Day One – Tuesday 7 November 2017 Session one:
Opening Worship
As always Mission Council opened with a service of worship, led by the Revd Kevin Watson, moderator. The service included the induction of the Revd Philip Brooks as Secretary for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations and commissioning of Dr Sam Richards as Head of Children’s and Youth Work Development. During this service, both made the same promises to serve the United Reformed Church faithfully and drawing on the Holy Spirit. After the commissioning Sam and Philip were warmly greeted by John Proctor, General Secretary of the URC, Rachel Lampard, immediate past vice president of the Methodist Church and Dan Morrell, moderator of the URC’s Youth Assembly.
Mr Alan Yates gave the opening address, entitled ‘The genius of simplicity’. ‘It’s a simplified version of three of Einstein’s most famous sayings,’ said Mr Yates. ‘Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex … it takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage to move in the other direction; everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler, and the definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.’
In his address Mr Yates called on us to have the courage to embrace simplicity, understand we are free from the Mosaic laws and become free to serve each other in love, summed up in five words from Jesus: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’.
Yet, he observed, many people do not love themselves. In society, many families have been devastated by suicides and substance misuse.
Alan encouraged: ‘Loving God more than yourself, that is the gateway to self-worth. Truly loving your neighbour stems from loving the Lord.’
He also encouraged people and churches to explore how God’s love, shown to us, is carried out. ‘Are we disguising the love of God with over complicated words and rituals?’ he asked.
Mr Watson concluded the worship service with the grace.
Paper B1: Update from the Children’s and Youth Work Committee
John Proctor informed Mission Council that the moderators had removed Paper B1 removed from en bloc and asked the Revd Jenny Mills, convenor of the children’s and youth work committee, to speak to it. Ms Mills reminded Mission Council of Paper B3 (May Mission Council) which promised a thorough review of the URC’s children’s and youth work.
Beginning with a warm welcome to Sam Richards, the new Head of department, before detailing the scope of the review. Ms Mills said: ‘The review is seeking to plan for the effective provision of children and youth work in the climate in which we operate … with fewer resources. The review will ask “What are we are doing? Why are we doing it?” and will be chaired by Sam Richards.’
The terms of reference are to be finalised by the end of this month, the review group pulled together by the end of January 2018 and the review itself to take place between February and June 2018, before reporting to General Assembly in July 2018.
Ms Mills concluded: ‘This review It is exciting and invigorating and we ‘whoop’ it! It ties in with the URC’s current emphasis on discipleship, and we want to continue that good work – to challenge and inspire children and young people, and to do that effectively.’
Kevin Watson, chairing the session, added: ‘We need to both receive the challenge and hear the promise … every blessing on the review.’
Notice about Syria and Myanmar
The Revd Dr Michael Jagessar, United Reformed Church Secretary for Global and Intercultural Ministries brought to the attention of Mission Council an update on recent fund-raising appeals.
Since an appeal was made two years ago, around £15,400 had been raised by URC members for displaced Syrian children. Incredibly more vital funds still being received for generous donors.
In response to Hurricane Irma and Maria, which destroyed lives, families, and homes across the Caribbean, Dr Jagessar explained how the Presbyterian Church of Cuba was assisted, after people were encouraged to donate through the Methodist Church and its links in the country.
More than 300,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted there late last month – Dr Jagessar once again appealed to members generosity regarding their plight.
‘Presbyterians in Myanmar are doing the same on the ground as the Methodists and their contacts did in the Caribbean,’ appealed Mr Jagessar. ‘We are looking at ways to help the situation. People are asking what can they do to contribute. I wish to send a letter to people to inform them of the ways they can assist partner churches.’
Mission Council approved the writing and sending of a letter.
In brief:
• The members of the facilitation group – Derrick Sena Dzandu-Hedidor, Dan Morrell, Simon Walking and Rosie Martin were announced and approved.
• The minutes were tabled, with no amends notified, and were signed by Kevin Watson.
Session two:
Rural ministry presentation
In a short and lively presentation, the Revd Elizabeth Clark, National Rural Officer for the United Reformed and Methodist Churches, encouraged the members of Mission Council to utilise two resources to support rural churches and Christians.
