Reports to the General Assembly 2000

GENERAL BOARD 1 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN IRELAND ACCOUNTS 1999 — PREFACE A preface to the Accounts is submitted herewith. This takes the form of a memorandum Central Income and Expenditure Account and a graphical illustration in relation to this Income and Expenditure. This Income and Expenditure does not form part of the Audited Accounts of the Church. 1998 Column is period to 31 December 1998. 1999 Column is year to 31 December 1999. 2 ANNUAL REPORTS, BELFAST, 2000 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN IRELAND AND EXPENDITURE INCOME Contribu- Grand tions from Congregational United Total Congregations Assessments Appeal 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 General Board 25 21 4 6——2115 Business Board 10 9 —————— Communications Board 349 392 ————150120 Inter-Church Relations 461 366 446 344———— Overseas Board — Designated 455 564 —————— Overseas Board — Others 1,218 1,065 8 9 — — 785 740 Home Board 820 715 61 25 5 4 505 500 Social Witness Board 4,444 5,645 9 14 — — 169 146 Evangelism & Christian Training 608 477 8 9 — — 305 265 Youth Board 435 501 — 71 — — 226 207 Education Board 239 154 ————155150 Board of Studies 1,062 891 49 4 — — 327 448 Finance & Administration 1,339 1,195 — — 952 891 — — United Appeal 364 365 —————— Ministry & Pensions 3,951 3,790 — — 3,121 3,070 — — Presbyterian Women’s Association 821 813 —————— Sundry Other 346 355 298 280———— ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– Grand Total 16,938 17,318 883 762 4,077 3,965 2,643 2,591 ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– EXPENDITURE Grand Employee Total and Ministry Printing Administration Costs Stationery, etc 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 General Board 13 16 11 6 1 — 2 3 Business Board 10 11 — — 9 10 1 1 Communications Board 351 397 104 108 207 220 40 35 Inter-Church Relations 386 372 — — 9 — 1 1 Overseas Board — Designated 386 481 —————— Overseas Board — Others 1,252 1,057 113 104 19 25 86 67 Home Board 645 645 90 76 9 8 81 71 Social Witness Board 4,245 3,961 2,566 2,526 431 395 107 98 Evangelism & Christian Training 540 536 323 339 47 87 34 29 Youth Board 451 491 141 131 67 54 36 35 Education Board 311 206 131 127 26 11 32 30 Board of Studies 712 768 348 332 162 174 7 6 Finance & Administration 1,178 1,095 496 446 191 160 145 132 United Appeal 10 11 — — 10 11 — — Ministry & Pensions 3,561 3,431 3,292 3,194 14 13 188 161 Presbyterian Women’s Association 889 825 678 563 58 50 45 46 Sundry Other 319 302 ———— 1 1 ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– Grand Total 15,256 14,605 8,291 7,952 1,259 1,218 805 716 ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– GENERAL BOARD 3 — MEMORANDUM CENTRAL INCOME 1999 Per Board £000’s Trust, Investment Sales: Income and Rental Donations Loan Periodicals Grants Bank Interest Income (net) and Bequests Repayments & Property and Fees 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 ———————————— ————— 2———— 9 7 –10 –13 — — 3 — — — 206 284 — 1 915——6 7—————— 2319——432545—————— 150137——276179—————— 9799111186625614———— 242 180 3,003 2,914 246 288 111 59 292 1,675 373 369 18 12 — 1 179 90 — — 99 100 — — 8 9628370100————6931 4 2——68———329— 271 236 7 6 33 79 — — 251 — 124 118 –38 –114 382 376 14 14 — — 20 28 — — 364365—————————— 798688——3232—————— 81 95 — — 673 667 — 8 67 43 — — 1415————3460———— ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– 2,030 1,745 3,465 3,391 2,118 2,063 201 141 938 2,132 583 528 ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– Travel Home and Over- Missionaries Expenses Building Upkeep of Loans seas Projects Field etc Costs Property Issued and Grants Costs 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 1999 1998 ————————— 7—— ———————————— —33——————— 1—— ————————376371—— ————————386481—— 1416——2420——226240770585 — 6 311 207 7 20 14 20 134 237 — — 31 25 196 174 749 635 160 105 5 3 — — 4242——473—— 1 34633 6 3 12 12 47 48 — — 142 208 — — 9 9——2314——9015—— 8 9——4867——139180—— 4861——207208——9288—— ———————————— 6559—————— 2 4—— 154—— 7 6—1288131—13 ——————2520292281—— ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– 237 267 519 393 1,157 1,021 199 157 1,972 2,250 816 631 ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– ——– 4 ANNUAL REPORTS, BELFAST, 2000 GENERAL BOARD 5 REPORTS: JUNE, 2000 BELFAST GENERAL BOARD Convener: THE CLERK 1. The 1999 General Assembly referred three matters to the General Board – the consideration of Presbytery and Board responses to the remit on statistics, the matter of elders serving as Presbytery Clerks and the possibility of retirement for those elders who may wish it. All three subjects were considered during the year by the Board, which now reports as follows. ELDERS AS CLERKS OF PRESBYTERY 2. A Memorial from the Foyle Presbytery to the 1999 Assembly