 |
Life & WitnessThe purpose of the Life and Witness Committee is: to enable the local church to capture the vision of God’s mission for itself and to plan its life accordingly;
Committee Members Convener: Revd Brian Jolly Secretary: Revd John Steele Revd Linda Elliott, Revd Ken Forbes, Revd Ian Fosten, Revd Kate Gray, Revd Michael Hodgson, Revd Peter Hurter, Revd Emmanuel Nkusi, Mrs Sheila Brain, Mrs Jenny Carpenter, Mr Colin Ferguson.
Convener of Stewardship Sub-Committee: Mr Ray McHugh Convener of the Windermere Advisory Group: Mr Jim Wilkinson
1. People 1.1 Since the last full Committee report in 2003 Angela Hughes and Alison Lowe have left us, and Sheila Brain, Colin Ferguson, Ian Fosten, Kate Gray, Michael Hodgson, and Emmanuel Nkusi have joined us.
1.2 This year we say thanks and farewell to Ken Forbes and Peter Hurter, and to Jenny Carpenter who has served the United Reformed and Methodist churches as their Rural Officer/Consultant since April 2000; we offer Jenny our very best wishes for her retirement.
1.3 We are pleased to welcome Patrick Smyth and Simon Walkling to our ranks, and also Peter Ball returning to the Committee as its Convener-Elect in 2006.
2. Rural matters 2.1 Although a good recovery has been made since the Foot and Mouth epidemic, the countryside has continued to be in the news not always for the best of reasons. The hunting debate was dominant in terms of parliamentary and media coverage, but it is good that issues to do with food production, processing, distribution and sale are increasingly matters of public debate. Churches are encouraged to enter fully with others in their locality into the celebration of British Food Fortnight (24 Sept–9 Oct) and to discriminate in favour of fairly traded domestic as well as imported products. The British food industry now relies heavily on migrants, many of whom are vulnerable to exploitation. In this connection the Churches’ Rural Group has produced a leaflet of practical suggestions for churches with back-up material on the Arthur Rank Centre website www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk
2.2 There is still much uncertainty as to the future of British farming. The introduction of Single Farm Payments though broadly welcomed has yet to prove its worth. Increasingly funding for rural regeneration will come via the Regional Development Agencies, so the churches are challenged to make the most of their regional networks. The Farming Information for Rural Ministry (FIRM) papers summarising new legislation, regulation, rural conferences etc. produced weekly by Alan Spedding for the Arthur Rank Centre and available on its website, are proving an invaluable tool.
2.3 As from April 2004, Eco-congregation in England and Wales transferred from Encams to the Arthur Rank Centre, and Jo Rathbone was appointed on a one-day a week basis to continue to promote the material and the award. Later, funding was put in place to enable her to devote time specifically to its promotion within United Reformed Church West Midlands Synod area. Ecocongregation is a challenging programme for “greening” the church, whether rural or urban, but its future funding is precarious.
2.4 Synod Rural ‘link people’ are meeting in June with rural officers from other denominations to share stories and inspiration. The URC/Rural Consultant has made direct input to Eastern, Northern and West Midlands Synods in the last two years, and visited a number of local churches for Mission or Harvest Festival weekends. The possibility of some rural United Reformed churches becoming involved in developing the low key tourism represented by Hidden Britain Centres is an exciting prospect. www.hidden-britain.org.uk The workbook entitled Presence produced by the Methodist Rural Chairs Group, with the URC/Methodist Rural Officer-Consultant as its Secretary, is being imaginatively used both denominationally and ecumenically across the country. In Wales, URC officers took the initiative in supplementing its stories with some Welsh ones. A Welsh ‘Presence’ Day was planned at Newtown in April.
2.5 Ecumenical rural initiatives are being taken in both Wales and Scotland. The Revd Michael Cruchley, the Wales Synod Rural Officer, is highly regarded ecumenically. The value of there being at least one full time rural officer for the Welsh churches cannot be denied. Fund raising is in progress to create a church-backed meeting space at the Royal Welsh Showground. The possibility of developing something echoing the Arthur Rank Centre for Scotland is now being explored. An Action for Churches Together in Scotland Churches Rural Group will soon be set up, and it is hoped to create an ecumenical full time Rural Officer post for Scotland.
