Plenary III

Stephan Mairovsky from the Czech Unitarian movement, and Rev. Ant Howe, led our opening worship for this Plenary, then it was on to the update from the Nightingale Centre. The Centre is well used by many non-Unitarian groups as well as Unitarians, and work to support the local community, though they would like to have even more Unitarian groups visiting. We also heard from the chair of the Send A Child to Hucklow Fund!

Tim Baker gave a moving speech about Marion Baker (his mum), describing her long life of service to Unitarianism in the UK, and how much we all appreciate her as a Unitarian and as a person. She was voted an Honorary Member with many standing to applaud her as she was presented with a bouquet of flowers to thank her for her hard work.

Daniel Costley spoke about the recent work of the Ministerial Fellowship and its roots and connections across the whole of our UK Unitarian movement, featuring yet more mushroom references! He spoke of developing standards for ministry and a stronger base of ministry in the movement than we have had for many years, and the need to think now about how we adapt for the future. We discussed both how the movement can support ministry, and how the ministerial fellowship can support the movement, including those of us who do not have and cannot have a permanent full-time minister.

Jenny Jacobs then spoke about the Stipend Review and the challenges of housing and fair payment for ministers, including the results of a recent survey on these topics. Helen Mason spoke about the hard work of lay leaders, and the training and support available to them, and asked us all to consider if there are any potential leaders in our congregations – and the budget to support them – who could benefit from this! She also introduced the new members of the Lay Leaders register: Rosie Whiting, Gary Hammond, and Vince McCully.  

Workshop III – Ministry and Leadership

A workshop led by Rev. Rory Castle-Jones and Simon Bland, who provide Congregational and Ministry Support. Simon set the scene, commenting that ministry and leadership are different, but the same! Ministers can be leaders, but not all leaders are ministers, though they are often trustees. A key question facing us is that over half of our congregations are lay-led, so how do we do both? Rory commented that: “to serve, to worship, and to work in partnership with our congregations is the hallmark of Unitarian Ministry, compared to other forms of minister”.

Perhaps the question need to consider is, what is leadership, and how does ministry fit into it? Putting properly trained people into positions of leadership. Therefore, they have split the ‘Inquiry Day’ into two – one is about leadership, the other is about ministry. We spoke of more support for ministers with CPD (Continuing Professional Development) and pastoral support. A good thing, but one participant wondered at the financial implications of this for congregations, and whether it could put having a minister further out of reach for some congregations. We noted that there is a human tendency to ask, who is in charge here? Final points were that a hallmark of Unitarianism is “innovation rooted in historical tradition” and that “the minister is there to enable the ministry of the whole congregation”. Rory commented that a Welsh tradition has been to have ‘deacons’ and ‘elders’ – roles within congregations, filled by those with the ability to lead and minister. Much food for thought, and time for some actual food. I departed to contemplate how to run the ‘Future of the GA Zette’ meeting, over a plate of tortellini.

Contender for Quote of the Day, I: “If you’ve seen the film ‘Pride’ with the gays and the miners, that’s my congregation, basically”.