Russell Small, the President of Newfoundland Labrador Conference, points the delegates gathered for the West District spring meeting to the story of the loaves and fishes.  When told to feed those gathered, the disciples can’t.  They are too busy with the details of the gathering.  You know, all those meeting arrangements, last minute twists, technology snags.  They are too busy.  And too emptied by their bus-i-ness.  What do you have to feed them, Jesus asks?  Nothing, they reply! 

We haven’t invented the rat race.  We only run it.  Still.

This winter when Nora Sanders, the General Secretary, invited the church to respond to her assignment to develop three proposals for moving the church into and through the next three years, the dominant response was that we are tired.  It didn’t matter from which coast you were writing, fatigue laced the words.  Voices across the church said our “bus-i-ness” is killing us, taxing our resources, leaving us empty.  Pastoral relations was one area many pointed to.  Our presbyteries and congregations just can’t figure out the forms and processes let alone keep up with them.  And The Manual:  complex; complicated; time-consuming. 

It is no wonder that at the end of a meeting we feel like we have nothing left to offer!

“A Future Grounded in Faith and Action” offers another way.  It envisions a church whose processes and practices are enabling and encouraging rather than restrictive and proscriptive, that are agile and responsive rather than fixed and regulative.  Endorsed by the General Council Executive, work is now underway to develop new ways of being together.   One of the major directions being developed is moving many of the pastoral relations “employment” and oversight functions to staff positions at Conference level.  BC Conference already has a version of this in place with its regionally deployed staff.  The intention is to lift this supervisory function from the Presbytery so that the Presbytery can be a forum of collegiality and support.  At the spring meeting of the Spiritual Care Network we dreamed a bit about the possibilities for our presbyteries if their agendas are not dominated by administration. The possibilities are exciting!

Similarly with The Manual.  Can it be designed to serve as an “operating system” which provides a common platform and standard into which we can plug our regionally-based practices?  Think of an iPhone and the countless apps that have been designed to work with it. 

If you were designing our “operating system”, what would be your priorities?  What do you consider fundamental standards for our life together?  When you work with our pastoral relations processes, what are the barriers you encounter?  What confounds you?  Send your ideas to me!

The General Secretary’s report and the subsequent actions of the Executive of the General Council can be found at www.united-church.ca.  As proposals are developed, they will go to the Executive and, many recommending substantive change, to the next General Council.  I encourage you to read the report and dream.  Dream of a church in which at the end of the day, at the conclusion of a meeting, we will find our baskets full, and all satisfied. 

The Rev. Alan Hall

Executive Officer Human Resources, General Council

ahall [at] united-church [dot] ca