The
Ministry Council met August 2-4, 2007, at the West Nashville Cumberland
Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee.
20 of the 22 Ministry Council members
were present. Members Present: Betsy Atkins, Jill Carr,
Elizabeth Horsley, Richard Hughes, Iwao Satoh, Roy Shanks, Gwen Roddye,
Sam Romines, Rickey Page, Ellie Scrudder, Breann Murray Tolley, Leo
Whinery, Mike Wilkinson, Wayne Wood. Youth Advisory Members
Present: Billy Black, Corey Faulkner, Kyle Smallen.
Advisory Members Present: Don Hubbard, Robert Rush, Frank
Ward. Absent: Member Hillman Moore and Advisory Member Rose
Mary Magrill due to health reasons.
The first evening, the Ministry Council
adjourned to the Birthplace Shrine at Montgomery Bell State Park for a
prolonged season of prayer for the council members and the task before
us.
We determined that the officers of the
Ministry Council will be: President, 1st Vice-President, 2nd
Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer. These officers, except
the Treasurer, will make up the Executive Committee of the Ministry
Council. The following people were elected: President—Mike
Wilkinson, 1st Vice-President—Gwen Roddye, 2nd Vice-President—Iwao
Satoh, Secretary—Elizabeth Horsley. (A treasurer will be elected
at a later date.)
In response to concerns from the
church-at-large, we will ask the General Assembly Nominating Committee
to be especially mindful of presbyterial and global representation on
future councils.
Members voted to recommend to the
General Assembly that a staggered rotation for our Youth Advisory
Members be established.
We want to encourage presbyteries to
submit to the General Assembly Nominating Committee information forms
regarding potential members, including Youth Advisory members.
After much discussion regarding the
transparency/confidentiality of the Ministry Council’s work, we adopted
an Open Information Policy. As part of this policy, we hope to
have representatives available to the various Spring meetings of
presbytery to share information and gather questions to be brought back
to the Ministry Council. Furthermore, we will 1) ask The
Cumberland Presbyterian magazine, CP UPDATES, and The Missionary
Messenger to publish a Summary of Actions of each of our meetings, 2)
establish a website for both information and correspondence, 3) meet
with existing program boards and agencies at their fall meetings, 4)
meet with the denominational staff at the next Ministry Council
meeting, and 5) send a Summary of Actions of each of our meetings to
the Presbyterial Clerks for inclusion in Preliminary Minutes.
Recognizing that we are a global church
that speaks many languages, we appointed 2nd Vice-President Iwao Satoh
to coordinate the distribution of our Summary of Actions to
presbyteries and congregations whose primary language is not English.
We plan to soon take advantage of an
online survey tool to aid us in receiving responses from the
church-at-large on various issues regarding the program ministries of
the church. We encourage all Cumberland Presbyterians to
participate in these surveys when they become available.
We met with legal counsel Jamie Jordan
regarding the legal issues involved in the restructuring process.
He also shared with us some concerns of our Permanent Judiciary
Committee. We fully recognize that a deadline for the full
initiation of our new structure is impossible to determine at this
time, but we will work with due diligence to bring it about in
accordance with both ecclesiastical and civil law. Therefore, in
order to fully abide by the laws of Tennessee governing the dissolution
of chartered corporations and in order to protect the assets and limit
the liability of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the approved
dissolution of the current boards and agencies will not be immediate.
We met with Dr. J. David Hester
concerning the progress of the work of the Center Task Force.
In light of the upcoming retirement of
two board executives, we acknowledged that each programming board and
agency still have the responsibility to fill vacant positions until
such time as they (board and agency) are fully dissolved.
For background information, we reviewed
Report Two of the Organizational Task Force that was presented to the
last General Assembly.
To aid in understanding the task before
this council, we reviewed the Report of the Organiza-tional Task Force
Committee that was approved by the last General Assembly. As a
result, we plan to ask the next General Assembly to concur in the
following recommendations:
1.
That as a point of clarification, we make it our policy that no
denominational employee can serve as an elected member of the Ministry
Council.
2.
That due to liability reasons and upon advice of legal counsel, that
the Ministry Council have the responsibility to employ the Chief
Ministry Officer. This is a change from the General Assembly
electing all but the initial Chief Ministry Officer.
3.
Due to the fact that all current program boards may not be transformed
into Advisory Committees by the next General Assembly, that the General
Assembly Nominating Committee begin proposing membership once the
Advisory Committees are in place.
4.
Due to translation and sensitivity issues, that General Assembly change
the title “Chief Ministry Officer” to “Director of Ministries.”
Appointed subcommittees in the areas of
“Chief Ministry Officer” (Director of Ministries) Job Description and
Ministry Council Operations Policy Manual to bring recommendations back
to the council.
The next meeting of the Ministry
Council will be in November in Memphis, Tennessee, with the date to be
determined.
Asked the Executive Committee to
examine the timing of future meeting dates.
Adjourned after an additional season of
prayer.
Respectfully submitted,
Ministry Council