The results of the national elections to the Church of England’s General Synod have been trickling in during the course of the week, after a determined campaign by church liberals to gain greater control in the General Synod, The Church of England Newspaper has reported.

|TOP|The results so far reveal Frank Knaggs, a leading conservative evangelical, to be the winner of the poll in the House of Laity in Newcastle – a largely liberal Catholic diocese.

Canon Chris Sugden, one of the Oxford leaders who led the opposition to Canon John’s Reading appointment, won a seat in the heavily contested House of Clergy on his first attempt.

The outcome of the head-to-head battle between Regius Professor of Divinity, Marilyn McCord Adams, a leading proponent of gay equality, and well-known ethicist, Professor Oliver O’Donovan, in the elections for a representative of Oxford University is still to be announced.

The elections are the first since the Church forced Jeffrey John to stand down from his position as Bishop of Reading due to his controversial relationship with another man, and qualms over his teachings on marriage and sexuality.

The forced resignation of John, considered by church liberals to be a cataclysm, lead to the formation of the organisation ‘Inclusive Church’ by more left-wing church members.

The Rev. Giles Goddard of Inclusive Church said he had been keen to ensure that as many ‘Inclusive’ people stood as possible.

Rev. Goddard was one of 11 ‘Inclusive Church’ supporters out of 14 candidates vying for just seven seats in the Diocese of Southwark elections.

He said: “It’s too open at the moment. The traditional party lines don’t seem to be as clear as they were.

“What’s happened over the past five years has meant that people are not confirming in the way they once would have done.”

This development in the Church of England can already been seen in the election of the Rev. Charles Read, one of few prominent evangelicals calling for the full ‘inclusion’ of homosexuals, as the representative of the Northern Universities.

Rev. Goddard said this week that Inclusive Church’s main lobbying on General Synod would be to back a single-clause measure on women’s bishops, opposing a third province and rejecting any feature provision for traditionalist opponents, reported The Church of England Newspaper.

The newspaper also reported Dr Philip Giddings of Anglican Mainstream as saying that none of the major evangelical organisations had led to a determined push to get their members to stand for General Synod.

He said that, while in London and Southwark homosexuality and women bishops had been prominent issues, the picture elsewhere was much more confused.

The Diocese of Bath and Wells has declared their Synod elections null and void after a mailing irregularity and announced a new election will be held.