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This will include merging the Parish Council with the Elders council to a local Church Council. Other changes accepted by the assembly include: · the elimination of the parish as the basic unit of church structure · changes in the settlement and call of ministers and ministry workers system · the nomination of a specified ‘team leader’ or ‘ team convenor’ in team ministries · entitlement of every congregation to appoint one lay person to presbytery.(Churches of more than 150 can have two). A contentious issue in the debate was the place and role of elders, a title some wanted discard. Some Assembly members were concerned that all new members of the local church council would suddenly be called elders. Rev Robert Johnson, General Secretary of the Victorian synod was "appalled" at the notion of discarding elders. He said elders had been the backbone of every congregation that he had ever ministered in. Rev Dr D’Arcy Wood believed unless the concept of elder described in the Basis of Union was maintained it would be "blurred to the church". Ministers concerned about emerging congregations and new faith communities said the concept of eldership was ageist and inappropriate to the times. Rev Bruce Walker (Qld) said "we are getting locked into former ways of doing business and lose the flexibility that all this is about". The Assembly finally agreed that at least half of those elected to the local Church Council would fulfil the ministry of elder unless presbytery approved otherwise. This was not achieved without some frustration. At one point Bruce Irvine (NSW) said, "We brought these proposals believing we were close to agreement, and now we see a whole lot of new issues raised." Task Group leader Rev J. Allan Thompson was pleased with the process. "I feel very pleased that Assembly has received and adopted our recommendations, which are a gift to the church," he said. Disbanding the parish as the basic unit will enable congregations to form new "clusters" or "multi-community" congregations shaped by their different callings to ministry. The changes will not take place until 1999 as standing committee has to make administrative changes. The aim of the new church structures is to bring the spiritual matters of the church (usually handled by elders) and the purely material administrative tasks of parish life together into one new body. According to the proposers of the changes, the task group on structures,
the changing times demand new responses and the twin tasks of both councils
should be informed by the same gospel that unites them bothuly, 1997 |
