ANGLICAN CHURCH OF LUXEMBOURG CHURCH COUNCIL. Wednesday 6 April pm, the Vicarage MINUTES

Transcription

1 ANGLICAN CHURCH OF LUXEMBOURG CHURCH COUNCIL Wednesday 6 April pm, the Vicarage MINUTES Present: The Rev'd Chris Lyon, the Rev d Joan Lyon, Catherine Allen (Churchwarden), Sebastiaan Boelen, Tania Buhr (Secretary), Moira Hogg, John Overstall, Sarah Parkhouse (Treasurer), Rani Roloff, Neil Ross, Philippa Seymour, Chris Vaudrey (Churchwarden). 1. & 3. Welcome The Chaplain, as chairperson, presided over the meeting, which he opened at 8.10 pm by welcoming in particular Rani Roloff, who had been elected as a new Council member, and Neil Ross and Philippa Seymour, who had been nominated as Council members and were attending the meeting at the Chaplain s invitation pending an election to be held on Sunday 10 April. 2. Bible reading and prayer The Bible reading was from Ephesians 3, v ; the Chaplain reminded the Council that, in seeking ways to tackle the considerable amount of change currently facing the Chaplaincy, we should remember that God was with us and that His helpful spirit was on the clergy and the Council. A prayer was said. 4. Apologies: Felix Rusere. 5. Minutes of last meetings The minutes of the meeting of 8 February 2011 were agreed to be an accurate account of the proceedings. The minutes of the special Council meeting of 24 March 2011 were also agreed to be an accurate account of the meeting, subject to adding that apologies had been received from Chris Vaudrey and Rani Roloff. 6. Draft Minutes of the AGM, for website publication approval to publish as a draft On a proposal by Chris Vaudrey (seconded by Catherine Allen), it was agreed that the draft AGM Minutes be published on the website. 7. Action Points Review and Matters Arising from the meeting of 8 February The prayer group Wellsprings had got off to a good start and had held several meetings. The Lent lunches were going well and attendance was good. The First Sunday Group had accepted V. Beber s invitation to sing on 12 June 2011 at an

2 ecumenical event. See separate Action points spreadsheet. 8. Ministry Report The Chaplains reported on a number of matters: Pastoral overview: Pastoral demand had been intense recently, with numerous different issues arising, including one member of the congregation being very ill in hospital and a previous member returning to Luxembourg and requiring assistance. Prayer and Being Quiet - 24 hours at Medernach on 18/19 February: the Assistant Chaplain reported that the 16 participants had enjoyed this quiet time in a relaxed atmosphere; she had booked a further weekend there in October. Michael Lapsley - 6 March Choral Evensong report: this service had been well attended and Michael Lapsley had given a very interesting address; a substantial collection had been given, and there had been a supper offered at the Vicarage afterwards. Being the Church - Off-site seminar 18/19 March 2011 report: the Chaplain was pleased about how well this seminar had gone and that so many Council members had been able to participate. Forthcoming events: the Assistant Chaplain announced that, as part of the Anglican synodical process to consider the issue of Women Bishops, an extra Archdeaconry Synod meeting to discuss this was to be held on 21 May in Antwerp; the Right Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the USA, would be speaking in the Old Catholic Cathedral in Utrecht on 14 May; the traditional walk on Ascension Day (2 June) would probably be organised by Diana Edwards. On the subject of pastoral care, Neil Ross, Sebastiaan Boelen and Moira Hogg queried whether the entire responsibility for this care needed to fall on the Chaplains. The Chaplains said it was difficult to delegate this work because when people had major issues to discuss they usually wanted to do so only with the Chaplains, who had over many years built up a reputation for keeping confidences. In any case, the Chaplains, along with the leaders of other religious communities, were paid by the Luxembourg State to be pastors of the entire community, not just their own congregation. The problems which came up were always different and there was a huge demand, but this was in the nature of the job of Chaplain. 9. Joan s departure and consequences i) What kind of assistant chaplain in future? The Chaplain said the process to replace Joan Lyon would take a long time and so needed to be considered very soon. He (and the Churchwardens) would be open to appointing another woman priest, as there were not many openings for female priests in our Diocese. He explained that, canonically, the appointment was his decision alone, not the Bishop s, but he nevertheless still needed the Bishop s

