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Ecumenical
The role of the
Ecumenical Committee is to foster ecumenical development in the life
of the United Reformed Church:
a) in response to
the Basis of Union (para.8)
‘The United
Reformed Church has been formed in obedience to the call to repent of
what has been amiss in the past and to be reconciled. It sees its
formation and growth as a part of what God is doing to make his people
one, and as a united church will take, wherever possible and with all
speed, further steps towards the unity of all God’s people.’
b) in relation to
other churches and the wider community ‑ in these islands, across
Europe, and throughout the world.
The committee
will seek to ensure that wherever the United Reformed Church meets in
worship, council or committee, it is working in partnership with
Christians in the locality, the World Church and the whole human
family.
TASKS
Among the tasks
of this committee is listening to those with experience of the World
Church, including other Christian traditions in Britain and Ireland,
and to those with experience of current affairs and of other faiths.
The Committee
maintains official United Reformed Church links with overseas churches
and world and regional ecumenical organisations. It guides the United
Reformed Church’s participation in the Council for World Mission.
Through it
official contact is made with British and Irish ecumenical bodies.
The work of
selecting, training and caring for missionaries and overseeing
exchange of personnel is undertaken by the International Exchange
Sub‑Committee.
Committee
Members
Convener:
Revd John Rees
Secretaries: Revd Sheila Maxey, Secretary for Ecumenical Relations
Revd
Philip Woods, Secretary for International Relations
Revd Dale Rominger, International Relations
Programme Officer
Members: Revd Mary Buchanan (‑ 2002), Revd Phillip Jones (‑
2002), Revd Elizabeth Nash (‑ 2002), Revd Bryan Shirley, Mrs Darnette
Whitby‑Reid, Revd Cecil White, Revd Rowena Francis (2002 ‑), Mr
Malcolm Porter (2002 ‑) Revd Lindsay Sanderson (2002 ‑)
The National
Synod of Scotland: Revd John Smith (‑2002), Revd Mary Buchanan
(2002 ‑)
The National
Synod of Wales: Revd Stuart Jackson.
Convener of
the International Exchange Sub‑Committee: Revd John Crocker (‑
2002), Revd Chris Baillie (2002 ‑)
Representatives of other committees: Dr Andrew Bradstock (Church
and Society), Revd Alistair Ellefsen‑Jones (Inter‑Faith Relations),
Revd Carole Ellefsen‑Jones (Training), Revd Hugh Graham (Doctrine,
Prayer and Worship), Revd Suzanne Hamnett (Life and Witness), Mrs
Rosemary Johnston (Youth and Children’s Work), Ms Avis Reaney
(Finance), Mrs Katalina Tahaafe‑Williams (Racial Justice).
Representatives of other churches: Mrs Elizabeth Fisher (Church of
England), Revd Peter Sulston (Methodist Church), Revd Colin McClure
(Presbyterian Church in Ireland)
1. Introduction
1.1
The Three Ecumenical Principles for
a Missionary Church in Today’s World were brought to the
2001 General Assembly by the Ecumenical Committee and, with one
amendment, adopted and commissioned to be produced in the form of an
attractive leaflet. Those leaflets were available by the 2002 General
Assembly and have been widely distributed, not only to every local
United Reformed Church, but also to colleagues and visitors from other
churches at home and abroad.
1.2
The Ecumenical Committee has continued to use them
as a yardstick for its work and so this report will group a selection
from the wide range of the committee’s activities over the past two
years under the three headings of the ecumenical principles.
1.3
In addition, a theme runs like a golden thread
through this report, as it does through all the work of the committee:
we are about relationships before we are about structures.
Ecumenical relationships without structures are very vulnerable and so
the committee must also be concerned with the structures of
partnership at home and abroad, but structures without relationships
are lifeless.
2 . ¼ to expand
the range and deepen the nature of the Christian common life and
witness in each local community.
2.1
In April 2002, the Methodist/United Reformed
Church Liaison Committee sponsored a consultation, hosted by the
Mid and West Wiltshire United Areas, on the possible use of that
ecumenical model elsewhere. Participants came from all over England
and Wales, with more from the United Reformed Church than the
Methodist Church. This reflected the relevance of the model of a
united area for our church at this time of clustering and grouping and
radical re‑thinking.
2.2.1
The two main conclusions were, firstly, that there
must already be good relationships on the ground, and they must go
beyond one or two individuals, if the structure of a united area
(serving as both district council and circuit) is to be effective:
and, secondly, that the life and witness of the shared local church
life of these two churches would benefit from serious doctrinal
conversations on our understandings of ministry and of authority. A
brief report of the consultation can be found on the ecumenical page
of the United Reformed Church web site.
2.2
In November 2002, the Group for Local Unity of
Churches Together in England hosted a consultation entitled ‘Local
Ecumenical Partnerships in changing times.’ It was an open‑ended,
some would say incoherent, consultation. No one doubted that single
congregation LEPs were here to stay. Like any other local church,
they needed to be enabled and challenged by the parent churches.
