PCI General Assembly

General Assembly Review - Thursday 5 June 2008

Trustees (p286-290)

Mr Lex Ross proposed the report and Mr David Bell seconded it. All resolutions as laid out in the report were passed.

Commission On Trusts (p285)

Mr Alastair Rankin proposed the report and Dr Donald Watts seconded it. All resolutions as laid out in the report were passed.

Board Of Finance And Personnel (p233-275)

Mr John Millar proposed the report and Mr Dougie Crow seconded, both explaining more fully the current pension situation.

The pension situation was first considered in 2005 at the Assembly and various reports and proposals have been made to the Assembly since then. Presently there are three main schemes -- ministers, mission personnel and staff. Resolution 2 was passed, creating a new scheme to combine all three schemes into one, remaining a 'defined benefits scheme.'

Most recent figures show total funds assets amounting to £72m with liabilities of £76m. Common reasons for this shortfall are increasing life expectancy and falling investment income.

All benefits accrued under the old scheme to date of change will remain and be paid as agreed. Those presently receiving pensions will see no change. Under the new scheme it was proposed that the retirement age would rise to 67, employees would pay increased percentage of contribution and depending on age and service they will experience a change in pension anything from an increase of 8% to a reduction of 15%.

The House debated the scheme and voted to keep the retirement age to 65 and also voted that employees would not be responsible to make up the shortfall in increased contribution. The vote was 142 against and 115 for. The debate was suspended and further discussion moved to lapsed business.

Board Of Communications

Building on the success of last year's 'The Achievement in Communication Awards', designed to encourage and celebrate good practice in the use of technology and communications for the life and mission of PCI, the Communications Development Committee agreed to run the scheme for a further two years. The winners of the four categories were:

Print -- May Street Presbyterian
Internet -- Maynooth Community Church
Audio-Visual -- Downshire Road
Broadcast -- Vicki Sandal

The rest of the communications report was moved to lapsed business.

Board Of Christian Training

While now responsible for the training of lay people the focus of this board's work is often on students for the Presbyterian Ministry. Numbers continue to be encouraging with the Board telling the Assembly of 41 students presently at various stages of training and asking the Assembly to accept a further 20 people as students for the Ordained Ministry.

The Board's report was proposed by Rev George Moore and seconded by Rev Trevor Gribben. All resolutions were passed.

Following this, lapsed business from the Board of Mission in Ireland, the Board of Mission Overseas and the Board of Social Witness was dealt with. All remaining resolutions from these Boards were passed.

2010 Committee (p291-292)

A report was given by the 2010 committee, proposed by Rev Colin Morrison and seconded by Rev Rob Craig. The committee are working to organise a Special Assembly in 2010, which will be in addition to the normal General Assembly. The Special Assembly will take place in August of 2010 in Dublin City University. The main speaker will be Ajith Fernando, National Director of Youth For Christ from Sri Lanka. The resolutions of the 2010 committee were passed.

United Appeal Board (p277-284)

The Board's report was proposed by Dr Donald Watts and seconded by Rev Bob Allely. All resolutions were passed.

General Board

Lapsed business from the General Board was brought to the house including a report on the Pastoral Care Panel from Rev Gabrielle Farquhar.

An additional resolution by Rev Stephen Neilly and Rev Brian Boyd asking for more information on the Inter-Religious Council and requesting no involvement with it until the Assembly chooses to do so in the future, was defeated. This went to a card vote with 118 for the resolution and 165 against.

All other General Board resolutions were passed including a memorial of the Kirk Session of Saintfield Road congregation, which will give all elders the chance to retire, something that was previously not mentioned in the code.

Issued by Sarah Harding, Presbyterian Information Services. info@presbyterianireland.org

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