Hotline

Welcome to the 2005 edition of Assembly Hotline. You will find here a record of the main events and some of the background to the meeting of General Assembly at the University of Warwick from July 2nd - 5th, 2005.

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Monday afternoon/evening, July 4th 2005

Catch the structures

Assembly caught the vision. After two years of consultation and debate it was clear that the Catch the Vision steering group had done a remarkable job of discerning the mood of the Church.

Though not without a few procedural wrangles and protestations that the proposals were too vague, Assembly overwhelmingly endorsed all of the proposals for structural change in the Church. The details have yet to be filled in, but the future shape of the Church will see the disappearance of district councils, at least in their present form. The only council between General Assembly and the local church will be the 13 'new synods'.

Resolutions 40, 41

One aim is to reduce dramatically the number of meetings with which ministers and other church leaders are burdened, freeing up more time and energy for the task of mission. Equally important, the new structure will free each synod to decide its own shape when it comes to the delivery of care and oversight at the local level. Where once there was a single pattern of district councils, the future will see a variety of new forms of partnership at the local level.

Assembly also agreed to a major extension of the current 'special category ministry' scheme which provides the resources to place ministers in situations where misson calls for pioneering work to be done outside normal structures or in local church contexts where numbers might not otherwise justify the placing of a minister. Evangelism and multicultural work are just two of the areas likely to benefit from the creation of up to 30 new posts, some of which could be filled from outside the URC if new skills are needed.

Resolution 39

Finally, Assembly endorsed the creation of a commission to explore the propect of creating a single synod covering the whole of London, which is currently divided between the North Thames and Southern synods.

Resolution 42

Monday morning, July 3rd 2005

Age discrimination

Assembly agreed to a review of equal opportunities policy, especially with regard to discrimination on the basis of age.

Resolution 3

Target representation

In twin resolutions  Assembly moved towards the more effective application of its equal opportunities policies to appointments to the Church’s senior posts and to its Assembly committees. Under new targets – rather than quotas – the Nominations Committee will seek to ensure that overall nominations to committees include equal numbers of men and women and at least 10% representation from members of minority ethnic groups. Alongside this the Church will also work on a strategy to ensure the same balance applies to appointments to posts such as synod moderators and assembly staff. The resolutions provoked lively debate but were passed by a substantial majority.

Resolutions: 16, 36

Life and Witness Committee

Brian JollyConvenor Brian Jolly, presenting the report of the Life and Witness Committee highlighted work on the problem of rural migrant workers and the leaflet , together with the new booklet produced by the Committee, called 'Bridging the gap in the URC', on the sharing of stories of evangelism within the Church. The Committee was congratulated from the floor for its work on evangelism and the progress of the Windermere Centre.

Mission Council Report

Ray Adams

In response to a question from the floor, Deputy General Secretary told Assembly that the reason that proposals on training provision had not been brought to Assembly, as had been expected, was that substantial sections of the Training Committees proposed report, had not been felt to be acceptable by Mission Council at its meeting in March.

(debate suspended)

Nominations Committee

Report accepted.

  

 

 

 

  

Highlights

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Catch the Vision

Read all the 'Catch the Vision' material

Photo diary

Sidelights on Assembly in pictures

Profile

The new Moderator

The Moderator's Address

David Peel calls for a new framework for life and mission.

Have your say

Send us your comments on this year's business