However, the emphasis of the consultation was on taking local
covenants to a deeper level of commitment ‑ an example of
relationships before structures. That emphasis was not unconnected to
the ecumenical enthusiasm of the Roman Catholic and Baptist
representatives. The former cannot enter into single congregation
LEPs and the latter were more concerned with shared mission and
service. The Salvation Army’s growing ecumenical commitment is also a
new factor in the changing ecumenical landscape.
2.3
The Secretary for Racial Justice has twice given
presentations to the committee on various ways in which the United
Reformed Church might develop closer relations with congregations
from the Reformed family, who do not (mainly) worship in English and
who often share our buildings. The quality of the local
relationships, with a few exceptions, does not yet seem ready for more
formal recognition that we and they are part of the same part of the
body of Christ. In this we lag behind some of our UK partner churches
and are failing to respond to our changing society.
2.4
In April 2002 the committee hosted a
consultation of younger ecumenists (i.e. under 40) from within the
United Reformed Church and asked them about their vision for the
future of the Church. They saw one church in terms of organisation
and interchangeability of leadership in each local community ‑ but
worshipping in several places and in different styles. Although
impatient of present denominational divisions, they were concerned
about where authority lay and anxious about abuse of power, whether by
councils or by individual leaders.
3 to proclaim
more clearly, in word and deed, that in Christ we are one World Church
family living in a world which God loves
3.1
Developing relationships with particular partner
churches around the world through the personal experience of as many
people as possible has been at the heart of the Belonging to the World
Church programme. (see resolution 19) But the committee is also
responsible for church‑to‑church relationships, expressed through
and beyond the Council for World Mission.
3.2
The committee has given priority to partnerships
with churches in particular need.
The Churches of
Christ in Malawi is a CWM member church of 50,000 members, with
only 20 ministers and 6 evangelists ‑ and yet is thriving on local lay
leadership. Malawi, including the Churches of Christ schools, needs
teachers because one‑third have died of HIV/AIDS. Through the pages
of Reform this need has been promoted, but when one considers what
they are achieving with a model of ministry inherited from the British
Churches of Christ we have as much to receive from them as to give.
The United Reformed
Church has developed relations with two Presbyterian churches in
Angola over the years, offering occasional scholarships in
Britain. Today, having listened to them about what can be achieved in
Angola, we are funding English teaching and other training programmes
there at a fraction of the cost of bringing Angolans over here to
train and so offering new opportunities to many more people than had
previously been the case.
In response to the
desperate situation in the Middle East, and at the request of the 2001
General Assembly, the United Reformed Church is developing relations
with the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon. A
consultation, with the theme ‘Identity’, was held in February 2003 at
a time when all eyes were on Iraq and what would unfold there.
3.3 Some
partnerships are more explicitly reciprocal.
Our two Korean
partner churches, the Presbyterian Church of Korea and the
Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, are considering the
possibility of uniting and asked to come and learn about our history
and current life as a united church. We and they were challenged by
the visit which took place in October 2002. They spent time in London
and in the South Western Synod and, whilst impressed with our union
and our commitment to ecumenism and to working ecumenically, they
wondered what we understood by mission and indeed whether mission in
the UK was suffering because of a lack of competitive spirit between
the churches! This dialogue will continue in October in Korea.
Our two Ghanaian
partner churches, the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the
Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, after decades of sending a
Ghanaian minister to serve us and the Ghanaian community in the London
area, have, in 2001 and 2002, also hosted parties of United Reformed
Church ministers who have Ghanaians in their congregations. Over a
period of ten days they were introduced into the culture, rites of
passage and spirituality of Ghanaian Presbyterians. Thanks are due to
Revd John Danso who had the original idea for this most useful
in‑service training event, which has been picked up in the Belonging
to the World Church programme. In 2004 this will move to the
Caribbean with an event aimed primarily at those with Jamaicans in
their congregation.
In June 2002 the
Evangelische Kirche der Pfalz and the United Reformed Church signed a
new partnership agreement at their bi‑annual theological
consultation in Landau, Germany, as they look to the 50th anniversary
of this partnership in 2007. This is one of our longest‑standing
partnerships and involves congregational twinnings, exchange of
ministers, and a particular link with the Yorkshire synod.
3.4
The World Church family gathers in larger
groupings, sometimes according to geography, sometimes according
to church tradition, in order to identify and carry out their
particular common calling. Although these gatherings ‑ for example,
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, the Conference of
European Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the
Disciples Ecumenical Consultative Council, the World Council of
Churches ‑ may seem faceless structures to those who never
experience them, they consist of people on whose commitment and
enthusiasm and openness to other perspectives much depends. If the
World Church family is to witness to the reconciling power of the
Gospel in a broken and warring world then people must meet and listen
to one another, however difficult that might be – and then share those
insights back home.
3.4.1
For example, six United Reformed Church people
attended the Seventh International Consultation of United and
Uniting Churches in September 2002 in the Netherlands ‑ all in
different capacities. One was the official representative of the
United Reformed Church, one a member of the planning group, one a
keynote speaker, one presenting a case study, one leading a Bible
study and one representing the Welsh Commission of Covenanting
Churches. Out of that face to face meeting with people from churches
in every continent which had united or were trying to unite for a
variety of reasons, came important questions (based on some
challenging encounters!) which touch our life as the United Reformed
Church: Are we better able, as a united church, to address the issues
which divide the human family? While pursuing unity at home, do we
perpetuate or even encourage disunity abroad by the way we practise
partnership in mission? Do we cherish the streams of tradition which
formed us, so that we do not just become another denomination but a
church on the way to a greater unity we cannot yet see?
