By Hayley Beckett on 25th September 2023
Report from EBA Council September 2023
The meeting was held on zoom with one Trustee and the moderator, who was ill having sent apologies. In the absence of the Moderator, Adrian Ward (Council Member) was elected Moderator for the meeting.
Adrian opened up the meeting the reminding council that Jesus needed to be at the heart of everything and read from read Matthew 11:28 asking us to reflect on this scripture being mindful of ourselves, people we know and the community around us then opened in prayer.
Paul Smith, a Minister from Norfolk was co-opted onto council as a new Council Member, he will serve for a term of two years.
There is one space available for co-option onto Council if anyone is interested? Please speak to the Moderator for more information.
There wasn’t an update from the Home Mission resilience group as they are not meeting until September with a couple of other items on the agenda paused until the next meeting as updates were due from those trustees who were not present.
Council was updated about the EBA Gathering happening later this month. The theme is “God at Work” and how have we seen God at work in the past year. Gale (RM) gave council a brief outline of the programme for the day. The day will also include an opportunity to say farewell to Graeme as he leaves the EBA early October.
Council reviewed the Eligibility Criteria for Mission and Ministry Grants (formally Home Mission Grants) and pending a few tweaks these were approved and will be available to churches in the next few weeks. Council were also made aware that the grants committee needs new members.
Anyone with a missional mind is able to be a part of the grants committee and if this a role that you may be interested in serving in please speak to EBA Secretary.
Richard, EBA Treasurer reported on the finances up to the end of August 2023, and discussed how finance may look in the coming months.
Council was presented with feedback and comments that have been received following the appointment of the new Team Leader, council discussed the process of appointing a Regional Minister and Regional Minister Team Leader, and feedback was given by the current Regional Ministers on their thoughts on the current process. There was agreement that the current process outlined in our Byelaws does not work with agreement that some more thought and consultation on this process needs to happen.
Council spent a little bit of time considering what the orientation process for the incoming Team Leader should be considering there isn’t anyone in the role currently to handover from and agreed that the current regional team will lead on association items, and we will ask other association team leaders to assist in national issues and team leader responsibilities.
Reports were received from Regional Ministers, Secretary, Renew Wellbeing and Safeguarding Lead. Council were presented with a report on Governance and asked to give this some prayerful consideration before we meet again in November.
Finally council were informed that Diane, EBA Safeguarding lead is retiring later this year. Council requested that the secretary begin the process of advertising for a new Safeguarding Lead.
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