Circuit Meeting Report
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As a local ecumenical project, SAPLC is part of the structures of both the Methodist Church and the Church of England. From an Anglican perspective, the powers of a Circuit Meeting lie somewhere between those of a Deanery Synod and a Diocesan Synod but much closer to the latter. Methodist ministers are appointed to circuits, not to individual churches, and the members of the Circuit meeting are the custodial trustees of the assets of the individual churches not the local church councils. The amount of paperwork is still increasing (now 45 pages) but not so rapidly as of late.
There are reports of new initiatives from local churches. We heard about the work of the foodbank in Gleadless Valley, new community groups for all ages at Crane Moor and Green Moor. There was also a long discussion on the response from the churches to the document Casting the net on the other side. It is recognised on all sides that the circuit needs to do things differently - what needs to be done differently and how it should be done is more controversial. This debate received its inevitable reward - a follow-up document and a request for further comments by mid-May. This issue will have to be on the agenda of the new ECC - some decisions will need to be taken in June.
Being a Methodist meeting, it began with cake (the quality of which is definitely improving) and ended in song.
John Harding