drew attention to the issues arising when an elder who has been an ex-officio member of Presbytery and Clerk ceases to be a member of the court. The Assembly granted the prayer of the Memorial and asked the General Board to consider the issue of the eligibility of persons for the Clerkship as prescribed in the relevant paragraphs of the Code. 3. The membership of a Presbytery is governed by Par 61; a Presbytery has no power or authority to add any other person to its roll of members. Code Par 65(2) further requires that “The Clerk shall be appointed by the Presbytery from among its members.” It follows that Presbytery could not appoint as Clerk an elder who was not already a member and likely to continue as such for a period of years. 4. There are some elders who are ex-officio members of Presbytery by virtue of their being members of the Judicial Commission, Assembly Conveners, etc, but they are few in number and the Presbytery has no control over their tenure of such office. 5. Certain Presbyteries include Ministers in Recognised Service, Theological Professors, Associate Ministers, etc. As Presbytery appoints their “corresponding” elders, it could easily reserve one such place for an elder-Clerk. Other Presbyteries without such “corresponding” elders might ask the relevant Kirk Session to appoint the elder-clerk as their representative elder indefinitely, or they might arrange for a number of Kirk Sessions to commission the elder- Clerk on a rota basis, but such arrangements could be regarded as artificially contrived and alien to the spirit of the rules. 6. Another option would be a change in the Code. As Presbytery is a fundamentally important court of our Church, any change in its membership should only be undertaken after due thought, and would probably involve Barrier Act procedure. 6 ANNUAL REPORTS, BELFAST, 2000 7. In this situation there are at least three possibilities: (i) to leave things as they are; (ii) to remove the requirement for a Clerk of Presbytery to be a (voting) member of the court; (iii) to introduce legislation to make an elder (and possibly a minister without charge) an ex-officio member of Presbytery if appointed as Clerk. Option (i) Option (i) needs no further explanation. Option (ii) Par 65(2) of our Code requires that “The Clerk shall be appointed by the Presbytery from among its members”, but that is not essential to Reformed polity. In the Church of Scotland the Clerk need not be a member of the Presbytery. If we recommend that our Church follow suit, then an overture would be required to delete the words “from among its members” from Par 65(2). Option (iii) Alternatively, Par 61 of the Code, which defines the membership of Presbytery, could be amended to provide for a Clerk (being a minister or ruling elder within the bounds of the Presbytery) to be an ex-officio member of the court. 9. Having considered the issues involved the General Board decided to recommend option (iii), and a resolution is appended to test the mind of the Assembly on the matter. If this resolution is approved detailed legislation can be prepared for the next Assembly. As indicated above, Barrier Act procedure may then be necessary. ELDERS (RETIRED)? 10. The 1999 Assembly received a Memorial which posed the question “Should appointment to the eldership be for life? If not, should there be an accepted retiring age for elders?” The Memorial referred to Reports 1976 p100, which quoted the view of some “that elderly members of Session should be allowed to ease off in work, or give up altogether, in which case there might be an elder emeritus status for such.” 11. The Assembly asked the General Board “to examine further the suggestion of an accepted age at which those ruling elders who so wish could retire.” 12. Practice throughout the Reformed and Presbyterian family of churches is not uniform. Indeed the differences between churches which have inherited the theology of Geneva are quite marked. G D Henderson writes, “Precisely what limits must be set to the flexibility of the Presbyterian system of conciliar church government it is impossible to decide categorically.” (“Presbyterianism” p128). GENERAL BOARD 7 13. This confirmed by Robert W Henderson in a study prepared for the WARC and entitled “Profile of the Eldership 1974”. In the light of that it could hardly be argued that the suggestion contained in the Memorial is fundamentally incompatible with the polity of the Reformed Church. 14. It is generally accepted that ordination is for life but that need not mean that membership of a Kirk Session is for life. In some churches, such as the PCUSA, appointment to Session is for a fixed term of years which may be renewed but which may be interrupted by an obligatory “year out”. At a certain age an elder may simply decide not to seek re-appointment.

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