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News from the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church which met in Nottingham between the 11th and 14th of July 1998.
A fuller report will be found in the September issue of:
The Moderator of General Assembly
Wilma Frew was born in 1939, and grew up in the southern outskirts of Glasgow. The family attended Giffnock Congregational Church, and commitment to the life of the church was an integral park of Wilma's upbringing.
Educated at Hutchesons' Girls' Grammar School and Glasgow University, she has an MA degree and an LGSM teaching diploma in speech and drama. On graduation, Wilma became the Employment officer in one of the large thread mills in Paisley, Renfrewshire. She gave up this job on marriage to Iain in 1962.
The next five years saw the arrival of Elaine, Linda and Colin and home in Renfrewshire, North Shields and Sutton Coldfield in pursuit of Iain's medical career. On settling in the Midlands the family transferred their membership from Whitley Bay Congregational Church, to Sutton Coldfield.
While the children were young, Wilma concentrated on her role as home-maker and mother, but fitted in a number of outside activities as the opportunity presented. Over the years she was, amongst other things, a volunteer receptionist for Marriage Guidance and helper at an old people's lunch club, governor at two schools and a member of the parents' council of a third, chairman of the local scout group and of the Sutton Coldfield War on Want group, campaigning on the Nestlé baby milk issue. Since 1968 she has been an active member (and was founder President of) the Sutton Coldfield Association of Women Graduates, a branch of an organisation devoted to the interests of women world-wide and the encouragement of the their education and role in public life. Wilma taught in Junior Church at Wylde Green for ten years. She became and elder in 1976.
When the family had grown up, she was able to develop her interests. Since then there have been three main strands in her life, apart from Iain and the family. In 1984 she was appointed a magistrate on the Sutton coldfield bench and now chairs Adult, Youth and Family courts. Her early service as a school governor grew onto a twenty-one year term on the Board of a small independent girls' school during a time of expansion, a major upgrading and eventual relocation to more appropriate premises. Her commitment to the church has been ongoing. Wilma trained as a lay preacher and she and Iain were nationally accredited in 1990. She served Wylde Green as its church secretary for five years. Convenership of the Visitation Committee in the URC Birmingham District Council introduced her to the wider church.
In 1988, she was appointed West Midlands Synod Clerk. This took her into the National Executive (now Mission Council) and appointment as convenor of the Assembly arrangements Committee in 1992.
Wilma has been in the Mission Council advisory Group since 1994 and has served in a number of commissions and specially appointed groups, including several nominating groups for Provincial Moderators. She convened the Commitment for Life review group in 1995 and is volunteer advocate for the programme. She is one of the two URC representatives to the WCC Assembly in Harare in December 1998.
For relaxation, Wilma is an enthusiastic amateur flower arranger and enjoys knitting and sewing.
Moderator's Address
Moderator Wilma Frew employed the symbol of a compass for an address which combined comfort and challenge. Just as a compass gauged physical direction, so the Cross was the touchstone for judging the spiritual direction of the Church, calling the URC to stand back and take an objective look at its own direction. One direction she identified was the march towards unity embodied in the formation of the URC. Where churches had held to the spirit of that march they had prospered spiritually and numerically, while those who looked constantly backwards had found the journey much harder. To those who feared their fellowship was too small and elderly she issued a challenge to open the gospel to the increasing numbers of people ‘who may be old in years but young in faith’. To those conscious of a lack of young people she pointed to the huge numbers involved in activities, though perhaps absent from worship, and called for imaginative outreach which recognized the real changes in society.
Recognizing the picture of 'genteel decline' in many congregations she nevertheless reminded Assembly of the many success stories throughout the Church – 'strong healthy fellowships of all sizes which are full of life'. Calling for the Church to refocus on its missionary purpose she looked for churches offering a sense of purpose in a society which promises so much and delivers so little. Our commitment to unity was as strong as ever, she concluded, but let us grow towards unity rather than fade gently into it. (Saturday afternoon)
Coming of age
Approval was given to a new strategy designed to develop a more positive appreciation of the role and gifts of older people within the church and wider society and a better understanding of the problems facing them.The Church and Society and Discipleship, Stewardship and Witness Committees were instructed to encourage debate on the many issues surrounding the increasing average age of the general population. The Church’s policy statements on equal opportunities will be amended to include provisions preventing discrimination on grounds of age, whether youth or old age. (Saturday afternoon)
No debate
By a majority of 258 to 202, Assembly decided not to put to the vote a motion which would have had the effect of re-opening the discussion on the 1997 motion (Resolution 19) which laid down the framework within which ordinations take place during the interim period while the Church studies the issue of human sexuality, including the question of the ordination of those engaged in a homosexual relationship. (Saturday evening)
Better together
At the end of the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, Assembly gave thanks for the work of the URC's own ofshoot of that process, Sharing People in Network (SPIN). A new network is to be created -- The Community of Women and Men in the Church -- to ensure 'that the issues which primarily diminish women are tackled effectively'. (Saturday evening)
Something to sing about
The text of the Revd David Jenkins' sermon at Sunday morning's Communion service.
