Prepared for the members of
Vancouver Burrard Presbytery
British Columbia Conference
United Church of Canada
March 2003
1.0 Introduction
In 1995, Vancouver Burrard Presbytery adopted a plan of organization which attempted to streamline the work of presbytery, and to allow members to have a greater understanding of all parts of church life. It was centred around a worship-oriented meeting agenda, with occasional programming of “focus events”, and has been used as an operating plan since that time.
1.1 The May 1995 meetings adopted some clear goals.
Some of the high scoring ideas from the May meeting include:
● leadership and problem solving and planning with congregations
● enable a sense of “connectedness” and community among presbyters
● have clarity of purpose
● effective use of people’s time
● separate administration from the rest of the activities
● keep Saturdays free
● use an action-oriented “think-tank” approach for current or important issues
● focus on serving congregations rather than presbytery itself
1.2 Our meetings changed in 2001-2002
The church year 2001-2002 marked a departure from the 1995 plan. During that year, three weekend meetings were held, together with a meeting during BC Conference, and an annual Presbytery meeting in June. For the first three meetings, the Friday evening was marked by a full worship experience after supper. The preacher and guest facilitator was Rev. Anthony Robinson of Seattle’s Plymouth Congregational Church. Two Saturday mornings were devoted to theme addresses on the BC Conference mission statement of Healthy Congregations, Effective Ministries and Faithful Public Witness. The third theme time was focussed on Healthy Presbyteries. The meeting during conference and our annual meeting reverted to a traditional business framework.
2.0 Responsibilities of Presbytery
2.1 Our primary focus
To serve God, we are called and enabled by the church to care for our congregations and our people. This is reflected in The Manual as Oversight of Pastoral Charges (S330-337) and as Oversight of Ministry Personnel (S340-369).
These two focus areas happily coincide with two of the BC Conference mission goals: Health Congregations, Effective Ministries. It seems these matters should form our primary area of focus.
We have standing committees that deal with our people
● Human Resources
● Pastoral Relations
● Education and Students
and our congregations:
● Congregational Relations
● Long Range Planning
● Faithful Public Witness.
2.2 Using our resources
In recent years, there has been considerable discussion in Vancouver Burrard around how to get the mandated work completed, whether we should engage a paid staff person to facilitate some things, and how to group congregations in a way that will make our Pastoral Relations and triennial visit processes easier. For the moment, it seems best to concentrate on the things we absolutely must do, to see if we can complete the required tasks with efficiency and with grace, using our people to best advantage and affording our congregations all the help that we can offer.
We have sometimes left new presbyters alone, allowing them to find their own place and to work out our structures and processes by themselves, only assigning them to committees in their second year with us. If we consider that presbyters are either paid accountable ministry staff or senior lay people in congregations, it seems reasonable to get everyone involved a the outset. Contributions will vary according to gifts and time available, but if our work is important, we need all the help we can get.
As well, working together in committee is an important way to get to know one another. Mutual goodwill is created, and mutual respect builds. When significant or divisive issues come to the floor of presbytery, it will be helpful if we know one another well enough to debate without rancor, to solve problems with skill and to move forward with courage and faith.
We propose that all presbyters be asked to serve on one or another presbytery committees as way of entering into our processes and engaging in our work together.
From time to time it seems that some members of presbytery find attendance and participation too onerous. Some clergy find that their congregations are not quick to see value in time away from the congregation. Lay people occasionally find our work irrelevant or confusing. Everyone is busy.
And yet the polity and practice of the United Church requires us to meet as presbyters, with appropriate representation from all clergy and all congregations. When some do not attend, we all suffer, and when clergy or congregations become absent or estranged from our presbytery we have a responsibility to repair that damage. In short, it is important that all our membership attend all our meetings.
We propose that we write all congregations annually in the fall to remind them of the need to send clergy and lay representatives to Vancouver Burrard meetings, and that when individual non-attendance reaches a threshold level, either the Pastoral Relations or Congregational Relations committees remind the member and their congregation of the importance of participation.
There are some presbyters, mostly clergy, who are engaged in sabbatical leave, graduate education or other activities that leave them with little extra time. It is reasonable that these folk be excused from presbytery for the period of their special activity; however, it would be helpful if we knew when to expect them back.
We propose that those members who are engaged in special activities be asked write the presbytery each year requesting that they be excused from attendance and participation in presbytery activities.
2.3 Other interests and passions
Historically we have maintained additional cluster groups for those in presbytery who are interested in community outreach, social justice, stewardship encouragement and the like.
