Standing Committee - June 2019 update

Posted Jun 19, 2019 in News

New Times online features brief summaries of Standing Committee meetings to inform the wider Uniting Church SA community of the discussions, deliberations and decisions arising from each meeting.

Friday 14 June, 2019 - Synod office (Level 2, 212 Pirie Street, Adelaide)

 

Welcome

Uniting Church SA Acting Moderator, Rev Dr Graham Vawser welcomed the new Uniting Church SA General Secretary, Rev Felicity Amery to the role and to her first Standing Committee meeting. Graham expressed support for Felicity on behalf of members of the Uniting Church SA. He provided encouragement and affirmation for her ministry. Rev Simon Dent led the devotions from the Book of Revelation.

 

Presbytery Task Group Report

The Standing Committee thanked and discharged the Non Geographic Presbytery Task Group members (Generate Presbytery task group), although they will be formally thanked and discharged at the Presbytery and Synod meeting. They also passed a request from the Generate Presbytery to appoint two people to the Restructuring Task Group from 1 July 2019 until 31 December, 2019.

Other items of note were the approval of a 0.5 FTE Generate Presbytery Chairperson Role in line with the Position Description supplied by Generate Presbytery. The Standing Committee also agreed to underwriting the funding for the position during the transitional term (1 July – 31 December, 2019). The Standing Committee requested the General Secretary and the Executive Officer Placements & Safe Church (formerly Executive Officer, Pastoral Relations and Mission Planning) to explore possibilities around governance structures for this role. Finally the Standing Committee strongly encouraged the Generate Presbytery to elect a Deputy Chair to chair meetings of the Generate Presbytery during the transitional term.

The Generate Presbytery Task Group have requested a joint Pastoral Relations Committee be established for the transitional period 1 July – 31 December 2019.   The Joint PRCwill be comprised of the same membership as the current Pastoral Relations Committee, with the ability to co-opt additional members as required.. In order for this request to be fulfilled, prior decisions made by Standing Committee needed to be rescinded. Decision 20 (SSC19.95) and Decision 21 (SSC19.96) were both rescinded

The Standing Committee also passed that the current Placements Committee will continue until the November 2019 annual meeting of Synod.

 

Restructuring task group Report

Associate General Secretary, Rev Sue Page presented the Restructuring Task Group report. Sue discussed the process of Presbytery nominations and elections which will be held at the Presbytery meetings following the finalisation of business at the upcoming Presbytery and Synod meeting.

Sue will distribute more information about the nominations process and what will occur at the meeting to members today. Further information about the restructuring task group can be found on the web page here.

 

UnitingCare report

Rev Tim Hodgson brought the UnitingCare report to Standing Committee including a request to appoint Annie Fabig and Ms Stephanie Rozokos to the Resthaven Inc Board and Joanne Liptak to the Council of Westminster School Inc. All appointments were approved by consensus.

 

Resources Board report

Peter Battersby, Executive Officer, Resources presented the 2018 financial report on behalf of the Resources Board. This included presentation of 21 (of 29) financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2018.   A written report will provided to the Presbytery/Synod meeting in June.  The remaining financial statements will be presented to a future meeting of Synod Standing Committee.

An update on the Mission and Service Fund for the first quarter of 2019 was presented. The Fund is currently on track to meet budget, noting that costs associated with the establishment of the new national Safe Church Unit are outside of the current budget.

 

Congress SA Report

Mark Kickett and Rev Ken Sumner shared information about Raukkan, including the 100+ years of strong Christian influence that exists there. The Raukkan community is situated on the south-eastern shore of Lake Alexandrina in the locality of Narrung, 80 kilometres southeast of, Adelaide. The community has a high proportion of youth including Sean Weetra and Jordan Sumner (Ken’s son). Ken and Mark reported that the nearby Tailem Bend and Kalparrin community are growth communities which are developing as new leadership comes through. The Standing Committee recognised Raukkan as a faith community within the Uniting Church by consensus and prayed for God’s blessing over the leaders, the community and the growth that is being experienced.

 

The minutes from the meeting will be posted to the sa.uca.org.au website when available. The next meeting of the Standing Committee will occur on Friday 2 August, 2019.

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