THE METHODIST CHURCH BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT
DISTRICT POLICY COMMITTEE

Minutes of District Policy Committee held on Wednesday 12th July 2006 at Droitwich Methodist Church in the Worcester Circuit

Present: Revd Anne Smith (Deputy Chair) John Nodding (Acting Secretary), 14 members and 1 attendee.

1. Opening Devotions were led by Revd Anne Smith after giving a brief account of her trip to America. The Deputy Chair read a passage from Acts 16, followed by a prayer including prayers for Revd Bill Anderson who was on his exchange visit to America.

2 Welcome and Apologies were received from 4 members. Anne Smith welcomed the new members to the District Policy Committee. It was noted that the membership of the District Policy Committee needs reviewing particularly in relation to Zones, Superintendants and Circuit Stewards.

3 Fresh Expressions - A presentation was give by Jan Nendick using the DVD showing examples of how different ways of being church was being practised around the country. Jan presented her report outlining the history of Fresh Expressions and the work that is being carried out in the District. Charles Worth informed the meeting that the Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District had a committee which initiated and encouraged new projects in that District. Jan sort permission to set up a similar committee in our District. This was agreed unanimously by the committee.

4 Minutes
4.1 The minutes of the meeting held on 22nd March 2006 were approved.
4.2 Matters arising:
4.2.1 District World Church Links - John Nodding outlined the movements that had taken place on this subject since the last meeting. In addition to the Palestine Project the Chair had added two further Projects which were a new schoolroom for a school in South Africa and Medical Equipment in South India. The Chair had written to Superintendents and Circuit Stewards for their reactions. He had then reported at the last District Policy Committee Executive that there had been very little support and decided to drop the projects. Since that meeting John had two positive responses from Revd Nasief Kawer and the Halesowen District for the Palestine Project. He looked for support from the District Policy Committee to endorse this Project so that it could be adopted from the District. After discussion it was decided that this was not the business of the meeting and if this was to be progressed John should find enthusiastic people and present it to Synod to seek further support and interest.
4.2.2 District Children's Secretary/Co-ordinator - We have a possible name for this position but the person has not yet been approached due to his ill-health.
4.2.3 Financing and Location of Synod - John Nodding reported that he had been asked to write to the organisers of the last four Synods for their comments and recommendations.
5 Financial Matters
5.1 Splitting Accounts between District Finances and the Grants Committee - Peter Mills reported that he had had discussions with Manchester concerning the method of allocation funds between the two entities. There proved to be a complication concerning the District Advance Fund. The meeting gave permission for Peter to do more work to resolve the way forward so the two accounts can be split satisfactorily. The meeting approved that Alison Lusty should become a cheque signatory of the Funds allocated to the Grants Committee accounts. ACTION Peter Mills
At this point Peter Mills also reported that the long unsolved problem of who were the trustees of the District had moved a stage nearer after a telephone call to Manchester. He had been told that all members of Synod are Trustees and a full list of their names should be available to comply with charitable law. This will need further work to make sure that we are complying with the law.
5.2 Financing the District - Peter reported on the new proposal for raising money for the District by Circuits where each Circuit was to be asked to make a contribution instead of being assessed by a calculated formula. Concern was expressed by a number of members of the meeting that this had not been discussed effectively by those concerned. It was important that goodwill and good communication was required for all those concerned. Peter was asked to consult with Neil Randle and prepare a document which would go out with the Synod mailing so that this matter could be approved by the September Synod.

ACTION: Peter Mills
5.3 Budget 2007/8 - Peter Mills said that in the next few weeks he would be preparing the budget for 2007/8. He wished to hear from anyone who was seeking finance in that year.

