Synod Ecumenical Officer

Synod Ecumenical Officer: Revd Professor D M Thompson

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The Synod Ecumenical Officer is the Revd Professor David Thompson, based in Cambridge. David has a wide range of ecumenical experience ranging from the local and regional to the national and international, and also served as Moderator of General Assembly in 1996-97. He is a non-stipendiary minister serving the Cambridge Area Partnership, with a particular interest in rural church life. Now retired, he taught church history all his life at the University of Cambridge.

The Synod Ecumenical Officer's role is to encourage local ecumenical developments wherever and whenever they occur, from the simplest forms of co-operation in a local Churches Together to fully-worked out Local Ecumenical Partnerships. David is able to offer advice to any minister or elders' meeting contemplating what might be possible in terms of greater ecumenical co-operation, and he should be consulted before detailed negotiations are entered into, so as to save time spent in going down possible blind alleys.  In particular, he should be consulted about Local Covenants, Sharing Agreements, Constitutions for Local Ecumenical Partnerships, and registration of LEPs with the Charity Commission. (Further information may also be found on the 'Local Ecumenism' page of the Churches Together in England website).  He is assisted by Ecumenical Officers in the four main counties of the Synod, who will normally represent the URC on the local sponsoring bodies for LEPs. Finally David has an ongoing role in overseeing existing ecumenical co-operation within the Synod and advises the Moderator on ecumenical issues more generally.