Standing Committee News - November

The Standing Committee of the General Synod met on Tuesday 16 November 

Honorary Secretaries’ Report – ACC Lay Representative

The term of the current Church of Ireland Lay Representative at the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), Ms C.S. Turner, is due to expire prior to its next meeting: names for a new lay representative are to be brought forward to the January meeting of Standing Committee. The Archbishop of Armagh expressed his thanks to Ms Kate Turner for her valuable service to the ACC on behalf of the Church of Ireland.

Anglican Covenant

The Bishop of Cashel & Ossory outlined how the Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue was satisfied that the proposed Anglican Covenant does not change the doctrines, formularies, ritual etc. of the Church of Ireland and that it should, therefore, be possible for the General Synod to be asked to adopt it by simple resolution. Standing Committee agreed to move forward on that basis. It was also suggested that discussion of the Covenant at local and central level within the Church, North and South, before the General Synod in May would be useful. Attention was also drawn to the upcoming half-day colloquium on the Covenant, ‘The proposed Anglican Covenant: a step forward or a step too far?’, organised by the Church of Ireland journal Search which is scheduled to take place at Trinity College, Dublin on 12 March 2011. Further details are available at http://searchjournal.ireland.anglican.org/AnglicanCovenant.pdf.

CSI Consultation

The Standing Committee-appointed working group on the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister’s (OFMDFM) consultation on Cohesion, Sharing and Integration (CSI) in Northern Ireland made its submission to OFMDFM by the 29 October 2010 closing date. Standing Committee members had the opportunity to discuss it and the Archbishop of Armagh thanked the working group for the quality of its response. The main points from the submission will be disseminated publicly and both the full response and an executive summary are available to read at www.ireland.anglican.org/officialsubmissions.

Stipends Review from Representative Body

A proposal for revision to the timing and process of arriving at Minimum Approved Stipends (MAS) levels which had been prepared by the RB Stipends Committee and approved by the RB Executive Committee and RB was considered by Standing Committee, which concluded that it was supportive of the recommendations, namely, to: bring legislation to General Synod 2011 to amend the Constitution enabling Standing Committee to determine MAS levels on behalf of General Synod; and to agree to hold future September meetings of Standing Committee in the afternoon, following an amendment of RB by-laws enabling it to hold its September meetings in the morning. The proposed changes are intended to shorten the time lag between the decision being made about the level of MAS and the implementation date of that decision, so as to minimise the erosion of purchasing power of the stipend.  

General Synod Royalties Fund

Following recommendations from the Central Communications Board, it was resolved to make: a special grant of €75,000 to the Allocations Committee to support expenditures in the areas of communication, education and publishing work in 2011; a grant of €2,000 to the Church of Ireland College of Education for the digitization of an historic student’s register of the Training College 1884-1911 to mark the bi-centenary of the Kildare Place Society in 2011; and a grant of €1,000 to the Board of Education to facilitate distribution of APCK leaflets to schools. A brief discussion also took place regarding the relationship between the Allocations Committee of the RCB, the Royalties Fund and the Standing Committee.

Working Group on Disability

Standing Committee appointed the Rt Revd Trevor Williams to membership of this working group.

Irish Council of Churches Sub-committee appointments

Dr Kenneth Milne was appointed as the Church of Ireland representative to the Executive Committee of the ICC, to the Board of Overseas Affairs (with two further nominations to follow) and, pro-tem, to its Church in Society Forum. Mr TW Morrow and Mr I Slaine were also appointed to the Church in Society Forum.

Hard Gospel Implementation Group 

The Bishop of Limerick gave a presentation on behalf of the Hard Gospel Implementation Group regarding gender balance of representation across the Church, especially at central level, a theme to which Standing Committee will return.

Reports:

• Children’s Ministry

Mr Peter Hamill presented and spoke to a report on the work of the Children’s Ministry sub-group. There was discussion around the critical importance to the health and strength of the Church of this work and the need to prioritise the growing of a young church with diocesan-based strategies and Church networks. Mr Hamill was asked to consult with the Working Group and other interested parties and to bring firm resolutions to the Standing Committee.

• Youth Ministry

Mr Andrew Brannigan presented and on behalf of CIYD spoke to its report of the busy programme of successful youth events and well received training opportunities.

• Meissen Commission

A report was received and noted from Revd Canon Dr Ian Ellis.

• Church of Ireland Historiographer

A report from Dr Kenneth Milne was received and noted, with special attention drawn to issues surrounding upcoming historical commemorations. The Honorary Secretaries agreed to look further into this area.

Church of Ireland Pensions Board

Mr LV Johnston has resigned from the Church of Ireland Pensions Board. Names for a person to fill the vacancy will be brought to the January meeting of Standing Committee; the position will be held until May 2012.