3 agreement, as well as the Council s approval. The Bishop could only oppose the Chaplain s decision on canonical grounds. Whilst both the Chaplains had open licences, a priest taking up an appointment now would only have a 5-year licence. Whilst it would be possible to appoint a lay person as pastoral assistant, it would be far more preferable to appoint a priest, as this would be a longer-term arrangement. The Chaplain said that if the Council were in agreement he would talk to the Bishop about looking for a priest or a deacon. ii) Accommodation Accommodation for an assistant would most probably be rented. It seemed unlikely that family accommodation would be needed, as a priest with school-age children might be put off applying because of schooling difficulties and the high cost of fees for English-speaking schools. iii) Administration Joan Lyon was currently doing a great deal of administration, a core function of the church, as she had gifts in this field, but it would be unlikely that any replacement would do the same amount. It would be preferable for a non-clergy person to do it, and the Church could consider appointing a Church Administrator to do the administrative work, possibly as a paid post. The Council agreed that the Chaplain could write to the Bishop to tell him the Church was looking for a replacement Assistant Chaplain, possibly also mentioning accommodation. Joan Lyon might possibly move to England in August and then return to Luxembourg to say goodbye on 4 September Susan Bolen training and funding Susan Bolen was in the process of taking her first steps towards training for ordination, but it was not proving straightforward. Whilst the ordination process usually involved a candidate undergoing first a Diocesan selection conference and then a national selection conference before actually starting ordination training, Susan Bolen had been told that there was no place for her on a Diocesan conference before she was due to start her training in September This raised the question of her funding: ordinand training is funded by the Diocese but only when the Diocese has selected a candidate by means of a conference. This had not yet been done, and Susan Bolen had already waited some years. The Chaplain wanted to be able to tell the Diocese that we as a congregation would commit to paying Susan Bolen s training for one year (at a cost of approx. five thousand pounds) and then expect to be reimbursed by the Diocese once she was selected. The Council agreed to the Chaplain making this proposal to the Diocese. 11. Music Director Exploration of issues and indication of action to follow The Chaplain said that the current Music Director, Alan Carlisle, had announced his intention to resign at the end of the year from his post, which he had held for many years. The post of Music Director was currently a paid appointment.

4 The Chaplain wanted to consult more widely (the choir, the First Sunday group, the Council, the congregation), possibly at a separate meeting, before the summer in order to look at the Church s whole music policy, explore the best way of meeting and coordinating the different needs, and consider what action to take about the post of Music Director. 12. Treasurer s Report The Treasurer, Sarah Parkhouse, presented her report for March 2011, saying she had prepared a budget, which was with the Finance Committee awaiting approval, but in the light of Joan Lyon s departure it would need revisiting. She had changed the layout of the accounts to better reflect the annual financial statements. Income for the year to date was looking good and was slightly over budget. Monthly donations and collections were stable. There had been capital expenditure on a new washing machine for the Vicarage and a portable hard disk for the computer system. The 6 March Evensong service had raised for Michael Lapsley s Institute of Healing Memories and this money had been transferred to the Institute. The Lent lunches had raised 350 and the Bishop s appeal had raised 105 in March. The Chaplain said the Finance Committee would meet again to work out a budget. 13. Church Fair update The Chaplains had met with the Fair organisers, Cherry Hooper and Ian Kent, who were keen and had some good new ideas. They were aware of the communications/advertising issue. Chris Vaudrey would attend a meeting the following week with Cherry Hooper, Ian Kent and the previous year s organiser, Simon Norcross, to discuss preliminaries, such as communications and sponsorship. 14. Church property i) Vicarage Chris Vaudrey reported that the Vicarage sub-committee was still waiting for the property developers to get back to them about the site. When the Chaplain asked for some more Council members to join this sub-committee, Neil Ross volunteered his services, as he had experience in commercial real estate. The sub-committee therefore consisted of Chris Vaudrey, Sebastiaan Boelen, Jason Rea and Neil Ross. ii) Public Address system for the chapel The quote being offered having in the meantime gone up to 8 000, the whole matter had become very complicated. Joan Lyon and Chris Vaudrey would have a further meeting with the persons concerned to find something adequate for the Church s purposes. 15. Charities visit of Louise Ewington, Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea Joan Lyon had had contact with the PNG Church Partnership s General Secretary, Louise Ewington, and had invited her to be the guest speaker at the 11 a.m. service on 29 May. The Charities Committee needed more details before it could agree to

5 sponsorship, but the project did appear to meet the Committee s criteria. Catherine Allen proposed that the Church fund Ms Ewington s travel expenses from London for her 29 May visit and the Council agreed. 16. Any other business None. 17. Dates of next meetings Monday 2 May (changed from Tuesday 3 May); Wednesday 8 June; Tuesday 5 July. 18. Closing prayer The meeting closed with a prayer at p.m.