36 mins
Reports to the 2018 General Assembly
REPORTS
photo credits: Derek Fett Photography
COUNCIL OF ASSEMBLY
“We live in an era of unprecedented change, rapid and unabating. For an organisation such as the Church that changes very slowly, this leads to nervousness and a sense of uncertainty,” begins the Council of Assembly report.
The report introduces a new 10-year Strategic Plan for the Church, as instructed by the Assemblies of 2016 and 2017. The resulting document, entitled ‘Worshipping God, Inspiring Faith, Connecting People’, is a result of the series of roadshows from 2016-17 and consultations with Conveners and representatives of all the major Councils, the Ecumenical Relations Committee, the General Trustees and with members of the Youth Assembly.
The plan sets out the context the church is currently working in, its challenges (shrinking membership and ministry numbers, too many inadequate buildings, falling income and ineff ective structures) and strengths (committed people, a base in every community in Scotland, ecumenical breadth and outlook and proven track record of engagement in social reform, social care delivery and working with people at the margins of society).
It then commits the church to eight overarching goals: ‘People Confident in Faith serving in communities’, ‘thriving intergenerational churches’, ‘growing congregations’, ‘people engaged with local and global concerns’, ‘well-supported ministry teams’, ‘well-equipped spaces in the right
places’, ‘sustainable finances’ and ‘eff ective local, regional and national structures’.
In each case, roles are identified for local, regional and national church, and measurable targets are included to be met over the coming years.
There are also four principles underlying the whole strategy: ‘whatever we do, we do prayerfully, with humility and seeking to be in tune with the spirit of God at work in the world’, ‘the activities which we undertake must be sustainable’, ‘flexibility of delivery and choice appropriate to context’ and local, regional and national levels of church ‘working in an integrated and co-operative way’.
The Council, which commits in its report to an annual update with assessment of progress towards the goals, commends the Plan to the General Assembly, ‘asking for a wholehearted and cooperative commitment from all sectors of the Church to making it work’.
Elsewhere in the Council report, and related to some of the strategy goals, is an update on the National Offices Buildings Project. The report notes that the George Street offices are showing their age, outdated and inefficiently used, with many staff working remotely or in meetings.
The three options for the building are:
• basic repair and maintenance to make it wind and watertight and meet modern health and safety standards, which will cost over £3m;
• a more comprehensive refurbishment which would enable parts of the building to be sold or leased out, which would be more expensive but generate an income;
• relocating altogether, which the report says would be dependent on the right property being available, at the right time and the right price, but ‘is unlikely to be possible without significant financial outlay’ The report suggests that ‘Option 2 may be the best way forward (but) there is still considerable work to be done to clarify the detail and in particular to determine how such a project would best be financed’.
Therefore, the Council doesn’t bring a firm recommendation to the Assembly but requests an instruction to continue a programme of work on the project and bring a further report in 2019.
The central church’s financial operating results for 2017 were significantly better than expected, but still ran at a deficit of nearly £1.8m. The Council of Assembly also notes that improved results were ‘not entirely due to welcome causes’ – including a substantial decline in the number of ministers, resulting in an underspend on stipend and salary costs.
The revised budget for 2018 indicates a deficit of around £4m, more than half of which is accounted for by the Social Care Council. The report notes: ‘this position is not sustainable beyond the short term’. It also warns that ‘in 2016 aggregate offerings decreased by 1.5% and it is likely that there will have been a further decrease in 2017’.
Proposals for the 2019 budget were not available at the time of going to press, and will be presented to the Assembly in a Supplementary Report.
ASSEMBLY ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEE
The Assembly Arrangements Committee brings measures to address what it says is ‘a concern that the Assembly is not exercising its governance and legislative functions as well as it could and should do’.
These include proposals to reduce the length of speeches, limiting conveners’ speeches to 15 minutes and the time allowed for moving amendments and counter-motions to five minutes.
A leaflet is to be produced and distributed with the Assembly mailing, and a short video placed on the Church’s website, encouraging commissioners to ‘consider the work of our Church in terms of theology and sociology… we should ask if the report we are considering fits with what we believe and… whether the approach being suggested is right for our context’.
The General Assembly app has been discontinued in favour of developing www.gapublications.co.uk as ‘a cross-platform, web-based resource’. All General Assembly papers are accessible from this site.
The proceedings, and Heart and Soul, will again be webcast through the Church website, with an option including British Sign Language; and again the debate of each Council and Committee’s report will be available to playback online within 24 hours.
CHURCH OF SCOTLAND GUILD
The Guild reports on the conclusion of its three-year programme based around the strategy ‘Be Bold! Be Strong!’.
The money raised for the six partner projects – Street Pastors, Care for the Family, Christian Aid’s work in Bolivia, Feed the Minds’ anti-FGM work, Mission International in Haiti and Prospects – totalled over £600,000 from 2015 to mid-February this year.
The strategy for the coming three years is entitled ‘One Journey, Many Roads’, and the theme for 2018-19 is ‘Seeking the Way’.
The Guild also announces that initial contacts have been made towards the possible twinnings of Scottish Guilds with those in Malawi.
At home, it announces that there have been 600 new members in 2017- 18, but acknowledges ‘a backdrop of difficult challenges around membership numbers, demographics, lifestyle issues and finance’,
However, it says, ‘the Guild has sought to face up to problems and to find new approaches’.
Kirk Sessions, Presbyteries, and national councils and committees of the Church are encouraged to consider how they can offer support for the Guild.
The Guild has also been working with Faith in Older People exploring the ways in which the church relates to older people; and plans are being made to explore the issues of loneliness and isolation, through a conference event and the setting up of ‘a network of interested parties’.
MORE SUMMARIES NEXT MONTH
The General Assembly opens on Saturday May 19. Life and Work will provide regular updates from the General Assembly at www.lifeandwork.org and there will be comprehensive coverage in July’s magazine.
Full reports, daily papers, conveners’ speeches and a webcast of proceedings.are available at www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about_us/general_assembly
This article appears in the May 2018 Issue of Life and Work
If you would like to view other issues of Life and Work, you can see the full archive
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