What happened at the Circuit Meeting?

The Circuit Meeting took place at Christchurch on Monday 16 June.

There was routine business to be dealt with, including reports from the various office-holders. There was also a very important conversation about the way the circuit will operate from September onwards. The long process of consultation, which churches had been engaged in for a couple of years, had drawn to a close and the Circuit Leadership Team presented a set of proposals, based on the findings of the consultation. The meeting agreed that, subject to minor adjustment following a short extension of consultation, the proposals would be implemented. Here is a very brief summary:-

From September, every church will know who their link to the Ministerial Team will be. This Link Minister will normally chair the Church Council and the Pastoral Committee, and work with those in leadership in the local church. The 0845 number and the point of contact rota will continue for public and pastoral contact with the team, and team members will work across the circuit as their gifts determine, but leadership and guidance will be offered through the Link Minister. Which ministers who will be linked with which churches are shown opposite.

It is felt that a more effective mission can be achieved by grouping certain churches together in clusters, to share a vision for their neighbourhood and identify common resources. Part of the consultation process was to ask each church, which of the other circuit churches they related to and might be clustered with. Not all the churches felt ready to join a cluster, whilst some were happy to. In order to find out how effective clusters might be, the circuit has decided to run three pilot clusters, which will be reviewed after 18 months. The churches in a cluster, will be linked to the same minister. From September, Bolton, Eccleshill and St Andrew’s will form a cluster linked by Rev Phil Drake. Haworth Road, Sandy Lane and Wilsden Trinity will be clustered and linked by Rev Christine Crabtree. Because of its size, Baildon Church will operate as a cluster on its own, linked by Rev Nick Blundell.

Those churches not in the clusters above will continue to operate as currently, but with encouragement to work more closely with other churches as identified in their church’s response to the consultation.   

Ministers to be linked to churches from September 2014
Allerton	Rev Christine Crabtree
Baildon	Rev Nick Blundell
Bolton	Rev Phil Drake
Calverley	Rev Phil Drake
Christchurch	Rev Mark Watson
Crag Road	Rev Andrew Taylor
Eccleshill	Rev Phil Drake
Haworth Road	Rev Christine Crabtree
Little Lane	Rev Clare Davison / Rev Phil Drake
Northcliffe	Rev Andrew Taylor
Saltaire	Rev Christine Crabtree
Sandy Lane	Rev Christine Crabtree
St Andrew’s	Rev Phil Drake
Thackley	Rev Nick Blundell
Thornton	Rev Christine Crabtree
Wilsden Trinity	Rev Christine Crabtree
Wrose	Rev Andrew Taylor

If you wish to know more about these proposals, please speak to your church stewards, or your church’s representatives on the Circuit Meeting.

Martin

Senior Circuit Steward