Minutes Deanery Synod 14 March 2011

 

Minutes of the 4^th meeting of the sixteenth session of the Rugby Deanery Synod held at All Saints Church Leamington Hastings on Monday 14 March 2011.

 

16.4.1 Kevin welcomed everyone and thanked Leamington Hastings for hosting the event.  

 

16.4.2 Worship – Jane Close welcomed everyone to the Church and Karen & Rich Burley led the Synod in

 worship.

 

16.4.3             Martin spoke to the Synod about how the Clergy of the Deanery, after a quiet day together, had felt it right to meet weekly together to pray (just as Monks Kirby Deanery had done many years ago which led to the “Fire in Coventry” book. They are meeting every Tuesday lunchtime. He invited the clergy to the front of the church and the lay people to come out and pray for them.

 

16.4.4.1 The minutes of the last meeting were agreed and signed.

16.4.4.2 There were no matters arising.

 

 

16.4.5.1   Martin reminded everyone that all Deanery representatives were up for re-election this year and forms would be with their churches. As we did last year we would hold over elections of officers until the September meeting.

16.4.5.2   Martin said there would not be much room for speakers this year asthere was a lot of discussion items being sent down from the General Synod.

This meeting will hear about the way the Deanery has to apply the Diocesan deanery share system.

The June meeting will hear about the consecration of women as Bishops and this will be debated in full at the September meeting.

November will have see a full discussion on the allocation of deanery share and early next year there will be a discussion as the whether to adopt the Anglican Covenant  

16.4.6.1 General Synod

Mark Beach reported that the meeting had been held London in February. They had heard an address by Andrew Mitchell, International Development Secretary on the Government’s policy for Overseas Aid, clergy discipline had been discussed about being members of certain parties, a Liverpool Diocesan motion to change some of the wording at Baptisms, and many of these were referred for further discussion or to the House of Bishops.

They heard of the plans for the Church of England for the quinquennium and Anglican/Roman Catholic relations. Parochial Fees Policy was discussed and as we have already been contacted on this if anyone has comments please let Martin or Mark know their thoughts ACTION ALL.

Marriage after divorce for the ordained ministry was discussed and clarified, a presentation from the Archbishop of York was heard and a debate on the Anglican Communion Covenant was held.  

 

Kevin said the meeting on 28 February was held at Offa House. They had heard about Schools applying for academy status. Rex Poxon talked about the year of the Bible and a day in Coventry Cathedral on 11 June preceded on the previous day by the local schools being in the Cathedral. They had heard confirmation of the Benefice of the Revel Group, the timetable for the Diocesan Synod and the change of roles in the Diocesan Offices.

 

 

 

Barbara advised the Synod that the group was set up in 2009, is ecumenical and open to all, ordained or lay, with an interest in rural ministry. They meet about five times a year at lunch times, sharing experiences and ideas of how to make rural mission work. They pool resources and ideas for Harvest, Rogation, Plough Sunday, Pet Services and other ideas. New members are always welcome; please contact Barbara for further information. A very successful rural day was run about 18 months ago and they are planning further such times. 

 

The meeting broke for refreshments

 

Following the refreshments Kevin thanked the folk from Leamington Hastings who had been responsible for the refreshments.

 

16.4.7.1 20-40s group

Rich Burley and Tim Norman mentioned the Conference in November to which 50-60 people came. The feedback on the day and at the meeting was very positive with many ideas generated from the day and taken away by the churches. The group was endorsed to move forward by the meeting and others were encouraged to join them as there may have to be changes on the group. Rich & Tim raised the possibility of Matt Caldicott, at present training with CMS, working within the Deanery as Pioneer Minister and they produced an application form for funding from the Diocesan Mission Fund. This would fund all his needs for the next 2 ¼ years although they also asked the Deanery in principle whether they would also support him in the case of any shortfall, to the tune of £2,000.00 if necessary. The meeting unanimously agreed that this was a good step forward and agreed to seek funding from the Diocesan Mission Fund and the principle of funding from churches in the Deanery in the future.

 

16.4.7.2 Mission Team

Mark Beach advised the Synod that there was thinking that we should ask Bishop Christopher to visit the Deanery, not to see the Christians but to visit fringe areas around the Deanery meeting “ordinary people”.

To this end he is holding a meeting at The Rectory in Church Street on 29 March where ideas can be shared.                                                                                ACTION ALL

 

 

Martin confirmed that the new Parish Share system comes in to effect this year. The principle is that parishes pay their own costs and then support other Deaneries who cannot afford their shares. This year Rugby Deanery is putting in £75-80,000 to help other Deaneries.

On 28 March there will be a meeting where two representatives from each benefice will negotiate what the Rugby Deanery will put in the pot for the coming year with some flexibility. The meeting will be at St John’s Church, Long Lawford at 7.30pm. Martin mentioned that not all clergy had let him know who their representatives will be and asked for them to be given to him urgently.

 

 

Martin also said that two people from each Deanery were to go to a meeting with the Diocese, with the results of the local meeting, on 2 May 2011 where they will agree with other Deaneries what the final figures would be. It was expected that the two representatives would be the lay chair and the Rural Dean would go but Martin is unable to attend on that day. Synod agreed that Kevin should attend and that Kevin and Martin would make a decision on who else should go.

 

Brian Cooke, Churchwarden at Leamington Hastings, gave a very interesting talk about the fire at Leamington Hasting on 30 November 2009 and the restoration of the building which reopened on 3 December 2010. He showed us many slides showing the actual damage and mentioned that two 17^th century Bibles had been destroyed (they could be repaired for £42,000 if anyone has any spare cash!) and everything had been blackened. He then showed how the work progressed through more slides and explained that every stone in the building had to be cleaned by hand. He was very grateful to his architect, the Insurance Company, the DAC, the builders and all involved in getting the Church up and running again in such a quick time.

He did say that the forward planning of everyone involved meant that they hit the deadlines they wanted, including the handover to the PCC on 3 December 2010. The building was rededicated with a celebration led by the Bishop of Coventry on 6 February 2011.

          

 

 

16.4.10.1 There was no other business. 

 

The next Deanery Synod meeting will be held on 6 June 2011 at Brownsover.

 

 

 

 

Roger Evans 

16 March 2011