Proposal for New Structures at Glen Waverley Uniting Church

A proposal to be put to the congregational meeting on 1 Jul 2013.

Executive Summary

Recommendation 1: All church groups, recognizing the importance of intentional worship, set aside 10-15 minutes of group meeting time to participate in a) deep personal reflection and sharing of concerns; b) interactive and reflective group bible study, such as is used in lectio divina. (Need reference, link here).

Recommendation 2: That the congregation proceed to call for nominations for the 10 elected members to the new church council, and that elections be held in time for the new council to take over responsibility from the existing church council from 1 Sep 2013. Existing Councillors will be asked to voluntarily stand down from the council, unless elected as councillors from 1 Sep 2013. A service of thanksgiving to be held early in Sep 2013 for those councillors voluntarily standing down. (Need reference, link here).

Recommendation 3: That the congregation acknowledge the devoted service of the many elders called to serve at Glen Waverley since Union, and recognizing the need for a clear spiritual direction for the church, approve the new identity of 10 joint Elders and Councillors from 1 Sep 2013, and encourage all existing Elders to voluntarily stand down as elders (unless elected as new councillors and elders), and transfer their service roles to the new worship and pastoral task groups. A service of thanksgiving to be held early in Sep 2013 for those elders voluntarily standing down.

Preamble

Recognizing that

the Future Directions Steering Committee now having concluded its deliberations, proposes that Glen Waverley Uniting Church adopt the following resolutions:

Guiding Philosophy

Dissonance, Community of Love, Journeying forward in Acceptance and Affirmation.

The Steering Committee took as its most critical brief the restoration of a harmonious congregation. This was in response to both CarolynKitto and GregCrowe identifying that many issues of "dissonance" within the congregation have caused the congregation to falter on its way, and along with them, the Ministry Team. While restructure of spiritual leadership and church governance has been a necessary part of this process, the committee felt that this alone was futile unless the dissonance issues were also addressed.

We have chosen to name this process "Building a Community of Love". Many groups already reach a deep level of fellowship, but what is required is more than fellowship. We need to establish deeper and greater levels of trust and kindness for each other, such as that explained in 1 Cor 13:4-7 and Eph 4:29-32. That cannot happen without a deeper sharing of the human hurts and hopes we all experience. We need to be honest and open with each other. Without sharing that vulnerability of each, we cannot possibly know or harmonise with each other. Most of all we hope to develop respect, empathy and tolerance with others' points of view so we can learn to support those who have different points of view than us and to participate in God's mission rather than be concerned about our personal preferences.

To encourage development of our Community of Love, the SC therefore proposes that

The Church Council

One explicit recommendation arising from the ChurchLifeAndWitness consultation was that the size of the Church Council should be reduced. "The Church Council would have 10 elected members plus ministers in placement and up to 2 co-options. All elected members would be Elders. These members would be elected after a process of discernment and prayer for identifying and calling of them for their gifts of spritual oversight and leadership." She also urges us to elect more younger members to Church Council. Whilst it is clear that the current councillors have been doing their duties to the best of their abilities, Carolyn suggested a fundamental change of focus for the church council, away from being business driven to being faith formation and mission driven.

The new council will take on the spiritual leadership of the congregation more strongly than it has in the past and most of the business of the congregation will be given to the groups that are carrying out its mission. This will help overcome a number of issues within the congregation including permission giving, a move to a more strongly faith-based community, building on the relational community that already exists at GWUC. It will also refresh and focus the cooperation between the Ministry Team and the Church Council.

The Steering Committee has endeavoured to hold true to the brief that it was to find "a pastorally sensitive way" to implement the recommendations and "how they will be brought to the congregation for approval". This means addressing how we are to move from a Council of 23 elected members to 10 elected "Elders and Councillors", and in concluding the terms of the existing group of 35 Elders.

The fundamental difficulty has been that (as pointed out by several members of the congregation) the UCA Constitution and Regulations allow no mechanisms for concluding the terms of existing councillors and elders in toto (there are mechanisms to deal with transfers, resignations and discipline, but these are not applicable in this context).

