This year's General Synod, the first meeting of the triennium, was held in the now familiar surroundings of the City Hotel, Armagh. Over the past few years there has been a heavy emphasis on finance in the legislative programme, principally with regard to pensions. This year there was one Pensions Bill. It merely formalised the arrangements governing the separate Defined Contributions Schemes that have operated for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland since 2013. The Bill duly passed.

The General Synod met in St Paul's and St George's Church in Edinburgh from 11 to 13 June. In his charge, the Primus, the Most Revd David Chillingworth, told Synod that the most significant challenge before it was same-sex marriage; and he believed that the time had come when that fundamental issue had to be addressed. It had been an extraordinary experience to be in Dublin, the city of his birth, just after the Constitutional Referendum on Same-Sex Marriage, when the most Catholic country in Europe decided to make the change. Just because society changed, the Church did not have to change as well – but it clearly had to consider the possibility of change. And that is what Synod would do.

The 16th General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia was held in Adelaide from 29 June to 3 July 2014. This report covers the major pieces of legislation dealt with at this session, as well as resolutions relating to the Anglican Communion, Church discipline and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.