And he admitted that in the run up to the General Synod, which is meeting this week at York, his heart sinks.
Yorkshire-born Dr Hope told church leaders that he was not pleading for them not to have various opinions and views. That was totally impos
sible, he conceded.
But the "tenor and tone of the way we both handle and debate deeply-disputed issues ought to be such that we honour the Saviour in our midst," Dr Hope said.
Synod members needed to remember they had been "chosen by the Lord," said the Archbishop, adding, amid laughter, "looking around us here He seems to have chosen, as they say in Yorkshire, some pretty funny folk."
The Archbishop went on: "As we approach these meetings of synod my heart sinks. It is not simply the arrival of the synod papers but the sudden flurry of e-mails, of questions and answers, telephone calls and faxes; 'can you, Archbishop, make a point or two? They are sure to listen to you' – some chance of that, I think to myself."
Dr Hope said: "Then there is the question of trust – trustful and trusting relationships between the House of Bishops and Archbishops' Council, between this synod and Archbishops' Council, between the Church Commissioners and the bishops and so on.
"It is a trust and trustfulness which in the dioceses on the whole works well. But when it comes to the synod, its committees and groups suddenly – and for no apparent reason – trust seems to take a nose-dive."
He added: "Why is it, I wonder, that we seem to be so suspicious, to be so ready to think the worst rather than the best of each other?"
Dr Hope continued the criticism of the synod in a sermon at the synod Eucharist in York Minster yesterday when he pleaded for it to be reduced in size.
He told a crowded congregation: "There is a good deal of talk these days about the pilgrim Church and if we are to be such a church then we shall need to travel a good deal lighter.
"There will be a need for a much lighter touch at the centre and a lighter and more trusting touch all round so that the local can be freed for that flexibility and flourishing which increasingly it needs in order to pursue the mission entrusted to us by Christ."
The Archbishop added: "We need to ask ourselves whether there are other ways in which we could enhance this sense of journeying together by getting a grip on our agendas, seeking to do fewer things better to have more discussion in small groups to punctuate the day more frequently with prayer and to seek to engage with each other in listening just as much as in speaking."