3.5
Relationships, especially beyond the local, are
particularly vulnerable in times of financial pressure. The
United Reformed Church has, in the past, contributed to the UK
ecumenical bodies out of proportion to its size. The committee, with
much regret, took the opportunity of a revised formula for the member
churches’ contributions and decided to offer only the required
minimum. At its January 2003 meeting, it agreed to make further cuts
in the 2004 budget by freezing, for a year, grants to various other
ecumenical pieces of work and bodies.
3.6
The Council for World Mission is our closest
World Church family and the richest. It has been using its new
money creatively and generously, with an emphasis on mission, on
ecumenical working, and on devolving initiative to its regions. It is
through CWM money that the United Reformed Church has been able to
develop its multi‑cultural, multi‑racial ministry and to support some
exciting local mission projects identified by Mission Council’s
Advisory Group on Grants and Loans. CWM money has made it possible to
appoint a full‑time European Region Mission Enabler, Ms Francis
Brienen. But CWM is about much more than money. Our relationships
within that family are being continually strengthened by the sending
and receiving of mission partners, by the Assembly Moderators’ visits,
by synod exchanges and partnerships with particular churches, by the
sharing of news through Inside Out and the CWM videos, and by regular
praying for one another with the help of the Prayer Handbook.
3.7
The World Church family lives, as our ecumenical
principle states, ‘in a world which God loves’ and so the political
and economic context in which our partners live is of concern to us.
Since September 11 2001 (a day on which the committee was meeting)
the committee has had the international situation on its agenda as
never before, with our understanding of global events being
informed by the perspectives of partners around the world. In this,
our relationships give us an intimacy with events that might otherwise
seem distant and remote. Through Mission Council and General Assembly
it has voiced the concern of the United Reformed Church about the
Middle East and the prospect of war in Iraq. Letters of sympathy and
solidarity have been sent to partner churches in the United States,
Pakistan, India and the Middle East.
4 to persevere
in the search for the visible and organic unity of the Church.
4.1
This principle has been tested and challenged in
various ways in all three nations over the past two years. What
has become clear is that there are different ways to unity, different
understandings of the nature of unity, different understandings of the
nature of the Church, and we, as a united church committed to the
unity of all God’s people, need to be prepared, with integrity and
consistency, to explore different paths with different partners. That
requires us to be rigorous in our theological work and honest about
the theological breadth of our church. As we develop creative
relationships with a variety of partner churches within the body of
Christ, so we strengthen our capacity to develop more creative
relationships between those of a different theological standpoint
within our own church.
4.2 The
proposed covenant between the Church of England and the Methodist
Church, and the report of the trilateral informal conversations
involving the United Reformed Church have had a prominent place on all
the agendas of the committee over the past two years. The fruit of
that work is to be found in the supporting statement to the
committee’s resolution on this matter (see page 64).
4.3
The committee shared the National Synod of Wales’
deep disappointment at the failure, through lack of a
sufficient majority in the Church in Wales’ vote, of the proposal
for an Ecumenical Bishop in Wales. It could perhaps be seen as a
structural proposal which did not have enough of a relational basis.
However, as with the proposed English covenant, the process has shaken
up the ecumenical movement and is now challenging the Welsh churches
to consider how real is their ecumenical commitment and with which
partners it might be possible, at present, to move on.
4.4 The committee
has also followed closely the Scottish Church Initiative for Union
(SCIFU). (see resolution 2 page 14 from the National Synod of
Scotland.) It ambitiously offers a Basis and Plan for Union at a time
when covenants seem to be in and structural unions are not. However,
it is an imaginative proposal, rooted in a concern for shared mission
in the community, and it allows for considerable diversity in local
church life.
4.5
The search for the full unity of the Church
requires us not only to develop ecumenical relationships, but also
together as churches to dig ever deeper into the meaning of the Gospel
and the nature of God and therefore the nature of the Church. This is
slow, painstaking work which may, in time, call us to radical change.
4.6
In November 2001 Churches Together in Britain
and Ireland held a thought‑provoking consultation on ‘Ways to Unity’
at which the United Reformed Church was well represented. The
traditional starting point of ‘our common baptism’ was strongly
challenged. Member churches are now being asked to reflect on how
they ‘incorporate’ people into the Church and what they believe is the
role of the Holy Spirit in the process.
4.7
What does being Reformed mean today? That
was a question addressed at a consultation at the Windermere Centre in
December 2001 of representatives from the Church of Scotland, the
Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Presbyterian Church of Wales and
the United Reformed Church. Do the ‘free churches’ in England have a
future as an ecumenical grouping distinct from Churches Together in
England? That is the question being addressed at present by the
churches of the Free Churches Group within Churches Together in
England.
4.8
Addressing these questions at some depth is part of
the search for the full unity of the Church. Discussing at some depth
the answers to Jesus’ question ‘Who do you say that I am?’ given on
the CWM video of that name, is also part of that search.
