 |
|
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
will maintain official United Reformed Church links with overseas
churches and world and regional ecumenical organisations, in
particular the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches. It will
guide the United Reformed Church’s participation in the Council for
World Mission.
Through it
official contact will be made with British and Irish ecumenical
bodies.
It is responsible
for the United Reformed Church’s involvement in St Andrew’s Hall.
The work of
selecting, training and caring for missionaries and overseeing
exchange of personnel will be undertaken by the Overseas Exchange
Sub-Committee.
Committee Members
Convener:
Revd Bob Andrews
Secretaries:
Revd Sheila
Maxey (Secretary for Ecumenical Relations)
Revd Philip Woods (Secretary for International Relations)
Ms Lesley-Anne Morgan
(International Relations Programme Officer)
Members: Revd Peter Arthur, Revd Mary Buchanan, Ms Bethan Galliers, Revd Stuart Jackson, Revd Phillip Jones, Mrs Jackie Marsh, Revd Richard Mortimer, Revd Elizabeth Nash, Revd John Rees,
Revd John Crocker
(Convener of the Overseas Exchange Sub-Committee)
Representatives of other committees: Revd Peter Brain, Revd Jonathan Dean,
Dr Iain Frew, Revd Hugh Graham, Mrs Rosemary Johnston, Revd Tony Ruffell
Representatives from other churches: Rt Revd Colin Buchanan (Church of England),
Revd Gabrielle Ellis-Farquhar (Presbyterian Church of Ireland), Revd John Smith (Scottish Congregational Church), Revd Peter Sulston (Methodist Church)
1
Introduction
1.1 ‘What is the Spirit saying to the churches?’ must be a key question for all committees (and churches) but the Ecumenical Committee has been particularly challenged this year as it seeks to discern just how the United Reformed Church is ‘to take, wherever possible and with all speed, further steps towards the unity of all God’s people.’ (Basis of Union, paragraph 8)
1.2 Being a church in three nations, situated in an increasingly multi-ethnic society, in a shrinking but divided world where we have partners through the Council for World Mission, the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches, as well as special friends within those bodies, calls us to be open to a variety of ways of understanding our commitment to the ‘unity of all God’s people’.
1.3 The breadth of the Ecumenical Committee’s remit challenges it to discern and pursue that variety of ways in which God is calling us to seek ‘the unity of all God’s people.’
Expressing our unity of purpose through the UK ecumenical bodies 2
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
2.1 Almost all
United Reformed Church assembly committees work through some part of
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
2.2 Building Bridges of Hope, a programme which has monitored the mission and outreach of 40 local churches and is now ready to help local churches develop their missionary calling, is a valuable resource to our Growing Up programme. The Life and Witness Committee is the main channel.
2.3 Peter Brain,
Secretary for Church and Society, represents the United Reformed
Church on the ecumenical group looking at the reform of the House
of Lords, following the publication of the Wakeham report.
2.4 Jean Black,
Secretary for Continuing Ministerial Education, represents us on the
Friends of Bossey Council in order that the United Reformed
Church can both use and influence the nature of that World Council of
Churches-related ecumenical training resource. 2.5 The Churches Commission for Racial Justice has been monitoring the asylum bill and advising churches on how to prepare to respond to the needs of asylum seekers when they are dispersed around the country. Sandra Ackroyd represents us on CCRJ.
3
Churches Together in England
3.1 Our General
Secretary, Revd Tony Burnham, as one of the presidents of Churches
Together in England, has represented the member churches on
several occasions, notably the English national Millennium Service at
St Paul’s Cathedral and the National Service of Commemoration for the
Home Front at Coventry Cathedral.
3.2 Many local churches and ‘churches together’ groups availed themselves of the wide range of New Start millennium material offered by Churches Together in England, some celebrating at the beginning of the year, many at Pentecost.
3.3 The challenge of government regionalisa-tion to the churches’ shared responsibility for society has been high on our synod moderators’ agenda. They have been greatly helped by the country-wide knowledge of Jenny Carpenter, CTE Field Officer for the North and Midlands, who accompanied them to Brussels (see 17.2 below)
3.4 The Group for
Local Unity
3.4.1 The
Group for Local Unity is piloting a model for LEP finance, a
subject which has always been an ecumenical stumbling block.
3.4 2 GLU has issued an advice paper especially for use in Local Ecumenical Parnterships on an ecumenically sensitive approach to the disposal of the bread and wine after communion.