2.6 Rural issues such as the shortage of affordable housing; the slewed demographic makeup of many villages, transport and the competing claims of resident and visitor remain problematic. Rural churches are able to feel the rural pulse: they need encouragement, support and, above all, vision.
3. The Windermere Centre 3.1 The vision for the Windermere Centre is to be a place where the United Reformed Church can be equipped, challenged, resourced and nurtured in the process of developing its life-in-mission. The Centre has developed significantly both in terms of its facilities and programme. The first quarter of 2004 was taken up with the en-suiting programme, as recommended by the Windermere Review Group’s report to the 2003 General Assembly. All the first and second floor rooms are now en-suite. The ground floor retains four single wheelchair-accessible rooms. The Centre has been redecorated to a high standard and the menu developed and improved to provide a cooked breakfast and an imaginative vegetarian menu. Broadband facilities means that guests now have access to the internet in the lounge. This facility is to be extended to all the rooms and will be particularly useful to sabbatical visitors wishing to carry out research.
3.2 The kitchen has been significantly renewed and upgraded to keep abreast of the latest Health & Hygiene regulations. The Fire Safety precautions have been similarly upgraded.
3.3 The Centre Programme has included speakers and presenters from overseas and others who are the top people in their fields, giving the Church access to courses and speakers of the highest calibre. The Church has often been disappointingly slow to take up some of these opportunities. Nevertheless, the Centre continues to put on courses which, while less financially viable, are vital to the life of the Church as it seeks to catch God’s vision for its future. The higher costs are offset by more popular, ‘bread-and-butter’ courses.
3.4 The Centre also seeks to enable Assembly Committees to ensure that their work reaches the grass roots of the Church by inviting them to run relevant courses. Churches and groups continue to use the Centre in increasing numbers. Links have been made with our ecumenical partners and with FURY to extend the service that the Centre is able to offer the Church.
3.5 Since the 2004 Assembly there have been conversations between representatives of Life & Witness, Finance and the URC Trust with the General Secretary, and it has been agreed that the Windermere Appeal (which was withdrawn from the business of the 2004 Assembly) should not come to the 2005 Assembly, but rather be considered as part of the ‘Catch the Vision’ review of the church’s resources and opportunities in 2006, and that during the coming months ways will be sought to resolve various Trust matters.
4. Evangelists 4.1 The 2001 Assembly acknowledged the need to identify those in lay or ordained ministry who have the gift of evangelism, and directed the Life & Witness committee to initiate work towards finding ways of releasing and supporting men and women to exercise ministry as evangelists.
4.2 We reported to the 2003 Assembly that we had produced the booklet Growing Up to the Ministry of Evangelists and had begun consultation across the church. Since then it has been good to learn that some of our churches do actually have ‘evangelists’ alive and well and engaged in evangelism in a variety of different ways. It may well be that these individuals are the tip of a considerable iceberg if only our local congregations were better at recognising the true nature of many of the things going on under their noses! Life and Witness continues to receive stories and experiences and to look for appropriate ways of sharing them with the wider church.
4.3 There have been a number of developments since the 2003 Assembly. The United Reformed Church shows signs of waking up to the possibilities of evangelists. As well as approaches from interested individuals, a number of regional Enquirers’ Conferences have included opportunities for us to share something of what it might mean for those sensing a call to this ministry. A useful residential Consultation on ‘Developing the Ministry of Evangelism’ was held in May 2004, posing questions like ‘Has the United Reformed Church got a theology of Evangelism?’ and looking at ‘Changing concepts of Evangelism in a changing world’. We have been in dialogue with officers of the Training and Ministries Committees exploring ways of training and releasing men and women for the ministry of evangelist. There has been a necessary pause during this period to enable those Committees to complete their own major works (Training Review and ‘Equipping the Saints’) but these important discussions will soon continue. A promising invitation from the Methodist Church to share in the development of an evangelism training course has not advanced very far to date, owing to their own far-reaching review process, but we hope it can be reactivated in the not too distant future.
