Mission Planning and Beeching

It was 60 years ago that Dr Beeching, on the instruction of the then Minister for Transport Ernest Marples, made public his infamous plan for the reshaping of the railways.

A few parts of the plan proved to be a success. However much of the plan was not, especially in respect of line closures the impact of which are still felt today by communities up and down the country.

The Beeching Report remains the subject of debate. There was no doubt that to survive, the railways needed to be rationalised and consolidated but in my, and many others, opinion Beeching and Marples’ plan was most certainly not the best way forward and did more damage than good.

The Church of Scotland is in a similar position, rationalisation is essential for the Church’s survival. This work is probably the most important the Church has ever had to undertake. That being so, at national and presbytery levels, recruitment of the best people to prepare and review presbytery plans with appropriate skills, knowledge and experience of a major reorganisation was vital. If those skills were not available within the Church it would be prudent to recruit externally suitably qualified, and objective personnel as employees or consultants. An open and inclusive process would also enable the rationale behind difficult decisions to be understood and perhaps more readily accepted. This was an opportunity to prepare practical, workable and palatable presbytery plans.

The task at hand was made more difficult by fixing a finite number of posts for ministers of Word and Sacrament in each Presbytery and then significantly reducing that number. A tight time scale was also applied. It is essential that the wide ranging information required is complete and accurate. If that is not the case, wrong conclusions could be reached and, as the Mission Plan Act as enacted states, cannot be challenged.

With the right people in place, the best information and a practical and patient process it should be possible to produce mission plans that are fit for purpose, foster communication, co-operation and collaboration and form a solid base for development and growth.

Whether the Church of Scotland’s reorganisation plans will fare better than Beeching and Marples’ plan for the railways remains to be seen. Just as some of the more extreme cuts suggested for the railways were tempered by a change of Government there is scope to amend plans that have gone astray. That will require courage on the part of those involved to stand up and suggest a better alternative and humility on the part of planners to accept that their initial vision may have been awry. I hope and pray that presbytery plans do a much better job for the Church than Beeching and Marples did for the railways but from what I have seen and heard thus far, I do have real concerns that they might not.

John Kirk, elder at Edinburgh: St Cuthbert’s