3.4.3 The Group has
also been concerned about the problems black churches often
encounter when they worship in the church buildings of the
historic denominations. These last two concerns touch the life of
many local United Reformed Churches and are a challenge to two
different kinds of ‘unity’.
4 The Free Churches’ Council4.1 Member Churches
are currently discussing a proposal that the FCC become a ‘desk’
within Churches Together in England and, possibly, Churches Together
in Wales (CYTUN). FCC resources would continue to be available to
‘free church’ work.
5
Wales
5.1 The United
Reformed Church in Wales is pursuing Christian unity in several
different ways.
5.2 Churches Together in Wales (CYTUN) is setting up regional sponsoring bodies (with boundaries co-terminus with the government regions) to oversee and develop Local Ecumenical Partnerships. The synod ecumenical officer, Stuart Jackson, works closely with Revd Dr Sion Aled Owen (who is both the new CYTUN ecumenical officer and the General Secretary of Enfys (see 5.4)) as the United Reformed Church is involved in many of the Welsh LEPs.
5.3 Proposals for
a Free Church Union are being studied by the churches, including
the United Reformed Church which is an active observer rather than a
full participant.
5.4 The proposal from the Commission of Covenanted Churches (Enfys) for an ecumenical bishop in Wales is being brought to this Assembly by the Wales Synod.
5.5 The United
Reformed churches and Methodist churches in part of Pembrokeshire have
formed a united area which is both URC District and Methodist
Circuit.
6
Scotland
6.1 A variety of
approach to the ‘unity of all God’s people’ is also to be found in the
United Reformed Church’s ecumenical commitments in Scotland.
6.2 The highlight, of course, was the Unifying Assembly on 1 April when the Congregational Union of Scotland and the United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom united to form the United Reformed Church. The Scottish Congregational Church/United Reformed Church Liaison Committee held its final meeting in February having made its valuable contribution to strengthening relations between the two churches over the 10 years of its life. (see appendix 3 for a record of and tribute to its work)
6.3 The new Synod of Scotland continues the commitment of both churches to the Scottish Church Initiative for Union (SCIFU) whose Second Interim Report is now available for study by the churches. Thanks are due to Peter Arthur, James Breslin and Fleur Houston for their significant contribution to SCIFU until the Unifying Assembly.
6.4 Those churches in Scotland involved in LEPs have been brought together by Action for Churches Together in Scotland to seek to form a single ecumenical oversight body for Local Ecumenical Partnerships.
6.5 The Ecumenical
Committee looks forward to holding its September meeting in Edinburgh.
Seeking unity through understanding one another’s
traditions
7
The Methodist/United Reformed Church Liaison
Committee
7.1 The
Methodist/United Reformed Church Liaison Committee has continued
to work at the points of local difficulty in the relationship between
the two churches, especially vacancies and ministry, and has found it
helpful to identify how far their roots are in our different
ecclesiologies.
7.2 A detailed paper, entitled Managing change of ministry, designed to fit into the pack How to Make it Work, is now available. It is the fruit of wide consultation and calls for some creative flexibility from both churches. It (and the pack) is strongly recommended to all in United Reformed Church/ Methodist Church LEPS, and especially to interim-moderators and district pastoral committees.
8
The Formal and Informal Conversations involving the Church of England
and the Methodist Church.
8.1 The formal conversations between the Church of England and the Methodist Church have held four residential meetings. There is also increased meeting and working together between the two churches at every level. The ecumenical participants, including those from the United Reformed Church, contribute fully to the discussions.
8.2 The informal conversations, which include the United Reformed Church as a full member, have discussed papers from the United Reformed Church on eldership, on conciliarity and apostolicity, and on our understanding of and commitment to the visible unity of the Church.
8.3 The two sets of
conversations exchange reports of their meetings and there is an
overlap in personnel. Both have increased mutual understanding and
clarified points of difference.
9
The Advisory Group on Faith and Order
9.1 The Ecumenical Committee and the Doctrine, Prayer and Worship Committee each sent two representatives to an ecumenical consultation on Episkope and Episcopacy in September 1999. In December they met with the members of the Advisory Group on Faith and Order, which advises both committees, and produced a brief paper on issues for the United Reformed Church in connection with personal leadership and authority. This was offered to the Mission Council and will contribute to its ongoing work on oversight ministry with particular reference to synod moderators.