4.4 From the variety of other related work that has been ongoing over the past 2 years we would want to make the following comments:
a) We would reaffirm that our understanding of evangelism must be rooted in a broad understanding of mission. Whilst acknowledging the inevitable theological tensions existing in the life of our broad church, we should be keen to dialogue with each other, and engage with our communities, recognising that there are many ways of being evangelist and doing evangelism.
b) We believe that training and enabling in evangelism should be available to members, elders and ministers (in much the same way as it is available to those who lead worship in our churches) and done as far as possible ecumenically.
c) The idea of facilitating a distinct ministry of stipendiary evangelist has not met with significant support. Nevertheless, we acknowledge that individuals may feel called to full-time work as an evangelist and will expect to find places and opportunities where such a calling can be fulfilled. We believe that the proposal of the Ministries Committee to develop Special Category Ministry should be seen as a significant way of testing both the need for full-time evangelists and the calling of individuals to this work.
d) We have produced a draft proposal for a TLS Module on evangelism which we are beginning to discuss with the Training Committee. We think this could be developed in such a way as to be useful in helping to equip members, elders and ministers.
e) ‘Catch the Vision’ continues to dominate our agendas, and our work has begun on local church structures, arising from the last Assembly. The Steering Group has asked us to take a lead in a Consultation this autumn to look at a whole-church understanding of evangelism and spirituality. As a consequence our work on evangelists will now be presented as part of the ‘Catch the Vision’ report to the 2006 Assembly.
5. Community of Women and Men in the Church 5.1 The Group for the Community of Women and Men in the Church (CWMC) has been going through a period of review in the context of the broader aspects of the requirements of being an ‘Inclusive Church’ and also the implications of the ‘Catch the Vision’ process.
5.2 A major piece of work was undertaken in respect of the need for the United Reformed Church to adopt policy and procedures in relation to sexual harassment, which can occur in church situations just as easily as in society at large. This was largely overtaken by the publication of the important Churches Together in England and Ireland report Time for Action on sexual abuse and the churches. CWMC produced a response to that which was included in the report from the special Task Group set up by Mission Council and is involved in the ongoing work in relation to this.
6. Holiday Forum 6.1 Holiday Forum continues to flourish and to provide one of the most pleasurable meeting places not just for members of the United Reformed Church but also a number of friends from other churches. The format of theme, worship, discussion and free time and relaxation makes it a wonderful blend of mental and spiritual refreshment as well as a holiday. Over the last two years we have enjoyed the challenges of David Cornick and Lawrence Moore and we like to think that they also enjoyed our challenge.
6.2 This year we are fortunate to have David Peel leading us in his year as Assembly Moderator on ‘Encountering Church’ and plans for 2006 are already well advanced with Philip Woods having already agreed to lead the theme.
6.3 Numbers are settling at about two hundred and twenty, which still allows the week to retain its family feel. Indeed one of the great strengths of Forum has been its appeal across the age barrier. Friendships have been forged in this one week that have held firm over many years. A small number of our regulars are now over eighty (even ninety) yet in the same company we have a wealth of children and young people, so much so that we have now made links with the Youth Office and we are glad to say that this link will soon be made more formal. It has been good in the last two years to have a very active youth representation on our planning group which has taken a lot of responsibility for their own activities.
6.4 Financially Holiday Forum continues to be viable. We do not aim to make any profit so our actual profit and loss can change from one year to another. This is mainly due to the success of having a large proportion of children and young people and the difficulty of never knowing exactly what this might do to the budget. Although the responsibility for managing this week is in the hands of an annually appointed committee of Forum members it is good that our links have been strengthened with the national Church and the administrative support we receive from Tavistock Place is greatly appreciated.
6.5 We are glad to reflect something of the vibrancy of our denomination when we get together, a place to which most of those who come are happy to return.
7. Emerging Church website 7.1 The www.emergingchurch.info website was launched in 2003 by a partnership of organisations and denominations, for those enquiring about new expressions of church, providing information and a site for the sharing and discussing of experiences as the Church attempts to ‘re-invent’ itself in order to reach the 21st Century world for Christ.