For example, beyond our core five, the Manual suggests standing committees on:
● Archives
● Communication
● Extra Appeals
● Finance
● Interchurch and Interfaith Relations
● Manse
● Mission in Canada
● Pension and Group Insurance
● Stewardship
● World Outreach
These all represent important themes in church life. Our experience has been, however, that separating these from our primary focus areas has worked against the desired result. We believe we will be better served if those passionate voices are heard in the context of our primary work around people and congregations. We expect each of our primary committees to take note of the wider church and our global concerns as they do their work, to hear voices of social justice and stewardship, and to bring us recommendations that we can all accept and respond to.
We propose that members of presbytery who find their passion in one of the optional committees shown above should take initiative and create ad hoc clusters or committees as desired, but that attachment to these be in addition to their association with one of our primary committees.
These optional committees will not have representation on presbytery executive.
3.0 Gatherings and Worship
3.1 Introduction
In recent years we have adopted several meeting styles. We moved from monthly evening meetings in the winter months to a 2001-2002 trial of three major weekend meetings with strong theme presentations by Rev. Tony Robinson, pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church, Seattle WA. For 2002-2003, a blend of both schedules is proposed, with monthly meetings in the fall and theme-weekend presentations in the winter.
No doubt the presbytery will find merit in both scheduling styles in future years.
3.2 Worship
Worship is a primary activity of the building up of the Body of Christ. The meeting of the Presbytery is a gathering of the church in praise, thanks and response to God. Worship is central to the life of the Presbytery and, therefore, to its meeting together. In hosting the Word of God and being hosted by God at the Table we discover our unity in Christ even as we experience the rich diversity of our faith and life.
In recent years it has been our custom to assign worship leadership to the host congregation. This places the burden of responsibility for hosting the gathering on a single congregation.
We propose that the Presbytery ask the host congregation to focus its energy on the tasks of welcoming and feeding the gathering.
Worship leadership will be assigned on a rotating basis to members of Presbytery who are not in the host congregation. We will invite a member of Presbytery to proclaim the word and to preside at the eucharist at each meeting. We will invite another member of Presbytery to lead the prayers and the reading of scripture on each occasion. These worship leaders will be welcome to invite others to participate in the leadership of the worship— including a musician to accompany our common song. We will encourage the use of the common lectionary with a focus on the text(s) of the Sunday following.
3.3 Meeting schedule
The schedule below is offered for evening meetings, and is designed to allow those catching ferries and driving long distances to leave at an appropriate hour.
4:00 - 4:30 pm Registration and social time
4:30 - 5:30 pm Business meeting
5:30 to 6:15 pm Worship
6:15 to 7:00 pm Dinner
7:00 to 8:00 pm Theme time
8:00 pm Scheduled adjournment
4.0 The Executive
4.1 Function of the Executive
The Manual provides that the Executive has all the duties and powers of the presbytery unless the presbytery otherwise determines. It further provides that decisions taken by the Executive on behalf of the presbytery must be minuted and reported at the next meeting. In other words, much power, yet much responsibility.
To honour the work of the standing committees, generally the Executive will receive recommendations from the standing committees, and approve or disapprove them without amendment. Recommendations may be returned, but should not be altered. We believe that the committee-level effort must be sustained and fostered, and that the best way to do so is to let the committees find their own way. It follows that when questions or correspondence is received, it will be handed off to a standing committee for action.
The Executive will bring matters forward to the plenary sessions of presbytery when it feels they deserve fuller consideration, when they involve broad policy, or when a standing committee requests it be heard. In addition, members will have issues that they wish to table for open discussion with all churches in the presbytery represented.
We expect that most matters of this nature, unless arising from an urgent need, will be tabled and placed on the agenda for a coming meeting, so that all presbyters may receive notice in advance and might have an opportunity to discuss the issue with their congregations before the time of decision.
As noted above, decisions taken by the Executive must be communicated promptly and widely, so that all members will have a clear understanding of our directions and our plans. The Internet listserve is the appropriate method for these minutes, so that our members and congregations will have confidence in our decision process.
4.2 Membership
The Executive will be composed of either the chair or representative of each standing committee (5), a Chair, Vice-Chair, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and several Members at Large. This comprises a group of about ten people.
.
Where standing committees have appointed co-chairs, both should be members of the Executive, and both should attend meetings where possible.
The Executive will meet monthly, except in the summer.
The duties of the Executive Committee are more fully described in the Manual, section 373.