6. Grants Committee - Alison Lusty presented the report from the Grants Committee. Two amendments were made: change "Bombard Methodist Church" to "Bromyard Road Methodist Church" and add "up to" before £9000 in the reference to Interfaith teaching ministry. The report was accepted.
Peter Mills pointed out that there had been a change in the contribution from the Connexional Advance and Priority Fund from September 2007. This is being paid as a percentage of the amount received from the levy made on the Circuit Advance Funds. It will in future be reduced in Districts where the amount received from the levy is high and increased in Districts where the amount received from the levy is low.
The meeting was not happy with the way that Connexion make changes without consultation and the secretary was asked to write expressing our disquiet.
ACTION: John Nodding

7. Property - Chris Osborn pointed out two items that he was concerned about:
(1) David Mills sent a survey to all Circuits concerning lay and voluntary employments. The results that he received differed in a number of cases to the items reported by the same circuits on Schedules A and Schedules D.
(2) Changes over the supervision of Connexional manses which are at present supervised by the London office. It was proposed that these should be supervised by either the District Manses Committee or Manses Committee of the Circuits that they resided in. There were 5 Connexional manses in our District and 3 of them resided in one Circuit. The meeting was not happy with the proposals that Connexion had made and the secretary was asked to write a letter on behalf of the Committee.
ACTION: John Nodding
8. Eco Encouragement. - Chris Osborn said that it had been a connexional regional policy to save energy where possible, by sharing cars, etc. There were three churches in the District that were eco-friendly: Evesham, Selly Oak and Ross-on-Wye. St Andrews Church Worcester had just applied. David Edden said that there were many global issues in the world and the church's attitude can be very positive. This can be a form of outreach and witness. Anne Smith said that they had set up a small group in their church to look into these issues. Chris Osborn produced two leaflets that could be taken away by members of the committee. He volunteered to get more leaflets for distribution at Synod.

9. Safeguarding -Keith Drinkwater had prepared a report for the meeting. He said that there were some churches in the district that were not practising the safeguarding rules. He also said that some churches did not understand what it was about. He had set out some proposals in his report about an on-going program that he was carrying out through the District. It was agreed that his proposals should go to Synod for information purposes.

10. Superintendents - Nothing to report.

11. Revd Neil Johnson - A report was presented by the Invitation Committee who had being considering an extension of five years for Neil Johnson. Their recommendation was that this should be renewed for five years from September 2007 with the possibility of a further year should there be work that requires it. The appointment should be reviewed, particularly its mission, focus and purpose, starting no later than January 2011. The Committee unanimously accepted the recommendations.

12. Revd Jim Tubbs - Anne informed the meeting that Jim Tubbs and his wife Jolene would be arriving in the District next Monday morning. A program of events had been prepared for them and they would be in the District for 6 weeks. An open house had been arranged at 36 Amesbury Road on Wednesday, 23rd August 2006 from 3pm onwards for people to say their farewells.

13. District Review - a memorial had been presented from the Sutton Park Circuit suggestion that any changes to circuit boundaries should have full consultation. A discussion took place where John Ingyon asked who was going to make these decisions He felt that sometimes "Blue Sky Thoughts" sometime turned into reality without proper discussion. It was pointed out that the comments made in the draft District Review was only there to stimulate discussion and not to act as a blue print. It was felt that we need to re-visit the District Review and come up with a proposal of how it can be taken to Circuits.

14. Conference 2006 - John said that on the whole it had been a good Conference with many reports that were stimulating and in some cases sensitive. Peter Mills said that the Chair was quite upset by the decision on Future use and configuration of Training Institutions.

15. Synod - John Nodding reported that Synod was meeting at Villa Road Methodist Church in the Asbury Circuit. Preparations were well under way. The theme will be Peace and Justice in the World. There will be a series of workshops and members will receive information in the Synod mailing and asked to choose which group they would like to join.

16. Any other Business

(1) A memorial had been received from the Birmingham South West Circuit concerning "What Sort of Bishops?" - This will be discussed at Synod. It was felt that a wider discussion should take place at Synod about "Bishops" as submissions had to be made to the Methodist Council by the end of October 2006.
(2) A paper on the proposal for a Covenant to establish a Regional Training Partnership. This was given for information only at this meeting. It was hoped to bring it to the Synod Agenda.
(3) There is a need for an Assistant Ecumenical Officer - a job description had been submitted by Revd Hilary Cooke.
(4) Thanks - It was mentioned that this would be the last meeting for Revd John Ingyon, David Edden who is the Lay Stationing Officer, (to be replaced by Deborah Humphries), and Colin May. Anne Smith gave thanks to them for all the work that they had done on the committee. Anne, as a presbyter, gave special thanks to David Edden for the work he had carried out on the Stationing Committee.

17. Date of the next Meeting: Monday, 16th October 2006 at Lickey End, Bromsgrove Methodist Church

18. The meeting closed with the Grace