Church Life and Witness consultation

February and March 2013

The Church Life and Witness consultation was instigated at the request of Presbytery. A Life and Witness consultation is usually held whenever there is an unusual change in ministry arrangements, and Rosemary's resignation was the trigger for this. Because we were in discussion with CarolynKitto over the need to address our church budget deficit, we decided to ask Carolyn to run the Life and Witness consultation, since this is an area in which she also has experience. If Presbytery were to have run it, it would have been delayed (due to staffing shortages at Presbytery), and would have cost a similar amount.

You can see:

• the timetable at ChurchLifeAndWitnessTimetable

• the relation of the consultation to our future plans at ChurchFutureDirections

• the report on the consultation at ChurchLifeAndWitnessReport

• a set of questions and answers about Council & Elders arising from the proposals in the report at ChurchCouncilEldersQandA

• a report of the meeting and some immediate developments at CongregationGathering20130303.

• A further developed version of the proposals at ChurchRestructureProposals.

Members of the consultative group for the consultation are at ChurchLifeAndWitnessConsultativeGroup:

The consultation involved:

1. Individual Interviews (20 minutes): with people in the church and people in the community who were invited to phone the office and make an appointment, as well as with a cross-section of people being invited to an appointment. Carolyn asked people about their sources of satisfaction (what they enjoy and are energised by the their spiritual life and faith through GWUC) and any specific suggestions of focus or goals for the future.
2. Group sessions (45 minutes): sessions at different times during the week were made available to come to a group session to explore the strengths and gifts of the congregation, the opportunities God has given us and the hurts in our community. People could come either to an interview or a group session or both.
3. Prayer: upholding this time in prayer was commended to people, as well as specific opportunities to gather for prayer about the future for our church. People were encouraged to include the consultation in their private prayer.

4. Church Council and Elders meetings were held on the morning of Saturday 23 Feb, as well as a congregation gathering on the afternoon of 3 Mar.

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