9.2 The Ecumenical Committee supported the recommendation in that paper that synods with European partner churches who are a party to one of the Church of England’s agreements, such as the Reuilly Common Statement with the French Reformed and Lutheran churches or the Meissen Agreement with the German churches, should discuss those agreements with their partners.
9.3 The Advisory
Group on Faith and Order also drafted a United Reformed Church
response to and critique of the Roman Catholic document ‘One
Bread, One Body’ and a response to the WCC statement on ‘the
Nature and Purpose of the Church’. The Advisory Group is also
considering, from a Reformed perspective, the Methodist statement
on the Church, ‘Called to Love and Praise’, and the
House of Bishops (Church of England) paper on collegiality,
‘Bishops in Communion’. All these papers, once
approved by the committee, are available on request. The documents
themselves are available from the bookshop.
10
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland
10.1 The committee
greatly values its links with the Presbyterian Church in Ireland
which sends a representative to each meeting. Through that
representative, currently Revd Gabrielle Ellis-Farquhar, the committee
is kept abreast of developments in church and society there and always
undertakes to uphold this partner church and its land in prayer.
10.2 The Secretary
for Ecumenical Relations was invited to address the Presbyterian
Church in Ireland’s Inter-Church Relations Board in February.
10.3 The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Wales and the United Reformed Church are holding a consultation in March 2001 on what it is to be Reformed churches in our different nations, with our different histories, yet our common roots.
The
challenge of new kinds of unity
11
Single ethnic congregations and the United Reformed Church
11.1 The committee
has continued to consider the process for receiving single-ethnic
Presbyterian congregations into membership or closer friendship with
the United Reformed Church. A model constitution for such
churches wanting to join the United Reformed Church has been prepared.
11.2 Revd Noble Samuel, minister of Waltham-stow United Reformed Asian Christian Church, attended a consultation in the USA in September 1999 on the particular mission of such fast-growing Asian churches. The Secretary for International Relations also met with the new Secretary for Immigrant Ministries in the Presbyterian Church (USA). That partner church is recognising that such congregations are their growing edge.
11.3 A second Urdu-speaking Presbyterian church, Slough Asian Christian Church, will apply to become a congregation of the United Reformed Church at this Assembly.
11.4 On 4 March, the Secretary for Ecumenical Relations and the Multi-racial, Multi-cultural Development Worker organised a consultation for representatives of Pakistani, Ghanaian and Korean single ethnic presbyterian churches along with representatives of some multi-ethnic local United Reformed churches. These growing churches are challenging the United Reformed Church to seek a different kind of ‘unity of all God’s people’.
12
The Synod and District Ecumenical Officers
12.1 The network
of Synod and District Ecumenical Officers plays a vital role in
the United Reformed Church’s commitment to ‘the unity of all God’s
people’ in terms of encouraging LEPs, Churches Together bodies and the
ecumenical work of mission and service which takes place through the
county bodies or their equivalent.
12.2 The network is resourced by four mailings a year, which offer either ‘News from the Ecumenical Committee’ or ‘Ecumenical Filings’ together with advice or position papers and notice of new publications and training courses. There is a bi-annual residential consultation which, this year, will have the Co-ordinating Secretary for Inter-Church Relations in the Methodist Church, Revd Peter Sulston, as its visiting speaker.
12.3 The Secretary
for Ecumenical Relations welcomes, diary permitting, invitations to
the synods’ ecumenical committees to both listen and contribute. An
occasional in-depth visit to see something of a synod’s ecumenical
life also helps to keep the committee and staff rooted.
Witnessing to our unity through international bodies and partnerships
13
The World Convention of the Churches of Christ
13.1 The World Convention of the Churches of Christ is a four-yearly gathering of people from local congregations of the Stone-Campbell family of churches (Churches of Christ, Disciples and Independent Christian churches) around the world. As a united church, which through our union embraces the Churches of Christ, we are part of the family. Other united churches are also involved, for example our CWM partner the United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands is a member.
13.2 In August this year the 2000 Convention will be held in Brisbane, Australia and will be attended by several people from the United Reformed Church, including an official delegation of people who will be involved in organising the next Convention which the United Reformed Church will be co-hosting with the Fellowship of the Churches of Christ in Brighton in 2004.
13.3 Along with
organising our own participation the Ecumenical Committee is
sponsoring (along with CWM) the attendance of three people from the
Churches of Christ in Malawi.
