#GA2021 report 03 – ASSEMBLY TRUSTEES

Who are they?
The report details the work of the Assembly Trustees, appointed by the General Assembly of 2019 to be the Charity Trustees of the Church of Scotland Scottish Charity No. SC011353 with the duty of supervising the day to day management of the work of the General Assembly’s standing committees.

Whats the report about?
The report details the work of the Assembly trustees heavily focused on finance. it also contains the Chief Officers report.

Whats the key point of the report?
The church income is lower, so we have to make some cuts.

Deliverance thoughts.
1 – yes
2 – yes
3 – Yes
4 – yes
5 – yes
6 – yes
7 – yes
8 – yes
9 – hmmmm (taken with the faith nurture forum report and supplementary report.)
10 – yes
11 – yes
12 – yes
13 – yes
14 – yes
15 – yes
16 – yes
17 – yes
18 – yes
19 – yes
20 – yes

Thoughts on the report
 1. INTRODUCTION – A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER
Covid-19 affects have been a hard.

 2. WORKING RELATIONSHIPS
the relationship between trustees and forums has not been great. the Assembly trustees are dealing with it.
The working relationship is about how people work together yes, but also the end product which is “assisting the general Assembly to determine strategy for the church” (p02). given the lateness of the blue book, has this been met? and how can we make this better? is the lateness of the blue book a symptom of this working relationship tension?

 3. AUDIT OF ANNUAL ACCOUNTS FOR 2020 (start of Finacial section of report)

 4. CHALLENGE OF CHANGE
“Much of this report, therefore, must focus the Church’s attention on finance: what the Church wants to achieve and what we can ask each other to provide.“

 5. LOCAL AND NATIONAL FINANCES
M&M income reduced for 2021 by 18%.
11m budgeted to be drawn from reserves for 2021.
“First, with Presbyteries, is to ensure that the local church is supported. Second, we must identify the extent to which Congregational income and contributions will recover and whether there are further areas where economies can be made so that the support of the local church is not diluted.”
Faith Action Plan mentioned
Head of Faith Action Programme mentioned

 6. PRESBYTERY REFORM
there needs to be a central financial offer to support this reform.

7. MINISTRIES AND MISSION REVIEW – GIVING TO GROW
Giving to Grow
“It describes clearly how much a charge contributes to the cost of its own ministry (Ministry Here) and how much it contributes to the wider work of the Church (Ministry Elsewhere).
Introduced Jan 2023.“
approve Giving to Grow now, and we will give you the details at GA2022

8. PRESBYTERY PLANNING AND FUTURE MINISTRY NUMBERS
“… a realistic and affordable number of ministries.”
“Any aspirations to increase the number of paid ministry posts is currently not feasible unless we see significant improvement in both the finances of the Church and in our ability to attract more applications to ministry.”
so if there were more applicants, there would the money to support them?

9. FORUM CONSULTATION – SPECIAL TASK GROUP (D10)
D10 is a cool name not explained…
faith action Plan needs to unite work across all church bodies.
It need a head of programme to deliver this and coordinate the CofS.
we will report to GA2022
Ecumenical relations and Theological Forum should be placed within The office of the General Assembly.

 10. TRAINING FOR ALL THE PEOPLE OF GOD
conversations are happening.

 11. SMALL GRANTS FUND
small grants are now available for mission.

13. CROSSREACH
Costly and Risky.

 14. FOSSIL FUEL AND NET ZERO TARGETS
they have divested.

 15. SALVESEN FUND
We have money reserved for something we are not engaging in. (Scots outside Scotland). we are wanting to change this restiction.

 16. ISRAELI ENTITIES
can’t the money above be used for this in the interim?

17. LOOKING AHEAD
risk – congregation giving goes down
risk – CrossReach
risk – ministry numbers
risk – “There is a risk that, unless supported with proper management, accountability and good communication, our staff and Forums and Committee members will feel under too much pressure.”
wow. the experience of Youth Ministry telling us what the future could look like.

18. HOUSING AND LOAN FUND
They have more money than they anticipate they need, we are working to relieve them of that sensibly.