7.2 In a time of transition for our own church, there is much on this site to inspire and challenge us to think creatively about future possibilities. With links through the Woodlands Project coming to an end, the Life and Witness Committee recently agreed to a financial contribution to the site over the next two years.
8. Evangelising Contemporary Spirituality 8.1 The major task facing Christians in Britain today is how to respond to their neighbours who are interested in spirituality but who see the church as irrelevant. The evidence of spirituality is all around us: businesses talk of their corporate spirituality; leading politicians have their spiritual advisors; and Body, Mind and Spirit Fairs are crowded out. People are searching: but not in church (where worship is often seen as cerebral rather than spiritual) or formal Christianity, though the person of Jesus commands respect as a wise teacher.
8.2 The Churches Together in England Group for Evangelisation has recently addressed the subject in a resource-workbook Equipping Your Church in a Spiritual Age. This outlines research which has been undertaken into contemporary spiritualities and then suggests ways in which local churches could respond. These range from emphasising angels at Christmas (angels books crowd the Personal Development section of W H Smith) to setting up a Christian stall at a New Age Fair.
8.3 Life and Witness are pleased to commend the workbook as a valuable first step in helping churches engage with what their neighbours believe. Unless we treat their views seriously and engage with them, they will not treat our faith seriously or engage with us. And they are in the majority.
8.4 Further details will be available at Assembly, and we hope to introduce the workbook and its use by local churches at a special interest meeting.
Sub-Committee Members Convener: Mr Ray McHugh Secretary: Revd John Steele Revd John Durell , Revd David Legge, Mr Mick Barnes, Mrs Jackie Haws, Mrs Sue Wilkinson.
1. Terms of Reference
1.1 Always remembering that Christian Stewardship is our response to the grace of God in Jesus Christ, to promote the concept of Christian Stewardship and enable the development of resources which support the practical implementation of Christian Stewardship in order to further the mission of the church.
2. Stewardship Advocacy
2.1 A number of free, short, intensive courses have taken place at the Windermere Centre, led by Lawrence Moore, and have equipped over twenty people to become Stewardship Advocates.
2.2 Mrs Sue Wilkinson, a sub-committee member has become our National Stewardship Network Co-ordinator alongside her duties in North Western Synod. Key elements of this new role include creating and maintaining a database and being the central point of contact for Stewardship Advocates, plus providing a link with the CTBI Stewardship Network. A separate email identity for the National Stewardship Network Co-ordinator has been organised through the Life and Witness office.
3 ACT!
3.1 This free publication continues to be available as a resource to help churches in the development of a mission project. It looks at Stewardship in the widest sense, the aim of which is to encourage and enable churches to develop a mission project in such a way as to ensure the most effective use of all available resources.
4 TRIO – The Responsibility is Ours
4.1 Although TRIO is not free, there is still a continuing demand. Equal quantities of disk and acetate versions are now being produced. Animated slides are also being developed.
5. CTBI Stewardship Network
5.1 We continue to develop links with other denominations through the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland Stewardship Network.
5.2 This provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and gives us the opportunity to learn more about other denominations’ approach to the very important issue of stewardship.
5.3 The Convener represents our Church at these meetings. However, it is hope that the National Stewardship Network Co-ordinator will also attend, possibly alternating with the Convener.
5.4 A CTBI Stewardship Network Conference is being planned for the Summer of 2006.
6. Personnel
6.1 Since we reported in 2003 a number of membership changes have taken place. That same year we lost Mr Frank Dale and Mrs Sheila Yates and gained the Revd David Legge, Mrs Jackie Haws and Mrs Sue Wilkinson. Mrs Anne Mitchell concluded her service in 2004 at the same time as Mr Ray McHugh succeeded Mr Keith Webster as Convener. We also welcomed the Revd John Durell.
6.2 We were grateful for Revd J Howard Reed’s co-opted service before he left to return to the United States. This year we bid farewell to Mr Mick Barnes.
6.3 These contributions to the work of the Sub-Committee have been greatly appreciated and we express our sincere thanks.
|