5.0 Standing Committees
5.1 Standing committees will provide a means of handling our business.
We have adopted a system of standing committees, with responsibility for most of the ongoing work of presbytery. They will meet regularly, and will attempt to deal with their work in a timely fashion, and communicate decisions and recommendations clearly. The Executive will ensure that committee meetings are scheduled properly and that minutes are produced and circulated.
Members will be placed on committees after discussion with the Human Resources Committee. Committees are encouraged to invite members of congregations with special interests or expertise to join them in their work. If necessary, such resource people can be appointed members at large of the presbytery.
Generally, we expect each standing committee to have a Chair, a Vice-Chair or Co-Chair, a Secretary, and several members at large. The work of most of these is obvious. It will be important that the secretary of each committee use the presbytery Internet listserve to circulate minutes and other matters of interest to the general membership.
It should be noted that some committee chairs may wish to delegate one of their number to sit on the Executive Committee. This should be done in concert with Human Resources. As well, it would be desirable for the busy committees to agree on co-Chairs, so that the necessary work load can be spread over two people.
Our standing committees include:
● Executive
● Congregational Relations
● Education and Students
● Faithful Public Witness
● Human Resources
● Long Range Planning
● Pastoral Relations
It will be the responsibility of the Executive to ensure that the committees meet at regular intervals, and that their meeting notes or minutes are circulated to all presbyters and other delegates.
5.2 Congregational Relations
● Relations generally with congregations on most matters other than Pastoral Relations
● Pastoral Oversight Visits (Manual Sec. 332) and training for visits every three years (annually for home mission units).
● Take special interest in training and developing congregational Ministry & Personnel committees.
● Train and maintain a group of equipped people to serve as liaison with congregations in matters of pastoral conflict (Pastoral Relations will work with clergy in this area).
● Responsible for Home Missions grants and connections: First Church, Bowen Island, Pemberton and Long house, others.
● Resource to congregations in matters of governance and internal structures.
● Maintain knowledge of the health and well-being of congregations. Coordinate with P astoral Relations and Long Range Planning with respect to needs for Interim Ministry.
● Establish relationships with leaders in each congregation, including chairs of boards, members of M&P and other committees.
Composition: Chair, Vice-Chair or co-Chair, Secretary
Home Missions coordinator
Visitation coordinator
Ministry & Personnel coordinator
3 members at large
Total 10
5.3 Education & Students
● Arrange interviews, discernment committees, annual review for students and candidates, those coming from other denominations (Manual Sec. 382).
● Organize celebrations within presbytery on behalf of students.
● Ensure that members of the committee and those involved in these processes are properly trained.
Composition: Chair, Vice-Chair or Co-Chair, Secretary
2 to 5 members at large
Total 8 to 10
5.4 Faithful Public Witness
● To recommend to the Presbytery acts of Faithful Public Witness in which we might/must be involved.
● To name and celebrate within the Presbytery the Faithful Public Witness being done by congregations and by groups within the Presbytery, including witness through the Mission and Service fund.
● We understand Faithful Public Witness to encompass local, national, global witness.
Composition: Chair, Vice-Chair or Co-Chair
2 to 5 members at large
Total 8 to 10
5.5 Human Resources
● Assignment and nurturing of presbyters who are members of standing committees and theme planning workgroups. This includes responsibility for balancing committees with proper gender, age and other considerations.
● Nominations annually of presbytery executive officers, committee chairs and vice-chairs, others.
● Maintain relations with and a database of congregational nominating committees.
● Conveners of special honours or courtesies, as required.
Composition: Chair, Vice-Chair or co-Chair
Several members at large
5.6 Long Range Planning
● Assist Presbytery in developing its policy around property (Manual Sec. 335).
● Maintain knowledge of property assets in our presbytery, possibilities for development, amalgamation, or other changes in United Church property.
● Be our technical resource for congregations planning changes, and maintain continuing relations with congregations that might consider planning developments in the future.
● Maintain continuing relations with congregational property committees and trustees.
Composition: Chair, Vice-Chair or Co-Chair, Secretary
2 to 5 members at large
Total 6 to 10
5.7 Pastoral Relations
● Resource to congregations during the time of change in pastoral relations, following the Manual and other prescribed steps (Manual Sec. 389).
● Resource to clergy generally at all times, including management of sickness and parental leave policies, lifelong learning, sexual abuse policies, etc.
● Train and maintain a group to serve as liaison with clergy in matters of pastoral conflict (Congregational Relations will work with congregations in this area). (A new activity)
● Relate to Congregational Relations with respect to needs for Interim Ministry.
● Ensure that members of the committee and those involved in these processes are properly trained.
Composition: Chair, Vice-Chair or co-Chair, Secretary
3 to 6 members at large
Total 6