The Discipling Presence workbook helps promote and sustain effective Christian presence in rural communities, and is available from the URC online store. Open Welcome, from Germinate: The Arthur Rank Centre, is designed to help rural churches consider how they might use their building to offer welcome and hospitality to those in their community, both residents and visitors. Ms Clark also touched on the effect of Brexit on rural communities.
Paper H2: Funding Additional Ministry
The Revd Craig Bowman, Secretary for Ministries, and the Revd Paul Whittle, presenting on behalf of the ministries committee, asked Mission Council to approve funding to run a pilot scheme for additional ministry within two synods.
The proposed scheme suggests providing synods with funds that can be used to support lay ministry (suggestions included family workers, pastoral assistants, community workers and local church leaders) in settings that would otherwise be impossible, if resources from outside the local area were not available to support them.
This fund would be held and released centrally and would be made available to synods for making grants to local churches to support other ministries.
Although a similar proposal – to pay for ministries other than as Ministers of Word and Sacraments or church related community workers (CRCW) – did not gain General Assembly approval in 2012, the Revd Craig Bowman, Secretary for Ministries, told Mission Council that during the past five years, the possibility of releasing money to support other ministries has continued to be raised by some people.
During general debate, some members expressed concern about the length of time it would take for centrally held funds to be released to synods, and about negative connotations the term ‘other’ rather than ‘additional’ ministry contained. Others expressed support for the proposals, calling the proposals ‘the right thing at the time’ and that it was ‘right to support the work of churches that were trying to be creative in the way members and the community was supported’.
Mr Bowman then explained how the two synods would be selected to participate in the pilot scheme, saying: ‘We have three types of synod, one is comparatively resource rich, one is comparatively resource poor and then we have those in the middle.’ He suggested that two synods, one from either end of the spectrum, should be selected.
The pilot scheme proposal, which will run for three years, was passed by consensus.
Paper M1: Updating Standing Orders
Paper M1 was removed from en bloc by some members who wished to review its use of pronouns/gender neutral language. A lengthy debate ensued, after which Mission Council agreed that gendered pronouns were not helpful, and no pronouns were necessary in the Standing Orders. Subject to the Clerk and General Secretary making these amendments to the text, the resolution, to adopt the revised version of the standing orders set out in Paper M1, was then passed by consensus.
Session three:
Paper M3: Data protection
Mrs Jane Baird, Deputy General Secretary (Administration and Resources), presented the paper, which gave an overview of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which are scheduled to come into effect on 25 May 2018. Mrs Baird explained that the GDPR builds on the current data protection principles of the 1998 Data Protection Action, requires consent to be freely and clearly given, specific, informed and unambiguous. all organisations which handle data must comply with the GDPR.
Mrs Baird said: ‘I am here as someone concerned about the way we handle data … mainly because of the damage we could do to an individual or group because of poor processes or carelessness.’
She added: ‘The URC handles lots of sensitive, private information and the make-up of the URC means we do not have the centralised controls that other organisations have.’
‘The starting point for us all is to determine what data we hold, where it’s held, how long we hold it for and how we disposed of it securely. URC/Church House is committed to supplying documents to help synods and churches navigate the GDPR but, concluded Mrs Baird, ‘implementing good practice is the real challenge’.
Not surprisingly there were many questions from the floor of Mission Council, some very detailed. Mrs Baird and Andrew Middleton, legal adviser, answered where they could and Mrs Baird reassured Mission Council that any advice and guidance issued from Church House would be robust yet straightforward.
Paper P1: Complaints Policy
The Revd Michael Hopkins, Clerk of General Assembly, presented to Mission Council a proposal on whether the URC should have a denomination-wide policy for dealing with complaints.
A detailed debate about the content of the policy followed the introductory presentation, with members accepting the principle of a denominational complaints policy but with further work on the proposed draft. A revised draft will then be presented at a future Mission Council.
Paper U1: The role of the General Secretary
This paper was presented by Mr John Ellis, immediate-past moderator and convenor of the General Secretary nomination group that sought and appointed a General Secretary in 2013. The debate was started in the last ten minutes of the time allocated to session three. Mission Council will return to Paper U1 at a later session.
Evening Prayers
Mission Council closed with Evening Prayer, led by chaplain Gwen Collins, on the theme of ‘Freedom in Christ – Witness Martin Luther’.