19. THE GAELIC GROUP
transferred to the Faith Nurture Forum

20. NOMINATION COMMITTEE
reduced numbers as appropriate.

 21. PERSONNEL APPEAL PANEL FOR THE EMPLOYING AGENCIES OF THE CHURCH
bigger group membership needed

 22. THE TRUSTEES

 23. TRUSTEE INFORMATION

 25. FINANCES

 24. CHIEF OFFICER’S REPORT

 26. OPERATIONAL FUNCTION OF THE CENTRAL CHURCH AND RESPONSE TO COVID-19
I like the idea of “capability statement” and look forward to the Capability statement from both Forums…

27. WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE NEW PRESBYTERY STRUCTURES

 28. LOCAL CONGREGATIONAL FINANCES AND SUPPORT FROM THE NATIONAL OFFICES

 29. COMMUNICATIONS ACROSS THE CHURCH
I like the emphasis on contact from the Chief Officer.
The link for the intergenerational group work is broken?

 30. FAITH ACTION PLAN AND THE APPOINTMENT OF A HEAD OF FAITH ACTION PROGRAMME
“One of the key requirements identified by the Chief Officer in ensuring delivery of the plan is the creation of the Head of Faith Action Programme, a new role based on Christian Leadership which was agreed by the Assembly Trustees and nationally advertised in January 2021.”
What is christian leadership?

 31. REVIEW OF EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
creating a communication strategy board… guided by the communications strategy which is being developed.
If a communications strategy board is being developed where will it sit? Is there a role for General Assembly elected member oversight?
The link for the reviews of IT are broken?

 32. EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION GROUP
Good.

 33. THE LISTENING PROJECT
The link for the Listening project are broken?

 34. FORTHCOMING WORK OF THE CHIEF OFFICER

 35. NATIONAL OFFICES BUILDINGS OPTION APPRAISAL AND BUSINESS PLAN: THE FUTURE OF 121 GEORGE STREET
we are parking the issue of the future of 121 for 2 years.
ok. but what’s the plan?

 FINANCE
I thought we had covered finance during the first 18 sections of this report, but here we go again.

36.  Introduction

37. Ministries and Mission Contribution
“In accordance with the Regulations, amounts for 2020 which remain outstanding will be deducted from the allowance available to Presbyteries. It is hoped that this will allow Presbyteries to engage with congregations and offer assistance where appropriate.“
Hoped, the report makes a joke.
The haven’t paid the central church so we will take it off the presbytery and tell them to deal with the problem.

 NATIONAL BUDGETS
38.  2020 Results
“… staff numbers reduced through natural attrition…”
Natural attrition? What a turn of phrase.

 39. 2021 Budget
Faith Nuture kept to budget lines. Faith Impact asked for additional spending.
I wonder if these forums individual budgets are as comparable as this seems to suggest/imagine/assume.

 40. MISSION AND RENEWAL FUND
the fund totalled £9.2 million. but it will now go on the deficit.
mission and renewal sounds great, but spending it all on deficit does not sound great.

 PENSIONS
41.  Defined Benefit Pensions
CrossReach pensions doesn’t need a top up anymore.
Good.

 42. Defined Contribution Schemes
Presbytery employees should be able to participate.
Why was that not the default case?

 43. STEWARDSHIP

 44. Current Context
For many of our congregations, the situation is threatening sustainability.
can we clarify what “many” means, and what “sustainability” means?

 45. Initiatives
Good.

46. Key Resource – A Narrative of Generosity

 47. The Stewardship Team

 48. Stewardship Support Network

 49. STAFFING CHANGES WITHIN THE STEWARDSHIP AND FINANCE DEPARTMENT

 50. LEGAL QUESTIONS COMMITTEE
remit update and clarified.
ok

51. CONGREGATIONAL STATISTICS 2019

Overview
church membership down on 2018 by 4%

Church-level membership and participation, 2019
the bigger your attendance at a church Sunday morning service is, the older the congregation average age is.
P13 “Children received Communion in 26% of congregations.”
can we define what is meant by children please? I suspect it is humans under 17 year old (the language of children is not clear here.)
p15 why did we have a spike in elders. do we need a eldership of roughly 10% of the membership. #jings.
p17 If the Presbytery of Lanark has one quarter the membership of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, then in all other things, which this book may contain the Presbytery of Lanark will have one quarter of the stuff of the Presbytery of Edinburgh?
p29 one fifth of membership number as under 17yo young people. That seems about right.

