THE church’s parliament will discuss the size of the new Synod – which includes Bradford – when it meets on Saturday.

More than 350 members of the West Yorkshire and the Dales Diocesan Synod will gather in Harrogate for the first meeting since the creation of the diocese last Easter.

Nick Baines, now Bishop of Leeds, said: “We’ll be asked to make important provisional decisions that will allow us then to do detailed work on shaping the diocese for the future. It’s a relief to have got to this point, but the synod offers the first word, not the last.”

The new Synod brings together the three old Synods of Bradford, Wakefield, and Ripon and Leeds.

Church rules state that a diocesan synod must number between 100 and 270.

The new one currently has more than 400 clergy and lay leaders.