The autumn meeting of Mission Council, the United Reformed Church’s (URC) executive body of the General Assembly, opened on 15 November at The Hayes Conference Centre, in Swanwick, Derbyshire.
The afternoon began with worship led by the Revd Elaine Colechin, Chaplain to Nigel Uden, Moderator of General Assembly.
Dr Alison Gray, Tutor in Old Testament at Westminster College, Cambridge, led a Bible study on the Psalms, looking particularly at Psalms 1 and 119. She looked at the many images of pathway and refuge, telling Mission Council that what is written with imagination must be heard with imagination. Dr Gray invited members of Mission Council to allow a fresh hearing to breathe life into familiar images of walking the way, explaining that God’s right path is both command and gift.
Derek Estill, Moderator of General Assembly, brought apologies for absence and welcomed new members to Mission Council.
The minutes of previous May’s Mission Council were accepted, and John Proctor, the General Secretary, dealt with matters arising. He also gave details of the facilitation group of the present Mission Council.
Session one
Paper B1: Children’s and youth work committee
Paper B1 was presented by Dr Sam Richards, Head of Children’s and Youth Work, who drew Mission Council’s attention to the Lundie Memorial Award. The award is to highlight and celebrate children and young people using their skills and talents and will start in in January 2020. Sam encouraged members of Mission Council to make nominations and advised that the awards would rotate around the 13 synods.
Dr Richards also advised that the pilots subcommittee had met since the paper had been written which had agreed to change the title of ‘regional pilots officer’ to ‘synod pilots officer’ to reflect the fact that Pilots is now an integrated part of the URC children’s and youth department. This resolution passed by consensus.
Paper G1: Budget 2020
This paper was presented by Ian Hardie, URC Honorary Treasurer.
- Mission Council adopted the 2020 budget (as set out on Paper G1 addendum) which came with projections for 2021 and 2022.
- There is a small, projected deficit (£70,000) for 2020, but the main concerns for the committee were the Church’s two pension schemes and the potential impact of these on costs and investment income from 2021 onwards.
- A major consultation about the pension schemes is under way which will shape the thinking of the 2021 budget.
More than 90% of the church’s income comes from local churches through the Ministry and Mission Fund (M&M). Estimates from synods suggest that total giving next year will be less than 1% down on the 2019 budget figure. The continuing decline in membership means that this again represents an increase in average giving per URC member.
The recommended rise in stipends for Ministers of Word and Sacrament and Church Related Community Workers in 2020 is 2.7%. This increase has been calculated using the formula used for a number of years. The stipend will rise by £720 to £27,600.
The 2020 budget assumes a decrease of three ministers in the year with retirements slightly exceeding expected ordinations. The total cost of ministry is higher than the expected actual cost in 2019 but is almost £25,000 below the 2019 budget.
- The budget for Education and Learning will reduce by £140,000 due to an expected reduction in student numbers.
- The Children’s and Youth Work budget will increase for a 18-month long Messy Church project and a reserve for safeguarding reasons.
- The Safeguarding budget has been increased so that two members of staff on temporary contracts can be engaged while the Safeguarding Officer is heavily involved with the Independent Enquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), in which the URC is a core participant.
- The budget for Mission has increased to account for the URC’s partnership with Greenbelt, which was agreed at the November 2018 Mission Council.
- A new payroll system upgrade will take place which will remove paper payslips, and the cost of this upgrade will be taken up in 2019.
- The Communications Team hopes to recruit a Digital Content Officer to help transform the URC website and help with the digital needs at all levels of the Church.
- For 2021 and 2022, the committee has projected an annual drop of 1% in M&M giving and 2.5% increases in stipends and staff salaries.
Paper G3: URC pension schemes – integrated risk management project
“Pensions finance might not feel like the most life-affirming thing on the agenda this weekend,” said John Piper, Deputy Treasurer, speaking for the Pensions executive and finance committee, introducing Paper G3 to Mission Council.
“We have tried very hard to make the paper accessible because the URC, as a family, has got some big decisions to take in the next year or so.”
The URC faces some serious and potentially costly challenges in relation to its two pension schemes. Both schemes are Defined Benefit (DB) schemes, which means that the benefits for each member are based on their length of service and their final salary or stipend. All costs, except for member contributions, and all risks are carried by the employer.
A bill, likely to be reintroduced in the next parliament, will give the Pensions Regulator more powers if passed.
The regulator is actively evaluating all Defined Benefit pensions schemes, including the URC’s, and it has expressed concern because of the lack of a ‘normal’ corporate structure and lack of hierarchy, the number of trust companies across the URCs (13 Synods and the General Assembly’s) and the impact of the assets held by those separate trusts.
Any deficit in pensions schemes are now expected to be dealt with in around five years, not decades as has been the practice in the past, because of employers ‘disappearing’ (e.g. going into administration) in the past and the impact of the pension funds associated with those employers, especially with Defined Benefit pensions.