5
Thanks, farewell and welcome
5.1
One of the stated tasks of this committee is
‘listening to those with experience of the World Church, including
other Christian traditions in Britain and Ireland.’ The committee has
benefited from the presence, annually, of Revd Elizabeth Nash, the
present Moderator of the Department for Cooperation and Witness of the
World Alliance of Reformed Churches and Revd Jill Thornton, a new
‘younger member’ of the Central Committee of the World Council of
Churches. It has also greatly valued the insights and contributions
to discussion of Revd Colin McClure from the Presbyterian Church in
Ireland, Revd Peter Sulston from the Methodist Church and Mrs
Elizabeth Fisher from the Church of England.
5.2
After ten years as Secretary for Ecumenical
Relations, we say farewell to Revd Sheila Maxey, who is retiring at
the end of July. Not only has Sheila’s contribution to the
development of the ecumenical life of the United Reformed Church been
enormous, but she has become a highly regarded figure in the
ecumenical scene across the nations; for example, through her work as
Moderator of the Church Life Liaison Group of Churches Together in
Britain and Ireland (CTBI) and as a member of the Scottish Church
Initiative For Union (SCIFU). Sheila’s constant commitment to the
highest standards of good practice and her fundamental belief in the
importance of relationships, ensure that the work she been doing (for
example, in building up the Ecumenical Officers’ network, fostering
the development of single ethnic congregations, facilitating
collaboration with Doctrine, Prayer & Worship on issues of faith and
order and many other things) will endure. We wish her a long, happy,
healthy (and busy‑doing‑ecumenical‑things) retirement.
5.3
We welcome Revd Richard Mortimer, as the newly
appointed Secretary for Ecumenical Relations and Faith & Order. (The
addition of ‘Faith & Order’ to the job title indicates that the post,
building on the work of the previous Secretary, now includes a
particular emphasis on this area). Richard is admirably qualified for
the work, having had a wide range of ecumenical experience at both
local and wider levels, and having formerly served as a member of the
Ecumenical Committee. His theological knowledge, insightful mind,
personable character, thorough working methods and passionate
commitment to the ecumenical journey are recognised by our ecumenical
partners as well as ourselves, and they join us in looking forward
eagerly to working with Richard in the years ahead.
Resolution 18
Anglican Methodist Covenant
General Assembly
a). gives thanks to
God for the proposal of an Anglican Methodist Covenant as a
significant move towards the Christian unity for which we pray – and
to which we, as a united and uniting church are committed in our Basis
of Union ‑ and as a strengthening of God’s mission to the world
through the co‑operation it encourages.
b). rejoicing in the
stated commitment of the Church of England, the Methodist Church and
the United Reformed Church to the unity of the Church of Christ,
instructs the Ecumenical Committee to explore with these two churches
(but with an openness to other partners) what further steps would be
necessary to form a covenantal relationship or relationships between
or among these churches.
c). gives thanks to
God for Conversations on the Way to Unity, the report of the
tri‑lateral informal conversations between the three churches – for
the common ground it uncovers, for its honest exploration of
difference within the one body of Christ and for the dedicated service
of those who represented the Unit
ed Reformed Church –
Revd Robert Andrews, Revd John Waller, Revd Elizabeth Welch and Revd
Sheila Maxey.
d). affirms the
agenda for further work on this ecumenical journey with these partners
as set out in paragraph 73 of Conversations on the Way to Unity:
the relationship
between how we understand the nature of the Church and our
understanding of the nature of and path to Christian unity
the relationship
between personal and conciliar oversight and authority in the life of
the church, locally and more widely
our understandings
of ordination and authorisation of the whole range of ministries
the relationship
between and understanding of baptism and membership
and adds, as a
matter of priority, from the riches of our traditions and for the sake
of the mission of the Church, the question of how ministry is (and may
be) exercised through persons and councils, locally and more widely,
by the whole people of God; and how such ministry is to be recognised
within a covenantal relationship.
e). mindful that all
ministries in the United Reformed Church are open to both men and
women (Basis of Union para 25) and that “the United Reformed Church
declares that the Lord Jesus Christ, the only ruler and head of the
Church, has therein appointed a government distinct from civil
government and in things spiritual not subordinate thereto” (Basis of
Union Schedule D.8), requires the Ecumenical Committee in any future
conversations to keep before the Church of England our concerns about
its present limits to women’s ministry and our difficulties with its
present established position.
1.1The Basis of
Union of the United Reformed Church (1972, 1981 and 2000) states that
“as a united church (we) will take, wherever possible and with all
speed, further steps towards the unity of all God’s people.” The 2001
General Assembly re‑stated that commitment in 21st century terms by
adopting Three Ecumenical Principles for a Missionary Church in
Today’s World. In those principles the breadth of our commitment to
“the unity of all God’s people” was set out – ranging from a
continuing commitment to work towards the visible and organic unity of
the Church to expanding the range of our local Christian partnerships
in mission and service; from welcoming Christians from many cultures
into our local churches and being changed by them to developing our
world church partnerships in mission. It is in the context of this
broad commitment to unity in mission that we are called to explore
each new challenge to be faithful to our calling to seek “the unity
of all God’s people.”
