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Minute of the Scottish Churches’ Industrial Mission (SCIM) Council held on Tuesday 4 December 2007 at Scottish Churches House, Dunblane.
PRESENT:
Mr Ted Wallace, Convener (Methodist Church), Mrs Cate Adams (Team of Chaplains), Rev Jan Adamson (United Reformed Church), Mr Donald Black (Rock Foundation, Stirling), Mr Pat Foley (Roman Catholic Church), Rev Gordon MacRae (Church of Scotland), Mr George McSorley (Co-opted), Mr Lewis Rose (SCIM Co-ordinator) and Mr John Thomson (Secretary).
APOLOGIES:
Rev Gordon Currie (United Free Church of Scotland), Rev Andrew Jolly (Aberdeen Oil Industry Chaplaincy Trust), Mr Robert Matthew (Angus Industrial Mission), Mr Matt Smith (Co-opted) and Canon John Walker (Scottish Episcopal Church).
67 OPENING DEVOTIONS
The meeting was opened with a reading from Mathew’s Gospel and with prayer.
68 MINUTE
The minute of the meeting held on 29 August 2007 was approved.
69 MATTERS ARISING
Corporate Capable Homicide – the Secretary reported that Ian Tasker had forwarded further information about this topic which was available electronically. It was agreed to circulate the document by email to members for comment and discussion at the next meeting.
70 PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE OF NAME OF SCIM
Lewis Rose reported on discussions from the recent team of chaplains’ meeting where it had been agreed unanimously to recommend to Council that the title Scottish Churches Industrial Mission be changed to “Work Place Chaplaincy – Supporting the Working People of Scotland”.
He explained the rationale behind the proposal which acknowledged the need for a more relevant and recognisable term for the present times.
He also requested that the new description be available for launch at the IMA Conference in June 2008.
During discussion the following points were noted:
- A limited change to the trading style or operation description was a separate issue from
- A change to the title of the Council which was a constitutional issue which would require referral to the member churches and organisations
- A plea to retain the words Scottish and Churches in the title
- Alternative suggestions of Scottish Workplace Chaplaincy or Scottish Churches’ Workplace Chaplaincy
- Representatives of the Church of Scotland and Methodist Church would require to intimate the proposals to their respective church committees.
It was agreed to support the thrust of the proposal to change the operational name of SCIM and to remit the matter back to the team of chaplains to decide finally on the new name which would be homologated at the next Council meeting.
71 SCIM CO-ORDINATOR’S REPORT
Copies of the co-ordinator’s report had been circulated prior to the meeting and were in the hands of members (see Appendix).
Lewis highlighted the following matters:
71.1 Chaplaincy to the Scottish Courts Service
Council welcomed the initial discussions that had taken place with a Sheriff Principal and Area Procurator Fiscal but observed that the chaplaincy service being offered appeared to require substantial human and financial resources to be effective. Council urged caution to restrict the initial project to a single section of a sheriffdom.
Lewis expressed hopes that funding would be provided by the churches nationally.
It was also suggested that government funding should also be sought.
71.2 SCIM web pages
Lewis intimated a request from the team of chaplains for council members to make contributions to the SCIM website.
The Rev Jan Adamson agreed to do this and the convener encouraged other members to consider making submissions also.
72 RELATIONSHIP WITH EDINBURGH CITY MISSION
Council referred to the recent exchange of correspondence with Edinburgh City Mission which resulted in the withdrawal of that organisation from SCIM.
Council received concerns about the deterioration in the working relationship with the Edinburgh City Mission chaplain.
It was agreed to (a) write to Edinburgh City Mission to acknowledge their withdrawal from SCIM with sadness and disappointment and (b) to intimate that as a result the Council would not be in a position to continue its support and inclusion of Edinburgh City Mission and its chaplain within the SCIM network.
Nevertheless, in the future, Council would be pleased to welcome back Edinburgh City Mission into SCIM.
73 MEETING WITH TEAM OF CHAPLAINS
It was noted that the team were happy to accept the Council’s offer to meet with them on 20 February 2008. It was agreed that there would be a short business meeting of Council at 5pm that day in Scottish Churches House followed by a buffet meal and open meeting with the team from 5.30pm. The Secretary was requested to make the arrangements with Scottish Churches House for the meeting and to consult with Council members regarding ancillary catering.
74 ATTENDANCE AT COUNCIL MEETINGS
It was noted with regret that several of council’s constituent bodies were either not being represented regularly or not at all at the meetings.
It was agreed that the Secretary compile a complete attendance record and contact the relevant sponsoring bodies to advise them of the position and to request them to address the issue of non attendance.
It was noted that this exercise should be one of encouragement especially with those organisation who had felt unable to nominate a representative in the past but which might now be in a position to do so.
75 BI-ENNIAL IMA CONFERENCE JUNE 2008
Lewis confirmed the arrangements being made for the hosting of the 2008 conference by the Scottish Team of Chaplains at Stirling University from 9 – 12 June. He encouraged council members to attend and participate in the conference. Full details were available on the SCIM website.
76 MEETING DATES 2008
These were agreed as: Wednesday 20 February 2008, Tuesday 6 May 2008, Wednesday 20 August 2008 and Tuesday 2 December 2008.
It was noted that the first meeting in 2009 would be held on Wednesday 4 February that year.
The meeting was closed with the saying of the Grace together.