GLEN WAVERLEY UNITING CHURCH

MEETING OF THE CONGREGATION

To be held in the Church at 11:30am on Sunday 28th July 2024 - following 10:00am worship.

A printable version of this agenda will be attached here.

AGENDA

1. Welcome

2. Prayer

3. Confirmation of Minutes of Meeting held on 19th November 2023

The minutes of the November meeting of the congregation are at CongMeetingMinutes20231119

4. Election of Church Councilors

A report of the election of Church Councillors on March 17th is at CongMeetingReport20240317

It is planned to hold and election for the 2025 Church Council in March next year following a similar timeline to that followed this year. Details on the CongregationalPage.

5. Congregation Annual Report

Recently, it has been the practice of the Glen Waverley Uniting Church to present reports concerning its activities and operation at meetings of the congregation on a few occasions throughout the year. Knowing that not everyone can attend these meetings, a report for 2023 was published as a special edition of Kingsway. It is hoped that this approach makes information about activities within our congregation available to more people. The annual report edition of Kingsway is available attatched here.

6. Reports and Recommendations

6.1. Ministry Team Report

Some good news about some of our programmes (for information)

6.2. Church Council Report

6.3. Church Council Worship Time task group Report

6.4. Property Report

6.5. 2024 Congregation Outreach Projects for 2024

Using the procedure for selection Congregation Outreach Projects (CopOverallProcedure) updated earlier this year, the Congregation Outreach Projects Selection Panel (Margaret Fraser, Annette Wojak, David Morgan) - drawn from members of the Outreach and Social Justice Mission Group - will present recommendations concerning projects to receive funding from the proceeds from this year's fete in October.

6.5.1. COP Selection Panel – Report to Congregational Meeting, 28 July 2024

Making decisions about Congregational Outreach Project (COP) recommendations on behalf of the GWUC congregation has been both exciting and daunting!

Due to a series of Covid-19 disruptions to COP selection and the annual fete during 2020-2022, this was the first time since 2019 that COP fund recommendations have been fully made on the basis of applications submitted by members of the congregation. In 2023, fete funds were disbursed based on the 2021 selections, but only 4 of the 5 projects remained eligible.

Early in 2024, the newly formed Outreach and Social Justice Mission Group (formerly the Outreach Mission Group) was asked by Church Council to oversee the 2024 COP process and to appoint three members to become the COP Selection Panel.

The COP Selection Panel needed to quickly revise and update the COP procedures and to re-educate the congregation and build enthusiasm for the process. The assessment criteria, guidelines and the application form were all advertised. A COP Sunday service was initiated in May, with support from the new ministry team. The speakers and posters provided evidence and ideas for what COP can achieve, and what benefits our annual fete proceeds can offer the recipients.

We were encouraged when we started to receive applications after this long break. We received six applications with a total request of $35,000. Following initial discussions with the applicants, one application for an overseas project was withdrawn as ineligible and another application modified the initial amount requested, bringing the total requested to $25,000.

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Applications for the five remaining projects were thoroughly checked and further researched. Applicants were offered the opportunity for further discussions with the Selection Panel. All these projects were considered worthy and deserving of funding.

The COP selections required careful comparison of the assessment criteria, projected outcomes, alignment to UC mission and ethos, long- and short-term benefits, numbers of people to benefit, the needs to be met and GWUC's connection with each project.

We are pleased to present the projects recommended to receive 2024 COP funding.

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Proposed Resolutions

a. all profit from the 2024 Fete is to be distributed to Charity

b. the charities listed in the distributed Congregation Outreach Projects brochure shall participate in the distribution of 2024 Fete profits

c. the charities will receive funding as follows: (details to be added)

d. that the Outreach and Social Justice Mission Group is to advise the Congregation of the final allocation to all charities, in the first available Bulletin after the Fete profit is finalised

7. Other Business

Although not essential, it would help the chair manage the agenda and time if members of the congregation could let the chair know before the meeting of matters that they would like discussed.

8. Benediction