diocese may do so; if they do not do so, then the assembly shall nominate for that diocese.
5. A chart shall be posted listing by diocese, the nominees from each of the three Orders.
6. The members who have been nominated may be identified for the information of those assembled.
7. The chairperson shall appoint six scrutineers from among those who have not been nominated.
8. Ballots shall be distributed and each member shall vote for his or her first choice among the nominees to serve on the Council of General Synod.
9. The member receiving the greatest number of votes shall be deemed selected. In the event of a tie where both candidates may be selected, it shall be deemed that both have been selected. Where only one may be selected, further votes between those so tied shall be taken. After three ballots, if the tie remains the chairperson shall cast a second vote to decide the issue.
10. If the first selection is made from the Orders of Bishops and Clergy, the second selection shall be made from the Order of Laity and vice-versa. If the first selection results in the nomination of persons from both the Orders of Bishops and Clergy and the Order of Laity, the chairperson shall determine from which group the second selection shall be made. Thereafter, the selections shall alternate between the two groups.
11. If the first selection from the Orders of Bishops and Clergy is a bishop, the next selection from those Orders shall be made from the Order of Clergy; if the first selection from those Orders is a priest or a deacon, the next selection from those Orders shall be made from the Order of Bishops.
12. After each selection, the other nominations for the diocese which the selected nominee represents shall be struck from the list of nominations.
13. When the prescribed number of nominees from the Orders of Bishops and Clergy or from the Order of Laity has been achieved, other nominations from those Orders or that Order shall be struck from the nominations.
14. When an ecclesiastical province is required to nominate more members than there are dioceses in the province, after one member has been nominated to represent each diocese:
    1. if the additional selection is required from the Order of Laity, the selection shall be made from among those lay persons whose nominations had earlier been struck from the list;
    2. if the additional selection is required from the Orders of Bishops and Clergy, the selection shall be made from among the bishops and clergy whose nominations had earlier been struck from the list.
15. When the prescribed number of nominations of persons from the three orders resident in the ecclesiastical province has been achieved, the meeting shall vote by ballot on the youth member nominees. The youth member receiving the greatest number of votes shall be deemed selected. The chairperson shall declare the business concluded and report to the chairperson of the General Synod Nominating Committee
16. The chairperson of the General Synod Nominating Committee shall report to the General Synod the names of those who have been nominated for the Council of the General Synod by this process, and move the adoption of the report.

Appendix G, Handbook of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, 13 th Edition, Published 2002.