Appendix 1
report of the Ministries and Mission Working Group
Giving to Grow scheme details.
I like this idea.

Appendix 2
From the report of the Forum Consultation – Special Task Group (D10)
Ecumenical Relations and the Theological Forum
Both in the office of the General Assembly, and considered further until GA2022
Yip I buy this.

Appendix 3

Questions or amendments or suggested new deliverances.
Question
If a communications strategy board is being developed where will it sit? Is there a role for General Assembly elected member oversight?

Link to my thoughts on previous Reports to General Assembly
(Assembly trustees replaced the Council of Assembly, the Council of Assembly reports are linked below.)

• 2017
• 2018 (strategic plan)
• 2018 (without the Strategic Plan)
• 2019 (without the Radical Action Plan)
• 2019 (Radial Action Plan)
• May 2020 (Assembly Trustees Update)
• Oct 2020 (GA2020)

#ga2020 – 7 – Report of the Assembly Trustees

Number of deliverance sections – 9
Length of report – 22 pages
Appendix – 1, 2, schedule 1 to appendix2, schedule 2 to appendix 2, annex 1 to the report, annex 2 to the report

What’s the report about?
The report details the work of the Assembly Trustees, appointed by the General Assembly of 2019 to be the Charity Trustees of the Church of Scotland Scottish Charity No. SC011353 with the duty of supervising the day to day management of the work of the General Assembly’s standing committees.

What’s the key point of the report?
The Assembly Trustees have managed the church well over the past year.
The Faith Action Plan is good and they will invest in it.
But the Assembly Trustees plan for cuts, and the cuts need to happen to allow them to invest.
Just a side note there is a lot of inconstancy in writing and formatting, lower case and uppercase headings, the same word underlined sometimes and not other times.(Yes I know the irony, me picking up grammar and formatting issues…)

Deliverance thoughts.
1 – yes
2 – no – without having them how can we recieve them.
3
a – yes
b – yes (question)
c – yes
4 – unsure
5 – yes
6 – yes
7 – unsure (question)
8 – yes
9 – yes

Thoughts on the Report

Audit of Annual Accounts for 2019
1. Accounts were returned by auditors and approved at a meeting in Sept. 2020 avaiable on the General Trustees webpage.
Great. Except they are not available on the website, (as of the 27th of September for a GA to be held on the 2nd of October).
Do they not have to be submitted to Oscar by the end of September?

Introduction
The report follows on from the update in May 2020, successes since then include the update webinar, digital Heart and Soul, and the Donate button on the CofS website.
The successes seem like slim pickings.

Administration
We have used short term groups, and resources outwith the trustees to work things out.

Finances
10 In may we said we might be down £30million this year, by July we were £1.4million down.
11 We have asked local churches use the furlough scheme or savings to continue paying M&M
12 We don’t know what will happen, but we doubt churches ability to pay the same amount in M&M next year.
13 We recommend an 18% drop in M&M of £8million, the two forums will try and shave £4million off their budgets.
I am unclear, are the forums saving £4million each, making £8million of savings, or £4million in total between them?
14 A new M&M scheme will have some income taken into account.
15 We anticipate taking Millions from the reserves, as a consequence, we will reassess internal budgeting, and access to restricted funds.
16 We will review Partner work “because of the requirement to focus on our priorities and reduce costs.”
I wonder how this fits together with the increased partnership I get from the conversation about an increased co-operation with other denominations specified within the Radical Action Plan? Maybe I misunderstood what this is saying.
17 The Church of Scotland budget for 2021 will be a deficit budget
19 The Radical Action Plan is now encompassed the Faith Action Plan, which is all.
Ok, perhaps telling us how and where the Faith Action Plan is similar and differences from the GA2019 approved Radical Action Plan would be helpful at this point?