14
World Alliance of Reformed Churches
14.1 Following a
search process led by Elizabeth Nash in her capacity as one of WARC’s
officers, WARC appointed Revd Dr Setri Nyomi from the
Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana as its new General Secretary to
succeed Dr Milan Opecensky who retired at the end of March.
14.2 One of the main
programmes of the department of which Elizabeth is Moderator (the
department on Co-operation and Witness) is an exploration into
economic injustice. In November, as part of this programme and along
with the World Council of Churches, WARC held a symposium in
Thailand on The Consequences of Economic
Globalisation in Asia. It is a common theme at present, echoed
also in the work of the Council for World Mission and the
International Association of Mission Studies.
14.3 Through our
partnerships in WARC we have been moved to monitor the deteriorating
situation in Indonesia and in January representations were made
to the Ambassador of Indonesia about the sectarian conflict which was
threatening both Christian and Muslim communities. WARC are hoping to
send a solidarity visit, of which Elizabeth will be part, before the
end of 2000.
14.4 In March we
hosted the annual meeting of the European Area Committee of
WARC in London.
15
World
Council
of Churches
15.1 In September Jenny Downing attended the first meeting of the new WCC Central Committee and in November the Secretary for Ecumenical Relations attended an Ecumenical Officers’ meeting convened by the WCC. Both heard about how the WCC intends to develop its life and work following the Assembly in Harare in December 1998.
15.2 The UK ecumenical officers present at the meeting are now pressing Churches Together in Britain and Ireland to network all those who represent UK churches both on the WCC and on the Conference of European Churches so that the churches of these islands can make a more coherent input and communicate more effectively with local congre-gations. However, the world-wide nature of the Ecumenical Officers’ meeting also brought home to those from the UK and North America that the word ecumenical means so much more than inter-church and is also about responding together to injustice and poverty.
15.3 To improve
communication with its member churches the WCC has launched a new
publication WCC News, which the committee is making
available to Synod World Church Advocates and Synod Ecumenical
Officers.
16
Council for World Mission
16.1 Just before last year’s Assembly the CWM biennial Council meeting was held in Samoa, the first time a CWM Council meeting had been held in the Pacific Region. It was a truly memorable occasion, especially for those of us brought up on the stories of John Williams. The most significant item to emerge from the meeting was a new statement of CWM’s Mission Theology, prepared by an international group and edited by Preman Niles (CWM General Secretary), the successor to “Perceiving Frontiers, Crossing Boundaries” produced in 1995. The committee welcomed the document as setting The United Reformed Church’s Growing Up report (1999 Assembly) in a larger context and so circulated it to members of Mission Council, and various other likely interested people.
16.2 At the Council meeting Philip Woods was elected as the European Region representative on the Executive. The first meeting of the new Executive was hosted by the United Reformed Church in London in November.
16.3 The European Region of CWM has been particularly active this past year.
16.3.1 With the
closure of St Andrew’s Hall it has been reflecting on how mission
education and training might now be best developed within the
Region. To further this debate the Region held a consultation in
September for key people in the member churches involved in
ministerial training, continuing ministerial education, lay training
and mission enabling. The consultation concluded by proposing that the
Region, on completion of the present Mission Enabler programme in
2000, should appoint a new full-time Mission Enabler who in addition
to working with denominational mission enablers would also begin
working with theological institutions and developing contextual
missiology courses for CME programmes. This proposal was subsequently
endorsed by the Regional Secretaries Meeting and is now being
considered by the member churches and the CWM Executive who will be
asked to use the proceeds from the sale of St Andrew’s Hall to part
endow the post. The committee has considered it and given its backing
to the idea.
16.3.2 The annual
Window on the World conference, attended by nearly 300
people last year, picked up the current CWM theme What does the
Lord require? with Fr Tissa Balassuriya from Sri Lanka as the
keynote speaker. Through a global analysis of events during the last
century he pressed the question, what does the Lord require of those
who have benefited from the domination system bequeathed the Earth
following 500 years of colonialism? For some it was overwhelming,
whilst for others it was a spur to action. As a consequence some
participants produced a guide, “Information to Response”, to help
people process and act on such presentations, using the events of the
conference as a model. The conference as a whole urged CWM to do more
work with its member churches on the issues of
drug-patenting/intellectual property rights and globalisation which
all had been highlighted in particular case studies.
16.3.3 The Youth
in Mission workshop programme has had two events in the past year.
The first was in August in Glasgow, looking at the drug culture and
the second in May in the Netherlands on the theme of money and
globalisation.
