Do We Need To Hold A Church Meeting?

Do we need to hold a Church Meeting?

During the early period of ‘lockdown’ the following advice was given by the Clerk to Assembly.

“Frequency of meetings of councils of the church In view of the emerging government advice, my advice is that the requirement for frequency of meetings be regarded as suspended, for instance if it is not safe for a Church Meeting to meet the minimum of quarterly, it should not do so.”

Alongside this, there was advice to think around what sorts of decisions should be taken by whom during the current situation - for instance if there was a relatively urgent matter that would normally go to a church meeting, it might be that the elders, meeting electronically, would have to make that decision. It was also seen as important that there should be a clear record in their minutes both the decision and the rationale for having made it at that ‘level’. This is to ensure that should there be questions as to the validity of a decision in the future, there is a clear paper trail.

As lockdown has continued, and video conferencing has become part of far more people’s lives, there have been moves to increase participation in decision making through holding virtual meetings of the councils of the church. At an Assembly level there are papers (which are necessarily rather long and complex) at https://urc.org.uk/images/MissionCouncil/July2020/Resolutions_32_and_33.pdf  

In the same way as a church might have more decisions being taken by the eldership, rather than the church meeting, much of the business of Assembly was dealt with by Mission Council, which is a smaller body. However, there are issues which will simply have to wait, because they are of such fundamental importance, or complexity. Whilst that may not seem altogether relevant on a local level, the same principles apply for a congregation.

It is also recognised that the way in which we meet may disenfranchise particular groups. This has always been the case - for example an evening meeting might leave parents with young children unable to attend. A daytime meeting may exclude those in full time work… The potential to meet electronically will include some, but exclude others, particularly some of our older members (though not all of them by any means) who may not be ‘tech savvy’, or may for other reasons not be able to get online. If meetings are to happen virtually, it’s important to consider what viewpoints might not be heard.

It’s also important to recognise that whilst video conferencing is a helpful tool it has some severe limitations, especially in that discernment process that we call ‘finding the mind of Christ in the Councils of the Church"

There is no absolute answer to questions of whether Church Meetings should be held, or postponed at this stage – it will depend on the context – but here are a few points to think about:

•         what decisions are urgent? Can they reasonably be dealt with by elders?

•         what decisions are of such importance that they need to be dealt with by the whole church?

•         can those decisions be taken without a physical meeting?

•         how many people could access a virtual meeting? what groups might be excluded? 

•         how do we record decisions about what is dealt with by elders rather than church during this period, in case anyone queries them later.

If you want to talk about a specific situation, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Synod Clerk or the Moderator.