From the Manse - June

At the time of writing I have just returned from my week at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The weather in Edinburgh was glorious, but there was very little opportunity to enjoy it. Apart from Sunday, the Assembly opened for business every morning (from Thursday 20th to Wednesday 26th May) at 930am and didn’t wind up again most days until after 5pm. Although some days (if we were lucky) we got an hour or so for lunch!

I was planning to write an ‘Assembly Diary’, but that didn’t happen. There was so much going on each day and so much for a first time commissioner like myself to take in. Much of the time I just sat listening to the debates and trying to makes sense of it all. And by the time I got back to my ‘digs’ at night I was too tired to write anything. So what you get here is just a few edited highlights!

The biggest debate of the Assembly was on Saturday afternoon after we heard Rev Graham Finch, present the mammoth report of the Ministries Council. This report outlined proposals for the development of new forms of ministry and mission to help the Church prepare for the large reduction in the number of ministers required by 2014. The Ministries Council needs to reduce the number of ministers across Scotland by approximately 200 to help address a budget deficit of around £5m a year.

Among the proposals agreed are schemes to train and build up a part time local preaching pool and more ministers will work part time with flexible hours than do at present. Although it was a long and sometimes impassioned debate, all the proposals in the report were agreed by the Assembly. Now presbyteries have to work towards implementing the proposals over the next few years through their Presbytery Planning Process. Budgets for local ministry will be devolved down to presbyteries and they will have much more of a say over the future shape of ministry at local level.

Presbytery reform was also on the Assembly agenda in the form of the report presented by “The Panel on Review and Reform” which proposed a scheme to pilot an alternative presbytery structure. The Panel hopes its proposals (now agreed) will encourage presbyteries to develop and experiment with new and different ways of working which focus on the delivery of the mission of the Church in their own local areas.

The Panel also successfully proposed a “Local Church Review” scheme to replace the current system of Quinquennial Visits (the five yearly report on the life and work of the congregation). The new scheme will look less at where a congregation has been and more at where they hope to be in the future. This new scheme aims to encourage congregations in their mission and outreach work and it will help presbyteries target scarce resources more effectively.

Another major debate came during the report from the Mission and Discipleship Council. The Council proposed the disposal of the Publishing Committee with Saint Andrew Press (over which the Committee had responsibility) being slimmed down to maintaining its back catalogue and producing resources for congregational use.

A lot of effort (and time on the floor of the Assembly) went into arguing the case for keeping a “real” publishing house going. But - after lengthy debate - the Mission and Discipleship Council won the day. Like the Ministries Council, the Mission and Discipleship Council are making hard choices to enable them to balance their budget. The scaling down of Saint Andrew Press was only one of many drastic cuts being made by the Council across its work, with the loss of jobs in the process.

This year’s Assembly marked the 450th Anniversary of the Scottish Reformation (when Scotland formally broke away from the Papacy and the Church was re-established along Reformed lines) with a special session on the Sunday afternoon with music and singing and readings from the Reformation period and an exhibition in the foyer of New College.
It seemed appropriate that this anniversary was also marked by the Assembly reaffirming its commitment to maintaining a ‘territorial’ ministry. The Special Commission on the Third Article Declaratory concluded (and the Assembly agreed) that the Kirk must reject a ‘supermarket’ model – i.e. maintaining a Church presence only where it is economically viable to do so.

The mood of the Assembly on this issue (and on many others debated during the week) is well summed up by this quote:
“There are no disposable parts of Scotland and no disposable people in Scotland. The Kirk has an obligation to the whole country and to all its people. It does not have an obligation, however, to do things as we always did, and in particular to stick to one model of paid, full time ordained ministry. The third Declaratory Article should remain [i.e. the commitment to territorial/parish ministry] but radical thinking of how we fulfil it is essential.

There are many other things I could report on such as the debates on the disposal of unsuitable and surplus buildings; increased promotion of Stewardship Schemes (including a Stewardship ‘Season’); suitability and future of manses; and the impact of new Safeguarding legislation. If you want to know more about these, or the General Assembly in general, please do come and chat to me.

Despite the heat in the hall and the extraordinary length of the sessions, I enjoyed my first experience of the General Assembly at work. It was good to catch up with friends and colleagues from across the country, to share in daily worship together, and to talk about the challenges of being ‘church’ in the 21st century.

I left Edinburgh feeling hopeful about the future, but also very aware of how much needs to change - both locally and nationally - in the months and years ahead.

Blessings

Dorothy