By Hayley Beckett on 29th April 2024
EBA Council Summary 6th April
EBA Trustees – with one apology — met together along with Claire Blatchford, Gale Richards and Gillian Jones for the EBA Council meeting on 6 April 2024.
Andrew welcomed everyone and welcomed Gillian, the newly appointed Safeguarding Lead to the meeting. On opening the meeting Andrew read from Acts 2 reminding us that God’s love is open to all and then he opened in prayer.
Council was brought up to date with 4 outstanding matters from previous meetings, which included an update on where the Association is regarding its own Ethos Statement following the guidelines released by Baptist Union and a report from the latest BMS Council of Reference on which the EBA has a representative.
Rev Ivan King, author of a report on the Sustainability and Resilience of Home Mission commissioned by EBA Council was invited to attend Council to speak on the report and aid trustees to make progress on the recommendations.
The process for awarding grants and the grants criteria will need to adapt over the next few years, with applicants needing to consider additional ways of raising income which the report terms “the development of a financial engine” which in the long term will move applicants away from a dependance on grant funding and increasing their own resilience and independence. The current grant receivers and those who have applied for grants in 2025 will already be aware of this move and the trustees are ensuring support for them as they look to transition into this new way of thinking.
The next part of the meeting Trustees heard from the regional team leader as he reported on progress with the team’s priorities for 2024 before handing over to Gillian to verbally bring her first report to the meeting after being in post for a month. Both Claire and Gale were also invited to speak to trustees. The RMs reflected on the trip to Wales, to meet with both the South Wales Baptist Association and Cardiff Baptist College. As well as building cross-association relationships discussions included how each association was developing Recognised Local Ministers (RLM).
The council also congratulated Gale on completing her Doctorate.
A proposal to utilize some restricted funds to create three time limited, part time posts with a specific focus was agreed by trustees, the final details around these posts were being finalized and they will be advertised in the coming weeks.
Both David and Claire spoke about the BU Council meeting and thanked trustees for their prayers over the two days as BU Council reflected on the Ministerial Rules Consultation survey results, both echoed comments made nationally about the feel of the meeting and the way that all those present acted towards each other with grace.
Baptist Union Council has an additional meeting this year to focus on the Financial Model Review which has been reported on in previous BU Council meeting reports. The EBA Council appointed David Mayne, Andrew Wade and Hayley Beckett to attend this meeting as representatives of EBA.
EBA Trustees were reminded that the Project Violet research findings are being released on 2 May and are all encouraged to make the time to attend the findings preview on zoom that evening. Association trustee boards will be required to reflect on what this means for the Association and agree action points. In addition, there will be other opportunities for churches and ministers to input into these action points for EBA.
Richard (EBA Treasurer) informed the Council that the end of year finances were as expected with the Association ending the year with a deficit. The work was now being done to get the accounts ready for the auditor, before being brought back to trustees for signing off.
The final item on the agenda was the governance report. Within the report the Council was updated on EBA owned property and a reminder that there are still vacancies for co-opted members of Council.
Trustees discussed the 2024 AGM and settled on holding during Suffolk Week on a Tuesday afternoon; further information will be provided in due course. The Council agreed the appointments to the Mission and Ministry Grants committee ahead of grants being considered for 2025 with June Love, Sean Fountain, Paul Smith, Elizabeth Stoner and Lou Webber being approved as members. The Council also approved the moderator role description which will be advertised before the end of April.
The meeting closed in prayer.
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