The Growth Fund and Presbytery Planning
20 Growth fund is on hold. A smaller scheme is being trialled. Before the Assembly Trustees invest in the local church to the extent of the Growth Fund, we need another round of Presbtery Planning to get down to how many ministries we need and how may buildings we need.
That is strong. I don’t see any enthusiasm for another round of presbytery planning. I wonder about the timing in correlation with a larger Presbytery Sturcture and the emphasis on the urban over the rural.
22 Because of CoVid, we want to tell Presbytery’s to make “robust oversight” changes
Change is gonna come. We are tell presbyteries to do it now.
I wonder if it is best to do this now, and offset a future joint presbytery of around 100 charges making changes that will affect the smaller and more rural charges more.
The future is fresh expressions, networks, hubs and multidisciplinary teams.
24 look at the assumptions in schedule one to see what we are assuming.
25 presbytery planning is a key to achieving this.
Yes, but given presbyteries are changing, this seems stark warning. Presbytery Planning round now or later, there is no option not to engage.

The Future of 121 George Street
26 On hold, generally, but working on a Research and Development facility.
I have a vision of people in white coats R&D’ing for the Church of Scotland in an industrial park on the outskirts of a town somewhere, maybe East Kilbride or Cumbernauld but I could be wrong.

Voluntary Exit Scheme
v19 member of staff have used this saving £700
ok, but isn’t it known as voluntary redundancy, not voluntary exit.

Crossreach
28 Crossreach struggled but worked well through the Pandemic,
I am heartened by this.

The Scots Hotel
29 The manager tragically died, a new manager will be sought.
Condolences to all who knew the manager.
Will the appointment of the new manager lead to the sale of the Hotel?

The Work of the Chief Officer and The Development of the Faith Action Plan
The work is detailed in appendix one
see my thoughts an appendix one below.

Forum Remits and Priorities
31 Covid 19 and its subsequent lockdown stopped us working on the remit’s and priority’s for both forums, but setting remits is not enough.
32 Priorities need to be set; we are recommending setting priority is through the Faith Action Plan.
See my thoughts on the Schule 2 to appendix 2 below.
22 Ecumenical Relations and the Theological Forum need reviewing.
I think these vital committees for the future of the church should be reviewed and put in proper health.

CARTA
The Assembly Trustees support CARTAs move to the General Trustees from the Faith Nurture Forum
OK.

CONCLUSION
A vote of thanks to the Chief officer, the core management team and staff and members of the forums.

Appendix 1 – THE WORK OF THE CHIEF OFFICER AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAITH ACTION PLAN
1 The Assembly Trustees have established clear boundaries between policy-making and operational management.
2 The chief officer has done good stuff in many areas, including “developing a Faith Action Plan and Operational Financial Model that are targeted at delivering the identified improvements for a streamlined central church.”
Well done.
3 Chief Officer remit includes “Delivery of the actions of the Radical Action Plan and successor Faith Action Plan.”
Why is the Faith Action Plan now in Bold text?
4The Chief Officer is doing more stuff.
Elevate is a strange word to use here?
6 The Faith Action Plan is a single high-level plan. It will interact and supersede the Radical Action Plan
as a sentence goes “The need for the central offices to be focused on work that resources and enables the local church has been factored into the restructuring of the current work and the visioning of future priorities and workload.” is quite a sentence.
7 “Inspirational Leadership Rooted in sound practical Theology” is needed.
Practical Theology, you say … hmmm.
8 to support the Faith Action Plan, an Operational plan is being developed, that can incorporate the missional objectives of Cross Reach
is Cross Reach, not the Social Care Council?
9 The Chief Officer has improved internal communication
Good.
10The central church has specialisms, and to replicate them in local church or presbyteries would be a mistake.
I wasn’t a fan of the specialised knowledge base being diluted to larger presbyteries. But if there is not devolution of specialist knowledge from the centre to the regional, why are we having larger presbyteries?
11 We are trying to save lots of money. 
I wonder about this and use of the Furlough scheme.
13 The central office culture is being changed by the Chief Officer
How does a “no blame culture” work when managing people?
14The Chief Officer is a cause for celebration.
“…clear, concise…” i haven’t found this appendix clear nor concise yet.