The preferred mechanism identified by the Steering Committee is to ask all existing councillors and elders to accept these recommendations, and in that spirit, voluntarily resign from Church Council and the Eldership. We recognise that there are those who will not feel called to this action, and hence we need to suggest an alternative pathway for such people. The suggested pathway is that they serve out their terms, participating in the administrative and worship life of the church as they feel called, and that we move gradually to the situation of having one Church Council of 10 elected "councillors and elders", and no separate Elders' Council. The roles of existing elders would be taken over by a variety of new worship and pastoral support teams (see below), whose membership would be open to all church members.

The role of the new Church Council would be, as the Regulations state (3.1.2(a)): The Church Council shall give priority in its life to building up the Congregation in faith and love, sustaining members in hope, and leading the Congregation to a fuller participation in Christ’s mission in the world. This priority shall be reflected in the agenda of its ordinary meetings. The Regulations go on to state (3.1.2(b)) in more detail the specific duties, but the detail of these is not relevant here.

Comment (ajh): Greg Crowe has outlined another strategy: that the Congregation can simply elect a new Council to replace the old one. End of Story. But we need to discuss this.

ME: I agree with what Greg says here. I think that people are getting caught up in the detail of the regulations here. If the congregation wants to move in a new direction, then it can do so, but we may not want to do this for pastoral reasons, not because of the regulations.

A proposed timetable setting out the details of the dates involved is at ChurchFutureScTimetable.

Eldership

Eldership is an important role within our Congregation, and in coming into line with the regulations, our understanding of it will alter. Within the proposed structure, the Church Councillors will be holders of the title Elder as well as Councillor. Understandably, a congregation with the breadth and depth of ours needs the loving support, nurturing and involvement of more than 10 individuals. Our congregation will still require pastoral care, people to welcome Church goers (new and existing), to visit, to serve Eucharist and to love and support members of our congregation and our community.

Those who currently undertake the formalised role of Elder will be asked to stand down - from the title, not the care, the love and support which goes along with it. And we will need more individuals to take on elements of the roles which were formally part of the Elder roles as defined by GWUC - caring for our members.

If you are a current member of the Council of Elders, you will be asked to resign this position if the proposed structure is approved. Your continued involvement with the duties of the Elders will be appreciated, and your enthusiasm in the transition to the proposed new groups structure will be valuable.

The Mission Groups

Focus for day-to-day running of the church; tasks are delegated from the Council; at least one Councillor and ministry team member per group.

It is understood that as we link all existing GWUC groups to the Mission Groups, these Groups will expand and change in their operation. Mission Group convenors will be key lay leaders and will need significant mentoring and support as we transition into the new structure.

The ministry team would be represented on each Mission Group to provide spiritual oversight and leadership. All members of the congregation and especially retiring Elders and Church Councillors will be encouraged to volunteer for a range of church programs and duties to enable the Mission Groups to achieve their Christ-centred goals.

Each group is free to find their own administrative structure, but will report to Church Council through their Church Council representative.

Each group will have a designated budget and recognition of other resourcing needs(eg volunteers, property use).

The Task Groups

Identified as in ChurchFutureScServiceGroups to be

The Support Groups

A church of Glen Waverley Uniting Church's size has a large investment in the assets needed to maintain its mission life, and it is appropriate to have dedicated groups to manage the church's property, finances, and communication processes. Each of these has its own legitimate call upon church resources, and must be resourced appropriately. The responsibilities of each of the Support Groups will remain much as it is at the moment, subject to any new direction from the Church Council.

The Ministry Team

The Ministry Team will be expected to provide resources (time and effort) to supporting the Church Council and the 4 Mission Groups, as well as their normal ministerial duties. Each Mission Group must have at least one ministry team member associated with it, and one member is to be identified as the primary ministry team support person for the group. The primary Ministry Team member would be normally expected to attend all meetings of that Mission Group and to have a spiritual leadership role in the group. Each Ministry Team member engaged with a Mission Group is to nominate the number of hours per week (total 40) allocated to each Mission Group, and the budgeted stipend will be allocated pro rata against each Mission Group.

The Ministry Team are all members of Church Council, but it would normally be the case that only one Ministry Team member need attend, unless there are special circumstances. This is identified as a mechanism to ease the meeting time load upon the Ministry Team. This nominated council member would be expected to actively liaise between Council and the Ministry Team, to ensure a consistent and cooperative approach to the mission and vision of the church.

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