1.2
From our experience of uniting we have two main
insights to share, which we believe to be a matter of ‘gospel’ and not
just ‘good practice’. Firstly, one test of the faithfulness of a
unity proposal to God’s purposes lies in the way the smaller partner
is listened to and considered. Secondly, there is a fruitful tension
between unity and diversity in all such proposals which must be held
and not resolved – unity not uniformity is the goal.
1.3
We are a church in three nations and in each the
ecumenical opportunities and challenges are different. However, just
as the whole United Reformed Church has been concerned with the
proposals for an Ecumenical Bishop in Wales and with the Scottish
Church Initiative for Union, while allowing the views of the two
national synods to carry great weight, so this resolution, although
applying to England, is of concern to the whole Church.
1.4...... The
English church scene is noted internationally for its many Local
Ecumenical Partnerships and the United Reformed Church, the Methodist
Church and the Church of England are the major players in them. In
1995 the Church of England and the Methodist Church began, informally
at first and then formally from 1998, to seek a more formal
relationship which would facilitate their shared mission locally and
at diocesan and national levels. We were invited, along with other
partners, to appoint ecumenical participants to those talks and Revd
Dr David Thompson and Revd Sheila Maxey served in that capacity.
Because of the United Reformed Church’s close involvement with both
churches in Local Ecumenical Partnerships of all kinds, trilateral
informal conversations were also set up to run alongside the formal
conversations. The reports of both sets of conversations were
received at General Assembly 2002 and Assembly commended both for
study and response throughout the church.
1.5
The Ecumenical Committee and the Doctrine, Prayer
and Worship Committee, advised by the Advisory Group on Faith and
Order, considered the two reports. They came to the conclusion that
this was not the time for a detailed critique of either the covenant
proposal or the trilateral report. Rather it was the time to consider
them as a whole in the light of our broad‑based ecumenical commitment,
the urgent missionary task and the reality of local ecumenical life.
This meant listening to the whole United Reformed Church.
1.6
The Ecumenical Committee arranged for every local
church, district council and synod to receive material to enable it to
express a view on whether the United Reformed Church should, if
invited, be party to this or a similar covenant and whether, if so,
there were treasured aspects of our tradition or perhaps problematic
aspects of our partners’ traditions which should form part of the
exploratory process. Over 100 local churches, 16 district councils
and every synod responded. The thoughtfulness and perceptiveness of
the responses is a tribute to the life and health of our church
meetings and elders’ meetings and other councils. In some cases,
especially in the synod meetings, ecumenical partners took part in or
enabled the discussion. The resolutions above reflect, in general and
majority terms, the tenor of the responses. It was reassuring to
discover that most of the concerns raised fell within the list of
‘further work’ already to be found in the trilateral report,
Conversations on the Way to Unity.
Resolution 19
Belonging to the World Church
The General Assembly
receiving the report of the Ecumenical Committee on the Belonging to
the World Church programme
a)
welcomes what has been achieved and encourages the
committee to continue to develop the programme, and
b) encourages more
people to make use of the opportunities it offers to experience and
learn from the world church and so enrich the life and witness of
the United Reformed Church.
In 1998 the General
Assembly adopted the Belonging to the World Church programme with the
following resolution:
This Assembly
receives the Belonging to the World Church programme proposals and
encourages the Ecumenical Committee to implement them.
The report setting
out the details of the Belonging to the World Church programme
envisaged that the first pilot programmes would be up and running in
1999/2000. However, unforeseen difficulties in the early stages of
implementation meant that no significant developments occurred until
2001, when Dale Rominger took up the post of International Relations
Programme Officer.
At a point now when
most aspects of the programme, as modified by the Ecumenical Committee
in its review in January 2001, are up and running (see below) the
Ecumenical Committee felt it right to take stock of what the programme
set out to do and what it is achieving and to provide a report to the
General Assembly.
The central
objective of the programme was:
To raise our
awareness of the world church so that we might
Stretch the
imagination and vision of people in the United Reformed Church by
exposing them to churches whose life and circumstances whilst markedly
different from ours, offer much to be learned about being the church
engaged in God’s mission today
Take seriously the
global challenges facing us and find ways of responding together as
Christians called to care for God’s world.
To do this our
international relations staff has developed opportunities and
programmes on a mutual reciprocal basis with our partner churches
around the world as follows (using the headings from the original
report):
1
Initial ministerial training
Group Exchange
Programme opportunities with the United Church in Jamaica and the
Cayman Islands, the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba, the
Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church,
Ghana.
Grants of up to
£1,500 per person for individual programmes that meet certain criteria
and are arranged through consultation with the college/training
course, and the International Relations Office.
2
Global Partners
Enabling synods to
develop exchange programmes with partner churches outside of Europe.
With the Commitment
for Life programme bringing Commitment for Life partners here to share
their stories and experiences with United Reformed Church
congregations and councils and assisting with United Reformed Church
exposure visits to Commitment for Life partners.
