Hotline 2002

Royal and ancient farewells

The General Assembly of the United Reformed Church ended its 2002 meeting on Monday morning and some 650 members and staff made their way home from the beautiful surroundings of St Andrews. The 2002 Assembly was characterized by a combination of humour and harmony – a tone encouraged by the self-deprecating humour of this year’s Moderator, the Revd John Waller.

There were few surprises during the five days, though the platform did experience one rebuff when the proposal to close the National Youth Resource Centre at Yardley Hastings in Northamptonshire was replaced after a passionate debate by a call for a review of the Centre’s work, followed by a further report to Assembly next year. The overall policy, however, of an increased emphasis on youth and children’s work at the local level was widely welcomed.

Ecumenical partners in Wales can breathe a sigh of relief since the Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution from the Synod of Wales calling for acceptance of a proposal to appoint an Ecumenical Bishop for Cardiff East. The new bishop would fulfil a recognized leadership role in each of the participating traditions, who include Baptists, Methodists and the Church in Wales along with the United Reformed Church. The sticking point for some was the requirement that the first appointee be a man since the Church in Wales is currently precluded from ordaining a woman to the office of bishop but the majority accepted that the Church in Wales was acting in good faith when it assured its partners that it would be looking at the issue. As one seasoned observer commented, ‘Now all we need is a 35 year-old candidate who can stay for 20 years, giving them time to sort things out before the second appointment needs to be made.’ The URC cannot give final approval until next year, when the 13 synods have examined the proposal – it is being subjected to the same rigorous procedure as a constitutional amendment since the Church's structure currently makes no provision for the office of bishop.

The national budget approved for 2003 represents an increase of just under 4% compared to the pledges so far made for 2002. Even so, the budget assumes a deficit of £250,000, while the stipend rise of 2.5% is 1% less than would have been proposed in the absence of a deficit, resulting in a stipend for full time ministers of £17,508 in 2003. The number of full-time ministers is anticipated to fall by 10, in line with long-term strategy on the ratio of ministers to members.

A late submission from the International Relations Committee expressed concern over the language of the ‘war against terror’ and the aggravating effect the concept was having in already difficult situations in the Middle East (Israel-Palestine and Iraq) and around the world in countries and situations as diverse as Colombia, Kashmir, Algeria, China and Chechnya.

In an interesting example of cross-fertilization, the Methodist Church’s Secretary for Business and Economic Affairs, John Ellis, who is a member of the United Reformed Church, brought a motion calling on the church’s new Ethical Investment Advisory Board to explore a number of options centred around greater reliance on the ethical investment research of larger sister churches and handing over management of investments to managers committed to a Christian ethos. Assembly accepted the argument that the church could do more to tighten its guidelines on companies to be avoided and that ethical investment was in any case a practical proposition with a good record of returns.

While Assembly was in session members of local churches were able to keep up with events and examine background materials on a specially constructed area of the URC web site at www.urc.org.uk/hotline. The Assembly site has proved increasingly popular over the last two years and on Sunday 7th July, the last full day of Assembly, the URC web site recorded its busiest day ever in its six year history.