16.3.4 A long-term aim of the CWM European Region has been to be a little more European (currently the member churches come from Great Britain and the Netherlands). This past year saw a bold step on the way to achieving this as the region co-sponsored a European Mission Conference with the Conference of European Churches, the European national mission councils and the European Evangelical Missionary Alliance. Held in the Netherlands in October, the conference, Living the Story of Christ – Mission in Europe Today, brought together around 60 participants, most of them in their 20s and 30s, from a broad spectrum of confessions – Protestant, evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox – and from every corner of Europe.
16.3.5 In November
the Region held its second Mission Enablers Consultation, with
around 30 participants. Although there are different ideas about what
constitutes a mission enabler, the networking and support of mission
enablers has been one of the success stories of the European Region in
the last three years.
16.3.6 Throughout
the year work has continued on the Region’s Mission and Liturgy
project. The first fruits of this will be seen at this year’s
Window on the World, at Swanwick, 5-11 August (places still
available – book through the International Relations office) where the
conference will explore, with keynote speakers from Jamaica, how we
can make our worship an effective tool of mission.
17
Conference of European Churches
17.1 1999 saw the
completion of the merger of the European Ecumenical Commission for
Church and Society (EECCS) with CEC, to form the CEC Church and
Society Commission. During the latter part of the year the new CEC
Church and Society Commission Working Groups met for the first time.
The United Reformed Church is represented on two. David Pickering is a
member of the Economy, Environment and Sustainable Development working
group and Philip Woods is a member of the European Integration working
group.
17.2 In February
the synod moderators held their monthly meeting in Brussels so as
to learn more about how the European Union is involved in regional
policy and funding. In a programme arranged by the Secretary for
International Relations and the CEC Church and Society Commission they
met with people in the European Commission and the European Parliament
and learnt how Europe’s churches relate to these institutions. The
visit raised a number of questions about regionalisation and
how The United Reformed Church (indeed churches in general) relate to
EU regional programmes. The potential value of our European
partnerships in the development of EU regional partnerships was also
noted.
17.3 In April the
synod European Link Co-ordinators met in Brussels, with
representatives of some of our European partner churches to learn
about the work of the CEC Church and Society Commission and to be
introduced to the European Institutions.
17.4 At its January
meeting the committee received and approved our response to
Charta Oecumenica – For the Co-operation of Churches in
Europe produced by CEC and CCEE (the European council of Roman
Catholic Bishops’ Conferences) in response to some of the concerns and
hopes raised at the Second European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz,
Austria in 1997. Welcoming the document, which sets out a framework
for ecumenical co-operation, the committee reiterated the United
Reformed Church’s commitment ‘to deepening our life together as
churches in Europe and to sharing with other churches in a common
responsibility towards Europe.’ The response then went on to make a
number of detailed comments before concluding: ’We recognise that the
Charta is a call to a process … We have seen that it has
challenges for our own life and witness as churches together in these
islands. In particular its constant refrain to worship together, to
hear the word of God together and to pray with as well as for one
another …’. If sufficient churches respond positively a revised text
will be prepared to be launched at a major European ecumenical
gathering at Easter 2001.
18
International Partnerships
18.1 The Ecumenical Committee, through individual visits and more formal arrangements, seeks to nurture and stimulate a whole range of partnerships.
18.2 Of particular
note in the past year are:
• the visit by the
Moderator of Assembly, Peter McIntosh, to South Africa to share in the
bi-centenary of the arrival of the first LMS missionaries and the
union of the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa with the Reformed
Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa to form the United Presbyterian
Church of Southern Africa;
• the continuing
role journeying with the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar.
19 Churches
Commission
on Mission
19.1 During the year
the committee has reorganised our representation on the CCOM Area
Forums and given our representatives a clear job description to
improve the quality of our input and the benefits we gain from sharing
in this work which links concerns for mission and international
affairs with church partners around the world.
20
Belonging to the World Church
20.1 In September the committee received the first annual report on the implementation of the Belonging to the World Church programme and at their January meeting received a further update indicating that slowly but surely elements of the programme were taking shape. However, progress was set back in the autumn when Lesley-Anne Morgan, the International Relations Programme Officer, was off work with a serious back injury following an accident whilst on holiday in August. Now, more or less fully recovered, she is back with us tackling the detailed work of setting up the components of this programme.
