Day 2
Future of the Church Considered in Commission on Ministry Report
Members of General Synod heard of developments in the Commission on Ministry this morning (Saturday May 11).
The commission’s report was proposed by Bishop David McClay (Down and Dromore) who outlined the Commission’s work in considering how parish and diocesan level vocations are encouraged. He said that the Commission had encouraged the use of local printed resources, videos and social media to stimulate people to think and pray on whether they are being called to ordination.
The Commission has organised a number of retreats – on vocations, retirement and one at Advent.
He said that the topic of clergy wellbeing continued to be at the forefront and he expressed gratitude for the work done by the MindMatters project. He noted that some dioceses had counselling provision for clergy and clergy families and he encouraged all dioceses to put such provision in place.
Seconding the report, Canon Gillian Wharton, said that the Commission is concerned with every aspect of ministry from before ordination until retirement. She said the Commission was entering a new sphere as there were a number of vacancies. She suggested that these people would shape the future of the Commission.
Contributing to the discussion on the report, Archdeacon Peter Thompson welcomed the vocations retreat. He said that nurturing vocations was critical to the future of the church as there was a drop in people pursuing ordained ministry. He paid tribute to Canon Dr Maurice Elliott and all at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute for all their work. He wondered if CITI was suffering from a restrictive system which was handed to it. He suggested that the MTh model was a one size fits all approach and urged Synod to consider the pathways to ordination and to look at how vocations were nurtured.
Bishop Adrian Wilkinson recalled a recent confirmation when he was told by the older brother of a candidate that he was in one of the ‘happy professions’. The person was studying HR and had learned that people engaged in the caring professions were happier. He said all forms of ministry were about responding to the call of God and clergy have the privilege of this work. He said more people were needed to listen to the call of God.
Archdeacon Barry Forde spoke of clergy tenure which was passed on to a select committee last year. But he said that no work had been done on this and he asked Synod to demand that the committee come back and report next year. He also spoke about the clergy PHI scheme and questioned how long clerical illness should go on for before it became unfair to parishes and dioceses.
The Revd Jack Kinkead commended the work of the Commission. He said that the church needed to consider the future carefully. He said it was a cause for concern when there were many more retirements that there were people considering entering training for ministry. He said the Church needed to think longer term in how we operate and urged people to think of pooling resources in parishes which are close together. He commended ordained ministry and urged people to think of vocations.
Canon Malcolm Kingston said that clergy tenure committee had not been forgotten but there were reasons for it and they were meeting in May. He asked Synod to pray for them as clergy tenure was a massive issue.
The Revd Helene Steed (Down) said that the Church needed to invest in the children of today to have clergy for tomorrow.