Diff for "SupportingOutsideEvents"

Draft policy on GWUC support for outside events

1. GWUC wishes to support members pursuing activities related to their faith both inside outside of GWUC. Some recent examples of the latter would include contributing to the Synod Mission and Service fund, publicising the Christmas Bowl Appeal, door-knocking for Red Cross, building houses with Habitat for Humanity, running work and exposure trips to Kenya, standing for Municipal Council, taking a placement with Médecins Sans Frontières, and accepting employment in a remote aboriginal community.
2. Aspects of this support may include inclusion in public prayer, sharing of passions with the congregation in GWUC publications or services, offering the congregation opportunity to contribute their labour and their money, through to using church outreach funds and the time and talents of GWUC ministerial and other staff.
3. The amount of control that GWUC does and can exert over these will vary widely, depending on both the nature of the activity and the nature of the support.
4. Formal acknowledgement of an event as a Church Event invokes UCA insurance. This provides cover for the participants, but imposes responsibility on GWUC, through the Church Council, to manage any risks, which we may not be in a position to do.
5. This leads to a need to differentiate between events that are Church Events, with insurance cover, and Council responsibility for management of risks and/or finance. What factors should be used for this differentiation. Some possibilities would include:
   1. Involvement of ministerial or other staff in a leadership role. Clearly Church Event.
   2. Involvement of ministerial or other staff in a minor support role, for example some assistance from the church office staff. Not enough to make it a Church Event.
   3. Use of GWUC general funds. Clearly Council is responsible for the funds, and hence the event needs to be a Church Event.

   4. Use of GWUC fete proceeds, ie Congregational Outreach Projects. Clearly Council has responsibility for the fete, but little or no control over how the funds are spent, other than to undertake due diligence on the causes funded. Current guidelines for this are here. The Fete is a church event; the spending is not. GWUC / Church Council / Outreach project committee are responsible for a reasonable check on the causes, but not for their actions.

   5. Soliciting of financial contributions from the Congregation. Similar to the fete process, Council is responsible for a general check on the causes and who runs them, but cannot control nor be responsible for their actions.
   6. Encouraging participation by members of the congregation in outside events, from NCYC to Habitat for Humanity to Asylum Seeker support, where GWUC has little or no control, and no desire to take it. Again, advertising of such events requires Council to provide a general check on the cause.
   7. Prayer and publicity support for individual actions. The individuals take responsibility for their own actions, but GWUC can provide a blessing and a medium for reporting to the congregation without taking any responsibility.

So the three categories become: