Effective Ministry
The first session of the day will see the Council for Training in Ministry present the second of two alternative presentations designed to give particular insight into the work of the Church in different areas of its ministry. Titled ‘Equipping the Church for Effective Ministry in the 21st Century’, the presentation will feature a mix of reflection, interviews and videos to highlight a number of different aspects of the Council’s work. During the presentation, members of Assembly will hear from a number of perspectives about the work of Union Theological College, including from a number of both ministry and Theology students, and from a lecturer who will be delivering a new Master of Theology course.
Also featured in the presentation will be information on two other important aspects of the Council’s work: the Auxiliary Ministry programme, a recent innovation whereby church members are trained to a level of preaching and pastoral care that enables them to come alongside ordained ministers in congregation and complement their work; and the Conciliation Service, which seeks to facilitate members of the Church to find reconciliation where relationships have broken down and to promote the healthy handling of difference, change and disagreement by delivering appropriate courses to Presbyteries, Kirk Sessions and others.
Mission overseas
Following on from yesterday’s session ‘Listening to the Global Church’, the Council for Global Mission will today deliver its report to General Assembly. The Council supports the mission and service of the Church offered by congregations working together through the General Assembly. Its remit includes developing mission overseas, including developing partnerships with Churches and sending personnel, promoting world development issues and leading thinking within the Church and communicating agreed policy in the public square with regard to issues of global concern.
This year’s report includes details of a recent trip to Lebanon by representatives of Presbyterian Women, a part of the Church’s women’s ministry. Members of Assembly will hear how God is using the distribution of scriptures in Syria to powerfully impact the lives of many families and young people, and of the importance of the work of the Church’s partners in the region.
General Assembly will be called upon to ‘recognise the rich contribution to PCI of partner churches, agencies and institutions living and working in challenging situations’, and to ‘acknowledge the privilege and mutual benefit of sharing and standing in solidarity together’.
Also featured in discussions will be the World Development Appeal, with a resolution before Assembly to express its thanks for ‘the gracious and sustained generosity shown by congregations and members of PCI in supporting the World Development Appeal’.
The 2017 World Development Appeal was the first year in a four-year plan, in partnership with Tearfund and Christian Aid, to highlight and combat the challenges of sustainable development in fragile states, with a particular focus on gender justice and the prevention of gender-based violence.
Climate Change
The report on Climate Change, by the Stewardship of Creation panel develops a biblical position on its causes and effects while setting out seven principles of being good stewards of God’s creation. It also looks at what practical action and lifestyle choices can be made by churches and our members to be good stewards.
In the report states that “The role of this paper is not to determine whether or not climate change is happening. Its purpose is to develop a biblical position on what a very substantial and significant scientific population believe to be the causes and effects of climate change. The scientific material and the biblical material will lead us to some principles of stewardship of creation and finally to some practical application of what we can do as a denomination, as churches and as individual members to care for God’s world and to reduce our adverse impact on it.”
Mission in Ireland
During the first of the evening’s discussions, General Assembly will be asked to receive and adopt the recommendations from an important review into the Church’s Home Mission by the Council for Mission in Ireland including the refinement of the principles underpinning entry to and exit of the scheme. Home Mission congregations are both established and directly supported by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland centrally.
The focus of the work of the Council is to develop the denominations strategic priorities in all-age mission across Ireland and to plan major church-wide initiatives at a General Assembly level. Among many other responsibilities, the Council also considers new church development looking at locations which might be suitable for church planting, while overseeing the delivery of a chaplaincy service in the Forces, Hospitals, Hospices and Prisons across Ireland helping to bring a ministry of presence to those in need.
The provision of Chaplaincy will also feature heavily in discussions, with General Assembly asked to note the Church’s submission to the Northern Health and Social Care Trust expressing the Church’s concern over the proposed introduction of a generic model of Chaplaincy. The report presented to General Assembly acknowledges some of the strengths of a generic system, while also detailing a number of concerns of a move to such a system. The General Assembly will be asked to affirm the work of the Strategy for Mission Committee in its proposals for the deployment of a Rural Chaplain.
Universities and Colleges Chaplaincy
Keeping on the topic of Chaplaincy, members of Assembly will also hear the preliminary findings of a Task Group established to explore the profile, purpose and provision of Chaplaincy in Universities and Colleges. With initial conclusions pointing to the need for the Church to better resource the work of Chaplaincy in Universities and Colleges, these discussions will form a significant part of the Council for Mission in Ireland’s work in the incoming year.
GDPR
With the recent implementation of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) into European law, the Assembly will hear the steps that have been taken to ensure the Church’s compliance with the new directives, and be asked that it ‘authorise the General Council to bring in any necessary guidelines and interim regulations’ relating to GDPR at all levels across the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
In this final session on the fourth report of the General Council will also look at the engagement of presbyteries, charity registration and how prayer, essential to the life and ministry of the Church, is co-ordinated centrally.
Details of each day’s business of the 2018 General Assembly can be found at www.presbyterianirland.org/GA18. Resolutions and reports before the General Assembly can be found in the 2018 Blue Book here. Additional reports and resolutions can be found in the Supplementary Reports here.
Most of the public sessions will be streamed live via this website. All public session proceedings can also be followed via live Twitter feed @pciassembly using the hashtag #PCIGA18.