20.2 It is
anticipated that in 2001 two pilot programmes for the ordinands/CRCWs’
overseas training opportunities will take place.
20.3 Through World Exchange the committee is offering the opportunity for up to six teachers a year to take a year out to work with one of our overseas partner churches.
20.4 In conjunction with World Exchange one-month work/study camps are being developed for adults with our partner churches. The first of these took place in March in partnership with the Church of North India.
20.5 Two young
people participated in the Bridge Project, a European
ecumenical project, which consisted of a seven month exposure
programme to each of the seven participating churches
20.6 Unfortunately, the pilot for the Global Partners programme (visiting speakers), which should have taken place in the autumn did not happen. A second attempt is being made this autumn.
20.7 There has begun
to be some take-up of the additional Belonging to the World
Church CME grants. Further work on promoting these
and developing international CME opportunities is being undertaken
with the Secretary for Continuing Ministerial Education
20.8 Northern College, in conjunction with the North-Western Synod, has made the first Research Fellowship appointment and a second is being prepared with Mersey Synod.
20.9 The new
intensive English language programme for people from some of
our overseas partner churches was held in August/September, with
eleven participants from Europe, Africa and Korea.
20.10 A leaflet
demonstrating the complementary nature of Commitment for Life
and Belonging to the World Church has
been produced in conjunction with the Church and Society Committee and
has been circulated through both networks. Two of our Global Partners
this autumn will be from PARC, one of the Commitment for Life
projects.
21
Pilgrim 2000
21.1 Throughout the
year, the International Relations office has been involved in the
arrangements for Pilgrim 2000, the centrally organised
pilgrimage to Israel/Palestine which was held in late February/early
March. With its mixed programme of traditional pilgrim sites and
encounters with local people from a variety of churches and faith
traditions, it connected the historical with the contemporary,
challenging all involved to see afresh events past and present. (A
fuller report can be found in Appendix 2)
22
World Church and European Networks
22.1 The annual
meeting for Synod World Church Secretaries was held in February
at St Colm’s International House in Edinburgh, the home of World
Exchange. In addition to reviewing progress on the Belonging to the
World Church programme and learning about the work of World
Exchange, the consultation agreed changes to our world church synod
and district network. Although it was recognised that there will be
differences across the synods and districts it was agreed that the
role is now very much one of advocacy and therefore that the normal
title will be World Church Advocate, and that their
primary purpose will be:
To deepen
people’s understanding of the world church and in particular to
promote the opportunities available through the Belonging to the World
Church programme.
22.2 In April the
Synod European Link Co-ordinators met in Brussels for their annual
consultation. At their meeting, in addition to learning about the
European Institutions and the work of the CEC Church and Society
Commission, they reflected on our European partnerships and considered
whether their role should be restyled as European Partnership
Co-ordinators reflecting our commitment to partnership in all our
relations.
22.3 The regular
contact with the World and European advocates and co-ordinators in
each synod is vital to the international work of the committee.
Mailings and other support is offered to District World Church
Advocates and to other interested individuals through our subscription
mailing service based on CWM’s excellent journal Inside Out.
These networks are a resource to every congregation as they promote
our belonging to the world church. Thanks are due to them all for all
they do to communicate the United Reformed Church’s many and varied
international concerns and partnerships.
23
Welcome and farewell, with thanks
23.1 The committee welcomed Rt Revd Colin Buchanan, Bishop of Woolwich, as the new representative of the Church of England and Revd Peter Sulston, the Co-ordinating Secretary for Inter-Church and Other Relationships of the Methodist Church as its new representative and Revd John Smith as the co-opted member from the Scottish Congregational Church.
23.2 The committee is very sad to lose the wisdom and experience of Revd Dr Peter Arthur, who has represented the Mid-Scotland District on the committee for several years and also that of Miss Bethan Galliers, one of the core members of the committee. Others whose contribution as representatives of other committees will be missed are Revd Peter Brain, Revd Jonathan Dean, and Dr Iain Frew. Revd Gabrielle Ellis-Farquar comes to the end of her three-year term both as representative of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland on the committee and as its voting representative at the General Assembly. Both the Assembly and the committee will miss her.
Resolution 27 Change of Name of Overseas Exchange
Sub-Committee to International Exchange Sub-Committee
General Assembly
agrees that the Overseas Exchange Sub-Committee of the Ecumenical
Committee be re-named the International Exchange Sub-Committee.