3
Continuing Ministerial Education
Programme
opportunities for new Assembly appointees (committee conveners and
staff) with the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba and the
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
Programme
opportunities for ministers and lay people ministering in multi‑ethnic
situations to learn about the cultures and traditions of particular
ethnic groups with the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the
Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana and the United Church in
Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
Grants of up to
£1000 no more than once every five years for ministers and Church
Related Community Workers over and above their usual CME grants for
the international‑related costs (i.e. travel, etc.) of an overseas CME
event/experience.
Development of the
(ecumenical) International Ministry Exchanges programme to enhance the
range of opportunities and the CME content of the programme.
4
Lay training Opportunities
Provision of
funding, advice and assistance with travel arrangements for
international lay training initiatives/opportunities.
Promotion, grant
assistance and increased take‑up of opportunities through the World
Exchange volunteer programme.
5
Opportunities for Young People and Children
Participation in the
international Bridge Project.
Provision of
international travel opportunity for the FURY Chairperson (akin to the
opportunities offered to the Moderator of General Assembly).
Promotion of and
funding assistance with international opportunities for young people.
6
Research Fellowships
Funding and support
for the Woodlands Project in conjunction with Northern College and
North Western Synod.
7
Scholarship Programme
Improved use of
placements for scholarship holders with United Reformed Church
congregations.
Refocusing of the
programme to better meet the needs of our partner churches.
8
World Convention of the Churches of Christ
Promotion of this
opportunity to share in a large (several thousand strong) gathering of
Christians from around the world when it meets in Brighton, 28 July –
1 August 2004, co‑hosted by ourselves and the Fellowship of the
Churches of Christ.
Over 100 people a
year from the United Reformed Church are directly supported through
the programme, giving them an experience of the life and witness of
our overseas partner churches in their context. Many hundreds more
here in Great Britain have an opportunity to meet and share with our
overseas partners who are visiting us to share their stories and
experiences within the life of our congregations and councils.
Those who have
experienced the programme are excited by its benefits as they find
themselves envisioning how the church could find new ways of living
out God’s mission in their context, or begin to make connections with
people in another part of the world and through their eyes see the
international issues and challenges facing us today in ways which make
fresh sense, leading them to discover new responses.
Not surprisingly
with a programme as ambitious and as complex as this there have been
problems. In particular we have discovered that patience is a virtue
and a necessity when piecing together international programmes and
exchanges, and that personal contact makes all the difference,
building trust and confidence with churches who are not always used to
being treated as equal partners.
At its meeting in
January 2003 the Ecumenical Committee adopted a number of minor
modifications to this programme and to a range of other international
programmes, bringing these programmes into the framework of Belonging
to the World Church, effecting some savings both of funds and staff
time. In particular it resolved to end the Research Fellowships
programme, as it had not developed as expected (that is with a
significant world church component). However, the committee continues
to work with colleges and synods attempting to secure funds for such
initiatives from other sources. It also resolved to integrate the
(1996) European partnerships policy with the Global Partners programme
to enable a better overview of all such activity and a streamlining of
the funding sources.
The Belonging to the
World Church programme (excluding the scholarship programme which
already existed, but which has been incorporated into the Belonging to
the World Church framework) costs around £170,000 a year (including
staff costs). This has been funded by drawing down on the World
Church and Mission Unexpended Income Fund and so to date it has not
been a charge on the Mission and Ministry fund. A time will come,
however, in the not too distant future, when a decision will need to
be taken on whether this programme should be funded from the main
budget of the church. In the meantime the Ecumenical Committee
proposes to continue the development of the programme, believing that
it is enhancing the United Reformed Church’s life and witness both
here in Great Britain and overseas and that it is meeting its central
objective:
To raise our
awareness of the world church so that we might
Stretch the
imagination and vision of people in the United Reformed Church by
exposing them to churches whose life and circumstances whilst markedly
different from ours, offer much to be learned about being the church
engaged in God’s mission today
Take seriously the
global challenges facing us and find ways of responding together as
Christians called to care for God’s world.
Resolution 20
International Situation
The Ecumenical
Committee in consultation with the officers of the Church and Society
Committee will bring a resolution on the international situation in
the light of current events at the time of the Assembly.
1.1
In the past year Mission Council has responded to
international events issuing statements on behalf of the church in the
light of unfolding events, particularly in respect of the Middle
East. We have also worked collaboratively to bring our concerns to
the attention of the government and others. In particular the
Moderator of the General Assembly, John Waller, participated in a
joint United States and British church leaders delegation to meet with
the Prime Minister in mid‑February. Later in the same month, during a
consultation with our partner the National Evangelical Synod of Syria
and Lebanon, he was able to brief Christian and Muslim leaders in the
Middle East on the actions of British and American churches to oppose
the use of war as a mechanism to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass
destruction. In March, the Secretary for International Relations
shared in a ‘webchat’ initiated by the Presbyterian Church (USA) on
the threat of war with Iraq, enabling a number of churches around the
world to share their concerns and answer viewers’ questions before an
audience of Internet users.
1.2
Depending on events at the time Assembly may wish
to make further comment or commend other actions.
International
Exchange Sub‑Committee
The International
Exchange Sub Committee is responsible for the selection, training and
caring of mission partners for service here and overseas, and for
overseeing the exchange of personnel, including the World Exchange
volunteer programme.
