 |
Minutes of Deanery Synod Meeting held at in All Saints’
Church, Loose. |
1.
Welcome
The Lay
Chairman, Mr. Lionel Marchant, welcomed the members and
stated that he had expressed the thanks of members to the
ladies who had provided the refreshments. Following
a hymn he invited the Reverend Eric Delve to lead the
opening prayer and Bible Study.
2.
Opening Prayer and Bible Study
Following
an opening prayer the Reverend Eric Delve stated that he
was basing his thoughts on Isaiah 54 vv 1 – 8.
He pointed out that the passage starts “Sing O
barren woman”. He then went on to say that the
ultimate disgrace for a woman in
Eric
then went on to suggest that the situation of the Church
of England is analogous to the barren woman. He
reminded members that God says, “Don’t look to
other people for an husband,” as some of the
Churches in
He then
referred to the current policy of the Church of England
to manage decline. But what if God gives us
millions, many not knowing the Book of Common Prayer, let
alone understanding Common Worship. He expressed
his belief that God has good things in store for us, but
we need to consider three words beginning with M.
Money
– The problem is that no one is prepared to preach
about it.
Mission
– We are not here for ourselves but for those that
do not know.
Morality
– We need to listen to the Pope. We need to
stick with what the Bible says and go for it together.
He
concluded with a prayer.
3.
Presentation to the Reverend Eric Delve as Retiring Area
Dean
The Lay
Chairman invited the Reverend Eric Delve to return to the
front and proceeded to express the thanks of the Synod
for the time and energy he had put into being the first
Area Dean of
The Lay
Chairman announced that the Reverend Karen Gorham is our
new Area Dean and her licensing will take place at
The Lay
Chairman then announced that Sara Bimson was ordained in
June and the Secretary apologises for having omitted the
Reverend Chris Thom, who was ordained last September from
the address list. Unfortunately he was away abroad,
so was unable to attend. He also welcomed Sister
Diana, the first Maidstone Nightclub Chaplain.
The Lay
Chairman also advised members that the Reverend Sara
Bimson and the Reverend Lee Townend had recently been
elected by the House of Clergy to fill vacancies on the
Diocesan Synod.
4.
Apologies for Absence
8
members of the House of Clergy and 20 members of the
House of Laity were recorded as present. Apologies
had been received from 8 members of the House of Clergy
and 7 members of the House of Laity.
5.
Approval of Minutes
The
minutes of the meeting of
6.
Matters Arising from the Meeting on
There
were none.
7.
Appointment of Treasurer
The Lay
Chairman announced that Mrs Maureen Bortolozzo was
willing to stand for the post of Treasurer. The
Reverend Lee Townend proposed that Mr. Bortolozzo be
appointed as the Treasurer. This was seconded by
the Reverend Jim Perryman and agreed unanimously.
The Lay
Chairman then proposed the following motion to change the
authorised signatories on the Maidstone Deanery Synod
bank account: -
That
the Revd. Karen Gorham, the Area Dean of Maidstone, and
Mrs. Maureen Bortolozzo, the Treasurer, are appointed as
signatories of the Maidstone Deanery Synod bank account
in place of the Revd. Eric Delve, the former Area Dean of
This
was agreed unanimously.
8.
Appointment of Assistant Area Dean to Standing Committee
The Lay
Chairman then proposed the following motion to change the
composition of the Standing Committee of the Deanery to
include the Assistant Area Dean: -
That
the Assistant Area Dean shall be an additional member of
the Standing Committee of the Maidstone Deanery and that
the Committee shall comprise: The Area Dean and the
Assistant Area Dean, who are appointed by the Archbishop,
The Lay Chairman, elected by the House of Laity, the
Treasurer, the Secretary and Assistant Secretary, elected
by both Houses of the Synod and two members each from the
House of Clergy and the House of Laity, elected by the
members of the individual Houses. The posts of Secretary
and Assistant Secretary are to be filled by one
representative from each House.
This
was agreed unanimously
9.
Election of Lay Diocesan Synod Representative
The Lay
Chairman asked whether there were any nominations to fill
the vacancy for a lay representative on the Diocesan
Synod. There were none.
10.
Deanery
By way
of introduction the Reverend Karen Gorham, the Area Dean,
referred to Acts 2 vv 42 – 47 where it tells us of
some of the values that the Church held immediately
following the Day of Pentecost. Among them was the
core value of sharing. Today we want to look at
“What are our Values” as a Deanery?
She
then asked what do we value most? We all have our
own values. Churches have values and this makes
them different. Some value growth, others social
action, others value prayer. These values influence
our mission.
She
then stated that values: -
Determine
what is distinctive
Dictate
our personal involvement
Communicate
what is important
Influence
overall behaviour
Inspire
people into action
Influence
Also
values are the unchanging threads that hold together a
constantly changing organisation.
Touch
the very heart and soul of the organisation
Are
Biblical
Are
core beliefs
Drive
the Ministry.
The
Area Dean then provided each member with a sheet listing
45 values. Members were asked to give a rating to
each of these core values. The rating was to be
from 1 to 5: one being lowest and 5 highest. It
was suggested that each person in doing the rating should
try to give as few 5s as possible.
Having
completed the rating of the values members were asked to
signify as the list went through whether they had given
the particular value a score of four or five. Most
of the values scored some ratings of four or five. Following
this each member was invited to come forward and place a
symbol against the five values they most highly rated.
The examination of the results showed that some of the
values that scored the highest probably barely featured
in our Deanery programme.
The
Area Dean said that she was surprised by some of the
results, but was sure that as the Standing Committee
drives forward the preparation of a Deanery Mission Plan
the results of this exercise will be very helpful.
11.
Parish Report
The Lay
Chairman then invited Sister Diana, the new Maidstone
Nightclub Chaplain, to give a report on the work so far.
She commenced by saying that she had been involved with
the club culture for the last 16 years. It began
when she was 18 in nightclubs in
16,000
young people go clubbing in
Sister
Diana then asked members “Why do people go clubbing?”.
Responses from members were corporate experience, fun and
fellowship. Sister Diane said that she felt it was
for enjoyment and escapism. She went on to ask ,
“What are the main ways which people use to escape
in the club environment?” Members suggested
drink, drugs, music, dancing and noise. Sister
Diane said that in her opinion it was alcohol, sex, drugs
and music. Her role is to have discussions with the
clubbers, but she is not trained to cope with particular
problems relating for example to drugs, so she needs to
pass contacts on to those who have the qualifications.
In time she would wish to have an organisation to pass
the work on to, so she would welcome people who have a
heart for this work to come and work alongside her.
Her
licensing service is to be held at
12.
Treasurer’s Report
With
the election of a new Treasurer having just taken place,
the Reverend Jim Perryman, the former treasurer, gave a
brief report. He said that every single parish had
made at least one payment towards the Parish Share and
many had paid 50%. This was quite encouraging.
He announced that the Deanery Benevolent Fund had
received no donations, but members from some of the
Churches that had offered to contribute said that they
had been waiting for the Treasurer to invoice them.
The Reverend Jim Perryman advised them that as this was a
donation all that was required was for them to send the
Treasurer a cheque made payable to the Maidstone Deanery.
13.
Area Dean’s Notices
There
were none.
14.
General Synod Report
The
Area Dean said that as this was the first meeting of
General Synod that she had attended. As it was held
in
15. Any
Other Relevant Business
There
was none.
16.
Closing Prayer
The Lay
Chairman again thanked the Reverend Lee Townend for the
hospitality that he had extended to the Synod, and
invited him to close the meeting with prayer.