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Minutes of Circuit meeting held at Queen Street 8 March 2007
Rev Mark Haynes welcomed everyone to the meeting
He welcomed Julie Fairweather the Circuit Administrator to the meeting and asked permission for her to observe. This was agreed.
Rev Geoff Bowell led the opening devotions.
An attendance sheet was circulated at the meeting
A letter of condolence to be sent to Rev & Mrs A Broadbent on the sad loss of their son and to the family of Albert Sykes who died recently. The meeting stood in remembrance of Albert.
Minutes of the last meeting held on 19.9.06 were read and agreed.
Matters arising
Feedback from the consultation on "What sort of Bishops" this matter will not be brought to conference this year or for sometime.
Senior Circuit Stewards Report
Ruth reported that the Circuit Office was now up and running, Julie Fairweather is now 8 weeks in post. She is improving communication, updating the directory, aiming to send out a circuit magazine and is building up circuit resources; Ruth thanked Julie for the friendly and enthusiastic way she is doing the job.
Mark, Ros and family have now moved to 59 Lady Ediths Ave, the new manse fits all CPD criteria and should serve the circuit for many years to come. Ruth thanked David Boler for all the help an support he had given throughout the move. Thanks were also extended to Pete Evans for his work at the Manses and to Colin Davies who as her "number two" attends numerous church council meetings and offers prayer and support.
Ruth then thanked our ministers for all they do and reminded the meeting that they are "only human" and suffer the same day to day personal pressures experienced by us all from time to time.
Circuit Policy update
Economy of Scale - after investigation, the recommendation is that envelopes could be bought centrally. This will be discussed further with the Church treasurers.
Relevance of Meetings: Mark has composed a letter and questionnaire, which will be taken by the Ministers to their stewards meetings.
Skills - the Skills audit is completed, Julie will keep this list as a resource in the office. Initially she will phone all the volunteers to check details of what they can offer, then the directory will be finalised.
Mark thanked Ruth Dale, Colin Davies and David Boler for all the support during his move, he will be organising an open house in the near future.
Circuit Leadership team
Circuit Policy
Wesley
The organ and piano & table top lectern have all gone to Sinnington Methodist Church, a plaque with the note of origin will be placed on them and they will make a donation to charity.
TOG on Future of Wesley.
The TOG had spent time looking at future use of the site. It was felt strongly that the building be used for Youth work, but after discussions with Manchester and the local Youth service this is not feasible.
Proposal - Permission was sought from the meeting to sell the building and for a TOG to be formed to look at all aspects of Youth work around the circuit and some of the monies raised from the sale be used in support of Youth Work.
The question of selling the building with outlining planning permission was raised, and Mark said this was also Manchesters advice and was within Methodist guidelines. Concerns were raised regarding any future building on the site, it was hoped that planning would be for residential buildings thus eliminating problems with leisure facilities which may not be appropriate for a Methodist site.
1. Proposal - The circuit sets up a TOG to examine all aspects of work with children and young people. The meeting agreed unanimously.
2. Proposal - to advertise the site of Wesley Methodist church within Methodist guidelines for sale. The meeting agreed unanimously.
Conversation on the work of God in this circuit
Spring Tide
Rev Geoff Bowell reported that CTIS are holding "Spring Tide" over the Mayday weekend at Queen Street. RT Kendall will be the main preacher for the weekend. He asked for volunteers to help steward over the weekend, please let Geoff know if you can help.
CTIS next service is at Westborough Methodist Church on 25 March 2007, marking the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery and to look at issues relevant to today.
Burniston Missions Weekend 21 & 22 April 2007 weekend John Hardwick will run a workshop for children's workers and there will be a Praise party in the village hall during Saturday afternoon.
"On the Move" - Wednesday 29th August to Saturday 1st Sept 2007 based at Albermarle, run on the same lines as last year, information will be circulated, people are urged to be involved.
The final service at Staintondale is 11 March at 3pm, followed by a faith tea in the village hall.
Circuit Treasurers report
The accounts have now been audited, the final result was a surplus of £6336 bringing the closing reserves to £33,869.00, this was better than the budget due to higher interest and circuit offertory income and local supernumerary, telephone and manse repair expenses.
The accounts were presented to the meeting for approval. The meeting agreed unanimously.
The forecast for 2006/07 is an improvement from a balance budget to a surplus of just under £2000.
The proposed budget for 2007/08 was distributed, it will be subject to the result of the annual shares meeting, each church treasurer will be contacted to indicate what the proposed budgets means in terms of each church's giving.
Circuit reserves policy. As each church is required to adopt a reserves policy, so has the circuit. The recommendation of the Business committee and the leadership team is that we aim to achieve a level of reserves equivalent to three months to cover unexpected events and short term needs, this will be discussed with the church treasurers and then presented at the next Circuit meeting.
Wesley bank mandate.
Ruth Dale, Brian Raper, Julie Knight to be the new signatories, this enables me to take over the operation of Wesley's accounts and allows some ex-Wesley members to retain an interest. The meeting agreed to this unanimously.
Mark invited the meeting to discuss in small groups encouraging events in our church life and a challenge for us. During the feed back session the following points were made
Challenges;
Look at transition from Junior Church to Church life.
Gaining planning permission for the works at Burniston
Put our energy and finance to support all young people of the town,
Replenishing the ever increasing age range in churches.
Encouragements
Circuit Youth Fellowship going from strength to strength
Positive circuit meetings
The number of worship leaders and younger local preachers.
Burniston music group playing at Spring Harvest.
Fairtrade
We are almost a fair-trade circuit; we will be the second in the District. The next stage is to be a Fairtrade borough. There are 57 villages, 56 churches of which 26 are fair-trade. Support is been sought from the council. Fairtrade towns have seen an uptake of local produce and support of diary farmers.
You can support Fairtrade by attending meetings - the first Tuesday in the month at Westborough, becoming a member by paying £10.00 which goes towards meeting mailing costs.
Local Preachers Meeting
Held on 6th March 2007, with 17 preachers and 5 worship leaders present. 4 certificates were presented at the Circuit service on 4th March 2007 to Bill Earnshaw for 70 years, John Allport for 60 years, Hugh Pett for 50years and Anthea Purdy for 40 years. Ruth Dale was accredited as a Local Preacher to the deaf.
The local preachers continue to meet every 3 or 4 months.
Report from Business Committee
Two recommendations to the meeting
Permission had been granted at the last meeting to sell Staintondale Chapel. To enable the building to be sold with outlining planning permission as a dwelling, permission is needed to purchase a small plot of land to enable drainage to the building this could mean the difference between a selling price of £45,000 and £120,000 if purchased. The meeting agreed unanimously
A request to pay £500 moving fees to Mark was agreed unanimously
Circuit Life report - circulated prior to the meeting
Carol Evans is to stand down as chairperson of the Festival of Talents committee, she will chair the next meeting.
Network report was circulated prior to the meeting
An evening with Geoff, Helen, David and Samuel Bowell is to be held on 14 June.
Circuit Church and Society committee. Report circulated at the meeting
Matters regarding Conference or Synod
Conference is coming to Scarborough in 2008.
Synod - current representatives are Diane Robinson, Ruth Dale, Roy Pugh and David Evans. David stood down, this left 2 vacancies. Colin Davies and Hilda Briggs were nominated; this was agreed by the meeting.
Any other business
Date of next meetings 20th June 2007 at ESJ
24th September 2007 at Westborough
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