Committee
Members
Convener:
Revd John Crocker (until December 2002)
Revd Chris
Baillie (since January 2003)
Staff
Secretaries: Revd Philip Woods – Secretary for International Relations
Revd Sheila Maxey
– Secretary for Ecumenical Relations
Revd John Rees
(Convener, Ecumenical Committee), Mr Peter Bryant*, Revd Keith Riglin*,
Revd Gwen Collins, Revd Peter Brain*, Revd Birgit Ewald, and since
Assembly 2002 Revd Nigel Uden and Mrs Heather Barnes.
* Members until
Assembly 2002
1
Introduction
1.1
The major pre‑occupation of the International
Exchange Sub‑Committee over the last two years has been the revising
of the guidelines for the sending and receiving mission partner
programmes. Although our practice had been adapted in the light of
experience, this was the first rewriting of the guidelines in ten
years and now gives us, prospective mission partners and receiving
situations a most comprehensive ‘handbook’ to aid us as we share
people in mission with our partners both within the Council for World
Mission (CWM) and beyond. In undertaking this we involved the
Personnel Resources staff of CWM and one month after we finalised our
guidelines they too launched a revised edition of their ‘Sharing
People in Mission’ handbook.
1.2
The new Guidelines have been produced in a format
that enables easy updating, as our experience is that they are a work
in progress, with regular changes called for as practice changes both
within the United Reformed Church, our overseas partners and CWM.
Nonetheless to have rethought the whole package has been a valuable
exercise and deepened our appreciation of all that is involved of so
many people in so many places in these valuable exchanges of personnel
between churches.
1.3
At the same time the committee has also codified
its grants policies and incorporated them within the Belonging to the
World Church programme to produce a more coherent system for
supporting international exchange within the life of the United
Reformed Church.
1.4
All of which makes us sound rather bureaucratic,
which is far from the truth, as our meetings centre around the
experiences of the people we are sending and receiving as mission
partners, or who are otherwise engaged in international exchanges.
2
Sharing People in Mission Overseas
2.1
Since our last report Mary and Paul Thomas, along
with their children, Peter and Helen, have taken up their appointments
with the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Mary is
serving as a tutor with the ITLD programme and Paul as a Maths teacher
in a church school.
2.2
In the same period Elspeth and Ewan Harley
completed their short‑term appointment with the Congregational
Christian Church in Samoa and Jane Stranz moved from pastoral ministry
with the Reformed Church of France to take up an appointment with the
World Council of Church translation service.
2.3
Continuing in overseas service are Stephen and
Hardy Wilkinson working with the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar
(FJKM) and Alison Gibbs with the United Church of Zambia. All three
are our longest serving mission partners with the Wilkinsons having
served thirty‑one years and Alison Gibbs nineteen.
2.4
What these barest of details fail to tell you is
the stories our mission partners have to share about serving God in
sickness and health, facing natural disasters, or virtual civil war,
or economic crises, all the time working cross‑culturally and for most
whilst thousands of miles away from home and the families and friends
that are dear to them. Neither do they tell of the rich blessings
that they have received from sharing in the life of another country
and all that they have gained from the new friendships that they have
made in the settings they find themselves. Of course its not all
challenge or blessing, with the daily reality being much more
mundane. Nonetheless there is still something a little different
about service overseas and with our partner churches we join in giving
thanks for the service that these individuals offer in the service of
God’s global mission today.
3
Sharing People in Mission from Overseas
in Great Britain
3.1
Likewise for those mission partners we receive
here. The life of the United Reformed Church and, in many cases, its
ecumenical partners continues to be enriched and challenged by mission
partners from beyond Europe. Their work takes many forms and we have
much to thank them for. At this Assembly, Mrs Jasmine Jebakani from
the Church of South India finishes four years as a theological
educator on the Southern Theological Education and Training Scheme, an
ecumenical non‑residential training course based in Salisbury. She is
an Old Testament teacher, and has also brought Indian and feminist
perspectives to her work. She has been accompanied by her husband,
Jacob and her sons, Jachin and Jonathan.
3.2
Also at this Assembly, Revd Francis Amenu from the
Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana will end his four years of
service to the Ghanaian community in the London area both within and
beyond the United Reformed Church. He has worked to build bridges of
understanding between different groups and cultures and denominations,
not only within the Ghanaian community. He has been accompanied by
his wife, Gertrude, and their four teenage(and older) children –
Christabel, Ethel, Mark and Lucille. He will be succeeded by Revd
Godwin Odonkor from the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, who will be
accompanied by his wife, Paulina, and their little boy, Tsui.
3.3
Mr David Jonathan, from the Church of North India,
is in his second year as an inter‑faith worker in Luton. He works
through an ecumenical organisation called Grassroots and is focusing
on building bridges of trust and personal experience between church
people (in particular from the United Reformed Church) and people from
the other faith communities. He is accompanied by his wife, Anjana
and their little daughter, Muskaan.
