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Minute of the Scottish Churches’ Industrial Mission (SCIM) Council held on Tuesday 2 May 2006 at Scottish Churches House Dunblane.
PRESENT:
Rev Colin Anderson (Convener, Church of Scotland), Mrs Cate Adams (Team of Chaplains), Rev Jan Adamson (United Reformed Church), Rev Gordon Currie (United Free Church of Scotland), Mr Pat Foley (Roman Catholic Church), Rev Andrew Jolly (Aberdeen Oil Industry Chaplaincy Trust), Mr Robert Matthew (Angus Industrial Mission), Mr George McSorley (Co-opted), Mr Lewis Rose (SCIM Co-Ordinator), Mr Ted Wallace (Methodist Church) and Mr John Thomson (Secretary).
The Convener welcomed the Rev Gordon Currie, Rev Andrew Jolly and Mr George McSorley to their first meeting of the Council. Members joined together in the reciting of “A Hymn for SCIM” written by Mrs Cate Adams.
The Convener then constituted the meeting with prayer.
12 MINUTE OF PREVIOUS MEETING
The minute of the meeting held on 17 January 2006 was approved.
13 MATTERS ARISING
13.1 Membership of Council
13.1.1 Evangelical Alliance Scotland
The Secretary reported that Evangelical Alliance Scotland had not responded to his invitation for it to become a member of Council.
It was agreed that the representative of Angus Industrial Mission investigate
informally with Evangelical Alliance Scotland the reason for its lack of
response and encourage it to respond as soon as possible.
13.1.2 Salvation Army
The Salvation Army had not responded formally but the National Co-
ordinator indicated that he was confident that a member and alternate
would be nominated soon.
13.1.3 Aberdeen Oil Industry Chaplaincy Trust
The Rev Andrew Jolly affirmed that he had been nominated by the Trust to be its representative on the Council and that its Chairman would serve as the alternate. He pointed out that this was in keeping with the terms of the Constitution of Council, which stated that only “Church nominees must not be salaried members of the Team of Chaplains”.
The National Co-ordinator reminded Council that the Constitution stated
that membership of the Council shall comprise …… “two members of the
team of chaplains”.
During discussion it was felt by some members that the spirit of the clause preventing salaried members of the team of chaplains being church nominees also applied to Christian organisations. However, it was accepted that the text of the constitution did not exclude such nominations from Christian organisations. Mr Jolly advised that the Trust would be reviewing its participation after 12 months.
In the light of these discussions it was agreed not to contact the Trust at this time to request it to reconsider its nomination but instead for the Council to review its own progress and development at the end of its first year.
13.2 Annual Team Report
Mr Lewis Rose advised that due to a problem at the printers, copies of the report were not available for circulation at the meeting.
It was acknowledged that the timing of distribution of the reports to the denominations and organisations was critical. It was agreed that the Secretary obtain details of these dates to ensure that circulation was undertaken on an equitable basis. It was noted that copies of the Report would also be circulated to the businesses and organisations in which chaplains serve.
13.3 SCIM Reception
It was noted that the reception would be held on the evening of Thursday 8 June 2006 at Renfield St Stephen’s Church Centre, Glasgow.
13.4 IMA Conference 2008
It was noted that this event would be hosted by Scottish Churches’ Industrial Mission in Stirling in June 2008.
14 CO-OPTED MEMBERSHIP
It was agreed to invite Mr Matt Smith, Secretary of UNISON Scotland, to be a co-opted member of Council.
15 MEMBERSHIP OF COUNCIL
It was agreed to invite the Rock Foundation in Stirling to become a member of Council. This organisation had recently made appointments in retail chaplaincy in the town.
16 SCIM FINANCE
The Secretary reported that he had received information and responses from all the denominations and organisations which were funding Industrial Chaplaincy appointments.
With the exception of the Aberdeen Oil Industry Chaplaincy Trust all had given permission for details of their financial commitments to be disclosed.
The Secretary then itemised the resources provided by the various denominations and organisations which had given their permission and these were noted by Council.
It was agreed to update the current list of chaplaincy appointments together with the “Map of Scotland” which indicated their various locations.
17 CO-ORDINATOR’S REPORT
Mr Lewis Rose presented his report to Council (see Appendix). He also referred to the contents of the SCIM Annual Report and the IMA Report – “This is Our Story”. Copies of both reports would be made available for circulation to Council members.
18 VISION FOR THE NEXT 5 TO 10 YEARS
The Convener led discussion on the Council’s vision for the future based on the following questions:
- What will be the determining points of Scottish economic activity?
- What will be the key features of the Scottish work place?
- How will we address these issues – staff, strategy and style of chaplaincy?
- How far will the churches support?
During these conversations the under noted observations were made:
- Co-operation between industrial chaplaincy and other sectors of chaplaincy eg prisons and healthcare did occur but could be developed further.
- Industrial Mission has changed its direction away from the traditional heavy industries to become more involved in the service and retail sectors.
- The impact on the economy of future high energy costs.
- The possibility of alliances between SCIM and training organisations and their staff.
- The implications of stricter health and safety regulations.
- The development of relations with Trades Unions, CBI Scotland and the Scottish Council for Development and Industry with the suggestion that the latter two organisations should be represented on Council.
- Support for people working in small businesses should be explored.
- How to provide support for those in work places who do not attend a church.
- How to support the enabling of those in workplaces to exercise a ministry to those around them.
- Crossing the boundaries between chaplaincies.
- Involving SCIM in global issues such as Fair Trade and Poverty.
- Acknowledging that whilst finance is limited there is a huge resource of people which is presently under utilised.
19 REV ANDREW WYLIE
The Rev Andrew Jolly recommended the reading of the recently published book written by Andrew Wylie, the first chaplain to the oil industry, with the title “Just Being There – With Bears and Tigers in the North Sea”, which is an account of his time as chaplain.
20 DATE OF FUTURE MEETINGS
It was agreed to meet on 31 October 2006, 16 January 2007 and 8 May 2007.
The meeting was closed with all saying the Lord’s Prayer together.