THE METHODIST CHURCH BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT
DISTRICT POLICY COMMITTEE
Minutes of District Policy Committee held on Wednesday 22nd March 2006
at Northgate Methodist Church, Warwick in the Leamington Circuit
Present: Revd Bill Anderson (Chair) Mark Aldridge (Secretary), 10 members of the District Policy Committee and 1 attendee.
1. Opening Devotions were led by Revd Bill Anderson with a reflection based on words from Isaiah and a reading from Mark Chapter 7. He spoke about Angels in the Old Testament.
The Chair asked that Ken Hayward and Northgate Methodist Church be thanked for their hospitality.
ACTION: Mark Aldridge
2. Apologies were received from 7 members and 1 attendee.
3. Fresh Expressions The planned presentation from Jan Nendick was postponed until the next meeting, as Jan was not well. The meeting sent Jan their best wishes.
ACTION: Mark Aldridge
4. Minutes The minutes of the meeting held on 19th January 2006 were approved and signed.
5. Matters Arising
5.1 District Web Site
5.1.1 A team of 6 people were still required to keep the "News" and "Events" pages up to date. It was reported that those responsible for all church and circuit web sites in the District would be contacted.
ACTION: Mark Aldridge
5.2 Church in Rural Life Officer
5.2.1 Reported that the Chair had spent some time with Deacon Lynne Sylvester-Tonge discussing her role and responsibilities.
5.2.2 Rev Malcolm Brookes had been asked to form a support group. The Chair appealed for suggestions of people who might join the group from Warwickshire and Worcestershire.
5.2.3 Lynne to be paid 0.4 of a standard stipend from 1st February 2006.
5.3 District World Church Links
5.3.1 John Nodding reported that he had been in touch with Abeer Musleh from the Bethlehem Malikite church concerning a project to bring Palestinian youths to England. It was considered that 15 young people with 5 adults would be ideal. It was anticipated that we would need to raise about £20,000. The visit was planned for Easter 2007 and an appeal would be launched at Synod in September 2006.
ACTION: John Nodding
5.4 District Safeguarding
5.4.1 Noted that the Connexion has made proposals for training, which would include a core training module to be followed by different modules for those with leadership roles, those with policy/admin roles and those with roles involving pastoral care/responsibility. Keith Drinkwater was to meet with Charles Worth and the Safeguarding Officer from Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District to consider/discuss these proposals.
5.4.2 Agreed to support the promotion of these and other training materials within the Birmingham District.
5.4.3 Agreed that the telephone advice service to ministers/churches, which is greatly valued, would best be provided by means of a dedicated mobile phone and authorised Keith Drinkwater to go ahead with the purchase of a pay-as-you-go arrangement with an initial outlay of £150.00 (max) and top-ups of £10.00, and a maximum cost £200.00 in the first year.
5.4.4 Agreed to invite Keith Drinkwater to prepare a paper on Safeguarding issues for the next meeting of the committee and to invite him to attend to present the paper.
ACTION: Mark Aldridge
5.4.5 Noted the need for pastoral care of those accused of safeguarding related offences particularly those who are subsequently found not guilty.
5.5 District Children's Secretary/Co-ordinator
5.5.1 Noted that the Chair had identified an opportunity to employ a lay worker with experience in youth work on a part time basis to co-ordinate work with children and young people in the District.
ACTION: Chair
5.5.2 Agreed in principle to support the use of the District Advance Fund to fund this work.
6. Financial Matters
6.1 Accounts 2004/5
The 2004/5 accounts as printed in the Spring 2006 Synod Handbook were recommended to Synod.
ACTION: Mark Aldridge
6.2 Financing the District
6.2.1 Reported that the Executive were currently proposing the following scheme for raising the required district income:-
The DPC to set the District budget which would then be sent to the circuits for their
Circuit Meeting or a group authorised by their Circuit Meeting, to agree how much to offer with some discretion. A meeting would then held with two representatives of all circuits, to finalise the distribution of the budget between the circuits.