3.4
Revd Chang, Jen‑Ho, from the Presbyterian Church in
Taiwan, is completing his first year as a chaplain to Taiwanese
students in Manchester. His brief also includes a bridge‑building
element – helping Taiwanese Christians to relate to British churches
and British churches to learn how to welcome and learn from Christians
from other cultures who are strangers in our midst. He is accompanied
by his wife, Hsui Wen, and their young son, Yueh Shuo.
3.5
Revd Henry Iputau, from the Congregational
Christian Church in Samoa, arrived in
January to assist Princes Street United Reformed Church, Norwich in
its mission in the community. He is accompanied by his wife, Maressa.
3.6
Two young volunteers from CWM partner churches
have joined the Yardley Hastings team: Tedy Nkowane, from the United
Church of Zambia and Nozipho Mpofu from the Zimbabwe Synod of the
Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa. Llanfair, the church
in Penrhys in South Wales has continued its partnership with the
Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar through Tiana Raharisoa who has
spent a year there.
3.7
Support, review and reflection. The committee
continues to ensure that the mission partners are well supported, that
their position is reviewed after one year and that there is serious
reflection on the experience towards the end of the four years. The
committee has also introduced a system of post‑service review two or
three years after the mission partner has returned home. The
committee believes that reflection by United Reformed Church people on
the experience adds considerably to its value. Following our now usual
practice with the Ghanaian ministry, a major review (held once every
four years), involving the leadership of the two partner churches in
Ghana, took place in May 2002.
4
World Exchange
4.1
During the last two years more people have availed
themselves of the opportunities offered by this ecumenical volunteer
programme, with the following taking up placements:
Helene McLeod,
Guatemala, 2001
Emma Dones, Malawi,
2001/2002
Nora Harbour,
Malawi, 2002/2003
Ron Harbour, Malawi,
2002/2003
Sandra Fox, Malawi,
2003
Nicolas Morrice,
India, 2003
4.2...... World
Exchange continues to develop its work in other areas through the
creative use of its base in Edinburgh, St Colm’s International House,
where amongst other things, working with World Exchange we deliver our
English language scholarship programme.
4.3...... In April
Philip Woods (Secretary for International Relations) completed his
term as Chairperson of World Exchange, but will continue to remain on
the World Exchange Board as our representative.
5
International Ministry Exchanges
5.1
This international ecumenical programme enabling
exchanges between church professionals has developed substantially in
the last year following its partnership with the Council for World
Mission to promote more North‑South exchanges. Although still
predominately assisting exchanges between Great Britain and North
America it has also assisted United Reformed Church ministers to enter
into exchanges with ministers in India. Alongside this the programme
now emphasises developing these exchanges as continuing ministerial
education opportunities with participating ministers being encouraged
to identify aspects of church life they wish to focus on and learn
more about in another context.
5.2
Unfortunately the programme faces a major challenge
in raising the funds it requires to sustain this expanded programme.
However, much work is being put into this, especially by our partners
in the USA. In October a meeting will be held of all the partner
churches and agencies to review recent developments and consider the
long term funding of the programme.
6
Scholarship Programme
6.1
During this last period the Scholarship Programme
has been substantially reorganised in response to the expressed needs
of the partner churches that have been its beneficiaries.
6.2
In particular, following a request from the Igreja
Evangelica Reformada d’Angola to fund training programmes in Angola
rather than bring people to the UK we have completely revised the
programme with all our African partners following in‑depth
consultation with all of them. Thus, instead of bringing two people a
year per partner church to the UK at a cost of around £7,500 we are
funding a range of locally delivered education and training
opportunities to a similar value and standard but which benefit
between 60 and 120 people a year per partner church depending on the
country.
6.3
Following the same principle we have also adapted
our joint programme with the Romans 1:11 Trust, so that in this round
we will together be supporting the training of pastors in the rapidly
expanding Reformed Presbyterian Church in Uganda.
6.4
Alongside this the English language programme has
continued to develop and we now offer once a year an opportunity for
around 14 people from selected partner churches to come here and
participate in an intensive English language training programme for
church workers, which is followed by a placement in a United Reformed
Church congregation and then a concluding get together for the
participants in London, with an introduction to the wider work of the
United Reformed Church.
6.5
To enable all this we have had to curtail the
one‑year postgraduate scholarships, but again this decision was
reached in consultation with our partners whose preference is for the
developments outlined above.
7
People
7.1
The committee is well served by its members who
have to undertake many more tasks and assignments over and above
attending its meetings. Conveners in particular can find themselves
called upon to undertake some of the more difficult issues and we have
been grateful for John Crocker whose commitment to our work has served
us well. We welcome John’s successor, Chris Baillie, and look forward
to the gifts and insights he will bring to our work.
7.2...... With the
close of this Assembly more wide‑ranging changes take effect as Sheila
Maxey retires from her position, where she has done so much to develop
the receiving mission partners programme (which forms the bulk of the
committee’s work). She will be much missed for her thoughtful
creative insights and the pastoral care with which she has exercised
this particular ministry. In her place we will welcome Katalina
Tahaafe‑Williams (Secretary for Racial Justice) recognising that the
receiving mission partner posts are substantially connected to the
ongoing development of multi‑cultural ministry and learning in the
life of the United Reformed Church.
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