The paper proposed an integrated risk management (IRM) project as a way of reviewing, in a holistic way, the issues for both pension schemes so that the URC as ‘employer’ and the trustees of the two schemes can agree on appropriate action.
There could be a deficit of around £20m at the beginning of 2021, Mr Piper said. However, the committee wanted to stress that this is a challenge and not a crisis, because of the financial resources held by the URC Trust and by the Synod trusts.
John Piper concluded: “We are beginning to collect information now so that we as the URC can take an informed decision in the future. There’s no change at the moment, but we will have to come back to this in the future.”
Paper D1: Education and Learning
Alan Yates, Convenor of the education and learning committee asked permission from Mission Council to withdraw paper D1 from consideration as it had become apparent that more work was needed on it. This was agreed.
Paper O3: Extension of term of service of the Secretary for Global and Intercultural Ministries
This paper was also withdrawn.
Educational visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Derek Estill, Moderator of General Assembly, and the Revd Philip Brooks, Secretary for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations reported on the United Reformed Church educational visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in October. The delegation included 22 representatives, from all 13 URC synods as well as from other areas of denominational life.
Mr Estill said: ‘It was a very emotional, very eye opening, very worrying time. All of us were deeply affected.’
Mr Brooks said of the Palestinian people they visited: ‘We were overwhelmed by their gratitude that we had come. They all said: “Please go home and share our story.”’ Mr Brooks pointed out that the visit was organised in direct response to the resolution of the 2016 General Assembly which required it. So, he said, it would be good to share the story at the 2020 Assembly.
In response to a question about another URC visit to the Holy Land which had taken place with the Council of Christians and Jews, Mr Brooks said he hoped that those involved would take part in feedback too.
Session three
Paper M2: Changes to the rules of procedure and Paper M3: Clerk of General Assembly
Papers M2 and M3 were brought out of en bloc voting, as a sufficient number of representatives wanted them to be debated before voting.
Paper M2 proposes changes to General Assembly’s rules of procedure. The Revd Ruth Whitehead, Moderator of South Western Synod, drew attention to point 3.3, which allows nomination for Moderator of the General Assembly to be made without the consent of the nominee.’ She suggested that consent should be required for the sake of good communication, issues of calling, and for considerations of equalities.
The General Secretary, John Proctor, suggested that as future nominations are not needed until the spring of 2021, there is time to consider the matter before making a decision. On that basis, Mission Council passed the resolution as it stood, on the understanding that proposals to change the rule about consent could be brought to Mission Council or General Assembly in 2020.
Paper M3 summarises changes to Mission Council that were agreed in May 2019. The Revd Jacky Embrey drew attention to point 11, that membership of Mission Council shall include ‘four further representatives of each Synod from among that Synod’s representatives to the immediately preceding General Assembly.’ She pointed out that this seemed to exclude anyone who for whatever reason had not made it to Assembly, and that would not be good for continuity.
Mission Council agreed to insert the word ‘normally’ into point 11, allowing synods to use their discretion.
Paper M1: Resourcing worship
“Worship is when we meet God intentionally, humbly and together. It is at the core of the church’s life. It gives us lift, focus and perspective.” So began the Revd John Proctor, General Secretary, who along with the Revd Richard Church, Deputy General Secretary (Discipleship), introduced Paper M1 on resourcing worship research. Worship is the one thing in which every member of the URC engages, no matter the style or setting.
After a discussion at Mission Council a year ago, a research project was established to look at worship in the URC. The work looked at whether support for individuals charged with preparing and leading worship was needed and if the URC needed specific worship support, since the loss of the Doctrine, Prayer and Worship Committee some ten years ago.
Mission Council agreed to set up a worship reference group to respond to requests from churches. The group will:
- curate and advocate existing resources, linking with Walking the Way and eventually, with Stepwise Faith Filled Worship;
- support worship preparation, by gathering worship leaders in Synods who could support worship development;
- maintain a regular worship mailing with updates, news, and links to good worship practice.
The group will be accountable to the Faith and Order committee, creating a body which will exercise a proactive concern for the development of collective worship throughout the denomination.
Paper M4: Appointments to the General Secretariat
Acting on behalf of General Assembly, the Mission Council appointed the Revd Dr John Bradbury to serve as General Secretary of the United Reformed Church from 1 June 2020 to the end of General Assembly 2027.
The Revd Nigel Uden, one of the Moderators of the URC General Assembly, and convenor of the Nominating Group, said: “In John Bradbury, the Nominating Group believes it brings the name of a person with the combination of gifts and graces the United Reformed Church requires in these changing times.
“A person of intelligence and warmth, of experience and energy, John offers much to build upon all that his predecessors gave, and to join with us all in working for the church's next chapter.”
On his return to the meeting, Revd Bradbury was greeted with warm applause. He addressed Mission Council saying: “Moderator, thank you. I’m slightly caught on the hop because I was expecting this moment tomorrow so you’ve got me without my suit on!