1.1 Why the change? Firstly, for some time the members of the Overseas Exchange Sub-Committee had expressed disquiet at its name. Recognising that the work of the committee involved both the sending and receiving of people – mission partners, volunteers, scholarship holders and others – it was felt that the name should reflect this. Rather than have a ‘Brit-centric’ tone it should more clearly convey the all-embracing global character of our work.
1.2 Secondly, with
the advent of the Belonging to the World Church programme it
was felt that using terms such as ‘overseas’ in this context (with its
connotation of ‘over there’) expressed our separation more than our
belonging.
1.3 Hence, the
desire to change ‘overseas’ to ‘international’ and so express more
clearly the nature and
understanding of our work.
Overseas
Exchange Sub-Committee
The Overseas
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
volunteers programme.
Committee Members
Convener:
Revd John
Crocker
Secretary:
Revd Philip
Woods
Revd Bob Andrews
(Convener, Ecumenical Committee), Mrs Virginia Becher (until her
untimely death),
Mr Peter Bryant, Revd
Keith Riglin, Revd Gwen Collins, Revd Keith Forecast and
Revd Sheila Maxey
(Secretary for Ecumenical Relations).
1
Introduction
1.1 During the past
year the committee has spent much time reflecting on our practice of
sharing people in mission as we have listened to the experience of
those we receive amongst us as mission partners here and those whom we
send. We are not alone in this. In March there was a UK Mission
Agencies consultation to listen to and learn from each other’s
experience, and in April CWM convened a meeting to reflect on what
sharing people in mission means today. Emerging from all this are a
number of issues which the committee will be working on in the coming
year as we revise our guidelines for receiving and sending mission
partners and address some of the more fundamental issues of how we
share skills, insights and experience in the service of God’s global
mission today.
2
Sharing people in mission
2.1 Sharing people
in mission is a difficult and stretching process for all involved. The
challenge of working cross-culturally, different needs and
expectations, a wide range of understandings about how the church
should function, a multitude of differing experience, unspoken
assumptions, tremendous hopes and fears and much more all go into the
process whereby we send and receive people around the world as
partners in God’s mission. Mistakes are made, misunderstandings are
commonplace and people get hurt. At the same time, people are
stretched and enriched by the experience and their encounters both as
mission partners and as host communities. Good work is done and much
is learnt from the experience by all involved.
2.2 The committee
regularly experiences all of this as we process the applications,
prepare and support the people we both send and receive. Each year
brings difficulties and successes. We rejoice in the successes and try
to learn from the difficulties. This year we have journeyed with one
couple through a particularly difficult experience which has revealed
multiple shortcomings in both our own and CWM’s systems. As a result
we have made a number of significant changes to our recruitment
practice and to the support we give people during the process from
selection to appointment.
2.3 On the receiving
front we have experienced increasing difficulties with obtaining visas
for our partners to enter the United Kingdom. As a consequence we have
engaged an immigration lawyer to advise and assist us on immigration
and visa matters as they occur.
2.4 In a series of
discussions initiated by the Ministries Committee and its
Accreditation Sub-Committee we have found ourselves addressing the
question of the status of ministers we send and receive. Both
theological and practical the issues raised go to the heart of what it
means today to share people in mission.
2.5 At the time of
writing the following United Reformed Church people are serving with
partner churches outside the UK:
• Revd Chris and Carol Baillie – United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands (CWM)
• Alison Gibbs –
United Church of Zambia (CWM)
• Stephen and Hardy
Wilkinson – FJKM, Madagascar (CWM)
• Revd Jane Stranz –
Reformed Church of France
• Brian Wilkins,
India (World Exchange volunteer)
• Chris Evans, India
(World Exchange volunteer)
• Amanda Dawson,
Malawi (World Exchange volunteer)
• Allan Christie,
Malawi (world Exchange volunteer)
Current CWM
vacancies are advertised on their website (www.cwmission.org.uk) or
are available as a printed list from the International Relations
office. Most of the vacancies are for lay people and cover a wide
range of occupations.