Watts happening?
Local churches are to be encouraged to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the death of Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer, whose words shaped English hymnody and popular theology for generations. The anniversary takes place on November 25th and will be marked by a hymn-writing competition, details of which will be announced in the autumn. In adddition to the celebrations, local fellowships will be encouraged to use Watts' hymns in worship and Bible-study over the following 12 months. (Sunday morning)
Gearing up for mission
Assembly gave an enthusiastic welcome to the ambitious new programme designed to help rekindle the spirit of mission in this country by learning from and with the world Church.
Words like 'inspiring' and 'visionary' were very much to the fore as Assembly endorsed the proposals for the Belonging to the World Church programme, which will see a massive increase in the opportunities for contact at all levels with the URC's 30+ partners through the Council for World Mission (CWM) and through the wider community of Reformed churches. The proposals include a period training overseas for all future ordinanrds and church-related community workers. There will also be increased opportunities for lay-training alongside personnel from overseas, young people's exchanges and overseas in-service training for those taking up posts as Provincial Moderators or Assembly appointed staff such. General Assembly will make more extensive use of speakers from partner churches and each of the Church's 12 Provinces will act annually as host to an overseas representative who will spend time in a local pastorate, followed by a number of weeks speaking and teaching in their respective provinces.
The £250,000 annual cost of the programme will come both from the URC's own resources and through grants from CWM, which recently received some £90 million pounds through the sale of property in Hong Kong and is using that money to promote mission amongst its member churches. The URC is being encouraged by CWM itself to look to its own mission needs and Belonging to the World Church is one of the first responses. (Sunday afternoon)
Unity go-ahed
Assembly gave first approval to proposals for union between the URC and the Congregational Union of Scotland. The scheme will be brought to next year’s Assembly for final ratification unless 1/3 of provincial synods or district councils object. If approved the union would bring some 60 churches, with around 6000 members, into the URC. The scheme was passed with only three abstentions and received warm good wishes from representatives of the Church of Scotland and the Congregational Federation during the course of the debate. Identical proposals will now be placed before the Assembly of the CUS. (Sunday evening)
Training
After a long, detailed and lively discussion Assembly passed overwhelmingly a series of motions designed to further a process of review of the Church's training which has been going on for four years. This year's motions dealt first with provision for post-ordination training during the three years following the commencement of ministry. The new programme will combine individual work with a local advisor, group work with other new ministers within a Province and nationally-run training weekends. New ministers will undertake a total of six courses over their first three years.
Recognising that the need for ministerial education does not end after three years, Assembly went on to endorse a new programme which strongly urges all ministers to engage in two weeks of relevant ministerial training per year, with the expectation that this will be the norm after September 2000. 'A week' is defined as running from Monday morning until Friday afternoon, with the expectation that the minister will not be required to preach on the following Sunday. District Councils will be urged to make agreements with ministers under their oversight.
There was somewhat less unity on the subject of the colleges to be used for the training of ordinands for the foreseeable future. A review of the current colleges had come to the conclusion two major training centres were required to train students for the ministry, with the option of sending relatively small number of students to the independent ecumenical foundation of The Queen's College in Birmingham. The review, which also examined the ways in which colleges had responded to the Church's changing needs in the field of training, recommended that training be concentrated in Westminster College, Cambridge, and Northern College, Manchester, together with Queens, and that Mansfield College, Oxford, no longer be used for ministerial training.
The Church's Mission Council, meeting in March, had refused to accept this recommendation fully but had decided, in order to remove uncertainty, to affirm the use of Westminster, Northern and Queens Colleges for the foreseeable future, while leaving a decision on the use of Mansfield until early next year. It was this proposal which Assembly was invited to confirm. Assembly declined to pass an amendment which would have reinstated Mansfield College to the list of recommended institutions immediately, and passed the motion from Mission Council by a substantial majority. (Monday morning).
Equal Opportunities
Assembly put flesh on previous commitments to equal opportunities by receiving and commeding for use a new document setting out detailed guidelines for local churches in this area. The guidelines include checklists covering the legal requirements, good practice in the fields of recruitment and employment, provision of services and the monitoring of performance. 'Equal Opportunities Policy for Local Churches' is available from Church House.
Lead on
After several unsuccessful attempts over the past few years to define precise patterns of local leadership for the future, Assembly accepted a new set of guidelines which will enable provinces and districts to identify forms of leadership appropriate to local needs and to provide local leaders with recognition. Among the criteria for recognition would be clear agreements as to the scope of the work, acceptance of the authority of the District Council, partnership with ordained ministers and the Eldership and a willingness to undertake appropriate training.
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