6.2.2 Agreed that the Chair and District Treasurer should prepare a paper giving the background to the need to move away from the existing formula and explaining the proposed scheme for presentation at the May meeting of the Circuit Stewards. ACTION: Chair, Peter Mills
6.3 District Advance Fund
6.3.1 Noted that now that there were considerably greater funds available, there was a need to review the procedures and criteria for making grants from the District Advance Fund and other funds in the District (e.g. the trusts delegated to the Birmingham City Centre Committee). ACTION: Chair, Grants Committee
7. Authorisation to preside at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper
7.1 Recommended to Synod the following new applications:-
7.1.1 Revd Andrew M Clark - Probationer in the Birmingham Moseley Road and Sparkhill Circuit (5/1)
7.1.2 Revd Caroline Homan - Probationer in the Stratford and Evesham Circuit (5/15)
7.1.3 Revd Andrew Hamilton Lyons - Probationer in the Bromsgrove Circuit (5/19)
7.2 Recommended to Synod the following renewal application:-
7.2.1 Mr Leslie Beers - Lay worker in the Leominster Circuit (5/26)
7.3 Recommended to Synod the following continuing authorisations:-
7.3.1 Revd Gillian Heather Le Boutillier-Scott - Probationer in the Birmingham - Sutton Park Circuit (5/4)
7.3.2 Revd Jonathan Richard Musselwhite - Probationer in the Worcester Circuit(5/17)
7.3.3 Anthea Turner - Lay person in the Nuneaton and Athersone Circuit (5/11)
8. Appointments
Recommended to Synod the following appointments:-
8.1 Complaints Officer - Revd Rosamy Murphy
8.2 Lay Employment Secretarys - Mrs Gill Irish (one of three)
8.3 Convenor of Grants Committee - Mrs Alison Lusty
8.4 District Property Secretary - Mr Christopher Osborn
8.5 District Safeguarding Officer - Mr Keith Drinkwater
8.6 District Accounts Independent Examiner (for 2005/6 accounts) - Mr Brian Leather
8.7 Visitor to Holly Hill School - Mr David Osborne
8.8 Visitor to Hawkesley School - Mr John Richardson
9. Lay Employment
9.1 Noted that Gill Irish had agreed to take on part of the job and the District needs to find at least two other people to work with her.
9.2 The Chair read a letter he had received from David Mills the current Lay Employment Secretary. Agreed that the main points of the letter should be incorporated in the minutes as follows:-
I had hoped that after over 4 years of speaking at Synods and providing reports the message would have spread across the District on the subject of employment. But, in the last few weeks I have been brought down to earth especially as some do not know I exist or my role!
My records start at January 1994. We have discovered an employee who started in 1974 with employment documents out of date.
It is incorrectly believed in many quarters that volunteers can be paid on a regular basis without becoming an employee. These payments are not in respect of justifiable expenses.
A number of employees are being paid less than the National Minimum Wage of £ 5.05 per hour [aged 22 and over].
We have a number of paid employees with no contract of employment - some for a considerable time, which makes nonsense of the replies in the annual schedules.
The majority of the above have very recently come to light when a new minister takes up an appointment.
9.3 Agreed to support the Lay Employment Secretary in the following actions:-
1. Write to every contact I hold to confirm that the District employee list is correct,
2. Write to every minister in pastoral charge to confirm they have no volunteer they regularly pay [excluding justifiable expenses].
3. Continue to offer my help if people are identified that need a contract.
10 Grants Committee
10.1 Received a report of the Grants Committee meeting held on 17th January 2004.
11 Ecumenical Committee
11.1 Received job descriptions for District Ecumenical Officer and Assistant Ecumenical Officers.
11.2 Recommended to Synod the appointment of Rev Catherine Campbell-Hyde as the Assistant Ecumenical Officer for Hereford.
11.3 Noted that Rev Catherine Campbell-Hyde had agreed to take on the role of District Ecumenical Officer from September 2007.
11.4 Noted that there remained vacancies of Assistant Ecumenical Officers for Coventry and Warwickshire and Birmingham (from September 2006).
12 Methodist Council
12.1 Received a report of February meeting prepared by Linda Innes for which she was thanked.
12.2 Noted with grave dissatisfaction that Queens had not been included as one of the Training Hubs in the report on the Future Use and Configuration of Training Institutions.
12.3 Noted that a reference group had not been given sufficient time for consideration of a report and then advised when they reported back that there was little room for manoeuvre.
12.4 Agreed that the Chair would write to Rev David Deekes expressing concern about the reference groups and seeking a re-assurance that reference groups would be given sufficient time to consider reports and that their recommendations be seriously considered.
ACTION: Chair
13 District Review
13.1 The Chair introduced the report of work in progress that has been widely circulated in the District.
13.2 There was a general discussion on the report.
13.3 Noted that the Chair was willing to go out and talk to groups about the report and that he hoped to come to a point of presenting some definite proposals to the September Synod.
ACTION: Chair
14 Financing and Location Synod
14.1 Noted that depending on location some meetings of Synod could cost up to £1500.
14.2 Noted that there was support in the District for the principle of moving round the District.
14.2 Agreed that there was a need to define the facilities that were required for a meeting of Synod and for this to form a District policy. The current requirements document was being revised and would include some form of preamble about the nature of the location requirements. This document would also give some indication of the budget available.
ACTION: John Nodding
15 Next Meeting Wednesday 12th July 2006 at 7pm (with a cup of tea/coffee from 6:30pm) in the Wesley Room at Droitwich Methodist Church in the Worcester Circuit.
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