2.6 The following
people from our partner churches outside the UK are currently serving
The United Reformed Church here:
• Revd Francis Amenu
from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana –Ghanaian Minister to
the United Reformed Church in London
• Revd Moiseraela
Prince Dibeela from the Botswana Synod, United Congregational Church
of Southern Africa – Mission Enabler in the East Midlands Synod (CWM)
• Mrs Jasmine
Jebakani from the Church of South India – Tutor at the Southern
Theological Education & Training Scheme (CWM)
• Revd Marjorie
Lewis-Cooper from the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands
– Multi Racial/Multi Cultural Development Worker (CWM)
• Miss
Vanlallmalsawmi Bapui from the Presbyterian Church of India –
volunteer at Yardley Hastings (CWM)
• Jean Noel
Randriamiarana from the FJKM (Madagascar) – volunteer in Penrhys (CWM)
At present we have
one vacancy in the overseas special category ministry posts and would
encourage congregations, districts and synods to consider if they
could creatively utilise such a person in their situation.
3
World Exchange
3.1 World Exchange
continues to develop as an important resource for the international
programmes of The United Reformed Church. In addition to participating
in the volunteer programme, we have welcomed the development of St
Colm’s International House in Edinburgh (the former Church of Scotland
mission college) as World Exchange’s UK base. The house has a core
international community (mostly students) who help resource World
Exchange’s preparation of volunteers. It has also become the base of
our English language scholarship programme and has been used in the
past year for meetings of our World Church Advocates and our mission
partners serving in the UK. The English language programme developed
for us by World Exchange is now also being utilised by Christian Aid
and our World Church Advocates and mission partners had the pleasure
of meeting the first Christian Aid group from Kurdish Iraq when they
had their meetings at St Colm’s in February. In September the
Secretary for International Relations was elected as Chairperson of
World Exchange for a three-year period.
4
Scholarship programme
4.1 With the closure
of St Andrew’s Hall the committee was forced to review its scholarship
programme. After consulting the partner churches to whom we make the
programme available (Central and Eastern European churches and some
non-CWM partners in Southern Africa and Korea) we learnt that what
they really valued were the opportunities to develop people’s English
language skills. Accordingly we asked World Exchange if they could
develop for us an intensive English language programme which would
equip people to represent their churches internationally, both in
attending meetings and handling correspondence. The first of these
courses was held in August/September 1999 with the following
participants:
Presbyterian Church
of Mozambique
Carlos Faquione
Ernesto Fernando
Langa
Lucilia Julia Sitoe
Evangelical Church
of the Czech Brethren
Pavel Krivohlavy
Vaclav Hurt
Nad’a Betakova
Evangelische Kirche
der Union
Silke Schrader
Gurdi Nutzel
Presbyterian Church
in the Republic of Korea
Sin-Jung Kim
Jin Kim
Eun-Young Kon
5
International Ministry Exchanges
5.1 In June 1999 the first International Advisers meeting for Clergy Exchange International (the international short-term ministerial exchange programme we participate in) was held and as a consequence a number of significant changes were made. The first was to rename the programme International Ministry Exchanges and to open it to all people engaged in full-time professional service in the church. The second was to move the programme away from working holidays to opportunities for continuing ministerial education with participants using the occasion to learn from the experience of another church tradition and practice, e.g. in worship, or Christian education, or pastoral care. The third was to seek to extend the programme to a wider range of churches/countries than are currently involved. The committee has welcomed these changes as making the programme far more interesting and useful to The United Reformed Church. The next International Advisers meeting will be hosted by The United Reformed Church in July 2001.
6 St
Andrew’s Hall
6.1 Last year’s
Assembly acknowledged the closure of St Andrew’s Hall, giving thanks
for its tremendous witness over the years. On the 14th
February 2000 the St Andrew’s Hall Association was dissolved,
following the completion of the sale of the St Andrew’s Hall
Missionary College to the Baptist Missionary Society at the end of
August 1999 and the subsequent winding up of the Association’s affairs
and disbursement of funds. It was a long and complicated process
overseen by two people from The United Reformed Church serving as
officers of the Association – Revd Ernest Cruchley (Chairman) and Revd
Gwen Collins (Secretary). Working with Mrs Janet Gibbins, the
Association’s Treasurer they had the unenviable task of seeing to all
the details involved in this difficult process and we are grateful to
them for all their work on this. That is behind us now and the
Ecumenical Committee are looking to how we can carry forward the task
of mission education and training in an international context as
requested of them by the 1999 Assembly. The United Reformed Church’s
share of the disbursement of funds amounts to Ł176,186. It is not a
huge sum, but certainly a meaningful legacy to continue the important
work of equipping people for God’s mission today.
7
Members
7.1 The committee wishes to record its appreciation of the contribution made by Virginia Becher whose sudden death is mourned by all who knew her, especially her family to whom we extend our deepest sympathies.
|