“It’s been quite a journey to this particular moment for me, which began a couple of years ago when the first person took me to one side and said ‘John, have you wondered whether …’ I’m sure many of our journeys have started in that particular kind of way.
“It’s an extraordinary privilege to be invited to take on this role, and I do so with a certain amount of trepidation and a certain amount of excitement.
“For this particular moment to be church in western Europe is perhaps one of the most demanding moments that people have asked to be followers of Christ in western Europe for centuries.
“Our faith is one of cross and resurrection and we seem to be live with quite a lot of cross at the moment. But we live too as followers of the risen Christ, and we live as people called to plant seeds of resurrection in what sometimes might feel like difficult soil to till.
“Yet we see around us all sorts of new possibilities of Christian life emerging in new forms and shapes, many of which take on a deep resonance with the history of the life of the Church.
“And so it is that we live in this moment between cross and resurrection, and that will not be an easy place to live, but I think it can be a rich and fertile place to live.
“I very much look forward to working out what that means for us as the United Reformed Church as we continue to walk the way as disciples of Christ, proclaiming the gospel here and now in this place and this time in the sure and certain hope that God is not finished with us yet. Thank you.”
Paper I1: Legacies of slavery
Alan Yates, Immediate-past Moderator of the General Assembly, presented this emotive paper. He began by saying: “Whilst no one here would dispute the equivalence of all God’s children, the road that we might take in deciding upon an apology, seeking some form of reparation and dismantling white privilege can be an arduous one.” As he spoke slides were show. One showed a picture of a stained-glass window which was a present from the people of Wales to the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama that depicted Christ as a man of colour. He shared with Mission Council his mental and spiritual journey on CWM’s Legacies of Slavery (LoS) project which began for him in 2017, when he attended a LoS hearings in London. Mr Yates said he readily accepted the invitation to participate as he was “well aware of the scourge of slavery today”. At first, he thought that slavery was over and done with, but he realised its legacy was alive and present. During the first hearing he heard evidence that he found both disturbing and encouraging.
On a visit to the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, he shared with Mission Council how he listened to people talk about how they “felt second-rate” because of their colour. The pain he heard them describe continued when he went to Birmingham, Alabama. He described how a picture hangs above the spot where white supremacists intentionally planted a bomb to go off during Sunday school which killed four young black girls. A clock which stopped ticking at the precise moment the bomb went off still stands there.
Mr Yates presented more slides and described them in detail, including one showing an art installation of hanging rusty coffins which carry the names of people who were lynched. The coffins are rusty so that when it rains, water drops down upon the floor to look like blood. More than 4,000 names were inscribed on these coffins and most of the names resemble Scottish or English names. Mr Yates shared how this caused him to break down and weep.
“These symbolic coffins embodied the continued legacy of slavery,” he said. “Black deprivation, white supremacy and deep racism at its worst. Slavery is not done and dusted. Its legacy is alive and kicking.” Shockingly, he then informed Mission Council that lynching, how many blacks were killed by whites in America, was only made a federal crime 10 months ago.
He said that Mission committee has set up a task group to provide a possible response to the CWM’s report on legacies of slavery. The report has been discussed over many hours and three recommendations are made in the form of an apology, reparation, and eliminating white privilege in the URC.
Mr Yates advised that a decision is not being sought at this Mission Council but guidance, as to what the mission committee does next via this task group, is being sought so that the results of that guidance can be taken to the succeeding Mission Council or General Assembly.
Points of clarification was sought from the floor and a concern was raised that the paper didn’t paint the whole picture. E.g. it did not mention those who in the Church’s history who profited from slavery or the work of Presbyterians and Congregationalists who opposed slavery. A “fuller story” was needed said the speaker. Mr Yates addressed the points of clarification and expressed the need for caution against making a quick decision without thinking through any form of reparation as the two go hand in hand. “If seen just to make an apology, it might come across as hollow” he explained. Mr Yates added that with the help of the URC History Society, some research had been carried out and the task group was conscious that it had only scratched the surface.
The issue is not about getting into the detail of the history, but about understanding the history enough that the legacies are seen as real today, and it’s the legacies that the task group is keen to address. Mr Yates explained that he felt getting into the detail e.g which church has benefited from those that were directly connected to slavery would be a distraction to addressing the issues today.
Bernie Collins, Convenor of the mission committee spoke about the group work which would take place on day two of Mission Council. The task group’s first report is being shared as it is seeking guidance on how to share the findings with the wider church, he explained. Mission Council was asked then asked to answer questions in groups and to then forward the outcome of discussions to Mr Yates so that the task group could go through them and take the necessary action.
The Revd Dr Michael Jagessar, Secretary for Global and Intercultural Ministries, also took to the podium to say that it was important to recognise that there were people who opposed slavery, and that the intention is to explore all legacies of slavery, that it is not a critique of individuals, but about providing a collective response
Reporting by: Andy Jackson, Head of Communications, Ann-Marie Abbasah, Communications Officer, and Steve Tomkins, Editor of Reform magazine.