THE RADICAL ACTION PLAN
1 The Radical Action Plan was meant to be a time-limited, 3-year thing.
16 We developed a strategic plan to embed the central tenets of the Radical Action Plan in our ongoing work.
Great, but how had the bits of the Radical Action Plan changed in your new strategic plan? Can we be explicit about that? ANNEX 2 to the Report goes some way to show some of that work, but I am not sure I am getting all the nuance/subtext of this move here.

APPENDIX 2 FUNDAMENTAL AIMS AND KEY AREAS OF WORK FOR THE FAITH NURTURE AND FAITH IMPACT FORUMS
1 In May 2020s update, we said defining remits won’t enable the forums to make savings.
2 The implementation of a single operating plan will allow us to set priorities and work cooperatively.
3 The vision statement of the Church of Scotland and the Five Marks of Ministry is the foundation for the Faith Action Plan and the priorities of the new forums.
4 We split the vision statement up into five categories of work, Enthusiastic, Worship, Witness and Nurture. Service and attentive accompaniment were the other category. This led to a review of our work and partnerships within these categories.
5 “…capitalising on our learning from areas where the Church had been successful in progressing and translating our Vision to meaningful, practical application and growth.”
6 There is a need for a single education and training program for all.
7 The values of the national office are now agreed as grace, integrity, respect, professionalism, collaboration, and innovation.
I didn’t think these values needed to be agreed and then we need national office staff to decide to deploy them? But maybe others have different experiences of the National Offices.

The complexity of setting priority areas of work
Faith Action Plan is essential is setting priorities, and they will all fall within this plan.
The forums provided a joint statement of purpose and affirmed their intention to work together.
8 The forums agree on the five marks of mission and the five criteria for the Faith Action Plan.
9 Given they seem to be working together so well, cannot we have one forum?
Yes.

New Ways of Working
14 A new joint group will try and coordinate all education and training stuff.
Good.
15 Other areas are being integrated.
The Acknowledgement section number 16 is not substantively different from the conclusion within the main report.

Schedule 1 to Appendix 2
Fundamental Aims for the Work of the Faith Impact and Faith Nurture Forums
This is good stuff.

Schedule 2 to Appendix 2
Key Areas of Work
This also is good stuff.

ANNEX 1 to the Report
Interim report from the Ministries and Mission Review Group
The current M&M scheme is not good. 
The proposal is to change M&M from a Top-down model to a bottom-up model, perhaps with the name “Giving to grow”.
I like this a lot. I wonder if it will mean more administration costs. 
I also wonder about the employment of staff and this coming from Presbytery Discretionary Allowance.will contracts be underwritten centrally if the money does not come in?

ANNEX 2 to the Report
The Radical Action Plan
With the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, I am prepared to give you a pass and congratulate you on what has been done. Well done.

Questions or amendments or suggested new deliverances.
Questions
Is the 4million saving detailed in deliverance section 3b per council or a joint figure of £4million. As if the the budget for 2021 is 38 million (roughly £8million down form 2020s budget) and the forums are saving £4million between them why are you asking to take 8million from reserves as this is £4million too much for the budget?

Have the Assembly Trustees done some work of the spatial elements of the Pastoral tie? currently the breaking the pastoral tie is Time based in the Illness Act and the Discipline Act. With the section instructing a new round of presbytery planning, is there some guidance won when a parish maybe to big to maintain a pastoral tie?

Link to my thoughts on previous Reports to General Assembly
(Assembly trustees replaced the Council of Assembly, the Council of Assembly reports are linked below.)

• 2017
• 2018 (strategic plan)
• 2018 (without the Strategic Plan)
• 2019 (without the Radical Action Plan)
• 2019 (Radial Action Plan)
  
  Assembly Trustees Update
• May 2020