NOTES OF CALVERLEY DEANERY SYNOD 5.10.06

The Synod met at Farsley, and in the absence of the Rev'd John White (who was ill), Captain David Boyle led prayers. As Linda White was no longer a member of Synod (having not stood for re-election to the Diocesan Synod), the House of Laity held a meeting to elect a chairman - however, it failed to do so, and appointed Captian David Boyle on a temporary basis until his retirement later in the month. As Anthony Petch was also no longer a member of Synod for the same reason, the Rural Dean invited nominations for the post of Secretary - however, there were none.

The Rev'd Gordon Dey proposed on behalf of Tong PCC that the criteria for the granting of Deanery Devolved funds should be widened to allow projects which showed a clearly defined collaboration between two or more churches in a deanery cluster. The effect of this would be to allow the churches of Tong Parish to apply for funding for joint work. After debate this amendment was agreed. Gordon then presented a proposal for 'Cluster Capacity Building' across Tong and Holme Wood - requesting a grant of £3,000 p.a. for three years towards employing a Vicar's Personal Assistant (Administrator). This was agreed.

After refreshments Rev'd John Hartley brought a proposal from Eccleshill PCC about a procedure for appointing clergy in the clusters: a motion for debate with a detailed procedure appended to it. After debate it was agreed to divide the motion into two parts. The first part: "This Synod requests those responsible for the appointments of clergy in the deanery to operate a mechanism which ensures that the opinions of all the churches within a cluster are taken into account in the making of any clerical appointments to any post within that cluster" was agreed. The second part of the Eccleshill motion, which would have commended the arrangements outlined in the annex as the mechanism the Synod would wish to see operated, was lost by 15 votes to 14.

The Rev'd Gordon Dey proposed from Tong PCC that "This Synod urges that urgent consideration be given to a major reduction in senior clergy posts in the Church of England that corresponds to past, present and future reductions in parochial clergy." After hearing his speech and one from the Very Rev'd David Ison, it was agreed that this item of business should be adjourned so that it could be discussed at greater length at a future synod meeting.

NOTES OF CALVERLEY DEANERY SYNOD 25.4.06

The Synod met at Idle, and the Rev'd David Johnson led prayers. The House of Clergy elected Rev'd Fliss Shaw to fill a vacancy on Diocesan Synod for the one remaining meeting before new elections, and the secretary outlined the process for the election of a new Diocesan Synod to serve for 2006-2009.

The main business of the evening was the Deanery Pastoral Plan. The Rev'd Paul Walker reported to the Synod that the Diocesan Pastoral Committee had declined to approve "Option D", and asked the Synod to reconsider "Option A"; and accordingly the Deanery Pastoral Committee had brought an amended version of this option back to the Synod: the amendments arose from suggestions by the Archdeacon. Notices of various amendments to the Pastoral Committee's motion had been received, and he outlined how he proposed to deal with these.

Rev'd John Hartley spoke to his "Option E" paper (privately circulated to members before the meeting), and the Synod was then asked if it wanted to consider this further or not: it did (by 24 votes to 11). This option proposed having one "deanery floating post", one single parish (Tong), one group of two (Pudsey and Farsley), and two bigger groups with the previous "Wrose-Eccleshill-Bolton" cluster divided between them. There was a short debate on this.

Debate then turned to "Option A" and variations on it, of which four were suggested:

Rev'd Paul Deo proposed moving Laisterdyke to the Calverley-Idle-Greengates-Thorpe Edge cluster, leaving all clusters with whole numbers of clergy. This was termed "Option A1".

Rev'd Denise Poole proposed increasing the stipend numbers for the Woodhall-Thornbury-St Augustine's-St Clement's cluster to 3, and for this purpose taking half a post away from Wrose-Eccleshill-Bolton.

Rev'd Gordon Day proposed reverting to the original Option A stipend numbers (as on the letter of 21st December).

Rev'd Paul Ayers proposed moving Woodhall to the Pudsey-Farsley cluster together with half a post.

All these possibilities were debated, and there was then a break for coffee.

After the coffee break the Rural Dean outlined the order in which amendments would be taken, with amendments not being put if earlier amendments had changed the premises on which they were based. There was a short prayer and silence for reflection, and then voting took place. The following were the results:
- "Option E" was lost by by 9 votes to 24.
- "Option A1" was carried by 27 votes to 9.
- Denise Poole's amendment was not put as its starting premise was no longer the substantive motion,
- Gordon Dey's amendment was not put as its starting premise was no longer the substantive motion,
- Paul Ayers' amendment was lost by 9 votes to 14.

The substantive motion, which was now that "Option A1" was the Deanery's choice, was carried by 30 votes to 9.

The Rural Dean thanked everyone for their patience, courtesy and close attention, and the meeting concluded with prayer.

NOTES OF CALVERLEY DEANERY SYNOD 13.2.06

The Synod met at Holme Wood, and the Rev'd Gordon Dey led prayers. As the rural dean was on sabbatical, the meeting was chaired by Rev'd David Swales, Acting Rural Dean.

The main business of the evening was the Deanery Pastoral Plan. The Rev'd John Hartley reported to the Synod that several PCCs had suggested further options. At its meeting in December, the Standing Committee had felt that to put perhaps a dozen choices before PCCs would be impractical; so it had whittled these down to four options: the original A and B, and two new ones which it had called C and D. All PCC secretaries and synod members had been sent a letter about these. PCCs had then expressed their preferences, and these were displayed on a large board. The result by single transferable voting was that option A was preferred at the 3rd stage, gaining 7 of the 13 'votes' cast.

At this point in the meeting the representatives from St Augustine's objected that their decision had been incorrectly reported, and telephone conversations with the PCC secretary confirmed this. This changed the result, with option D now gaining 7 'votes'. Accordingly, Rev'd Hartley moved the motion "This Synod chooses Option D as the basis for the Deanery Pastoral Plan, and asks the deanery clergy, PCCs and diocesan senior staff to work towards it." During his speech, John referred to further calculations on the allocations of stipends to the clusters, which had shown that in all four options the "northern cluster" was relatively overstaffed at the expense of the southern clusters. In view of this he was not asking the synod to approve the stipend numbers attached to the options in brackets.

During the debate, which continued after a coffee break, many points were made. An amendment by Stuart Stobart to widen the list of people asked to work towards the option was carried. An suggested amendment by Paul Ayers to remove the stipend numbers from the option was withdrawn after John Hartley made it clear that he was asking the synod to vote on the clustering of the parishes and NOT the stipend numbers attached to them. And an amendment to substitute the option "A" for "D" in the motion was lost by 23 votes to 15 (9 abstaining). Finally the amended motion was carried by 27 votes to 18 (5 abstaining).

NOTES OF CALVERLEY DEANERY SYNOD 27.10.05

The Synod met at Thornbury, and after prayers led by the Rural Dean, welcomed the new Dean, The Very Rev'd David Ison, who introduced himself briefly. The Secretary apologised that no progress had been made on cooptions to the Deanery Pastoral Committee.

The main business of the evening was the Deanery Pastoral Plan. A paper was tabled: this contained a motion for discussion, an outline of what "clustering" means, and three proposed "options" for the way the deanery might be divided into clusters. The Rev'd John Hartley explained these in detail before the coffee break, and after coffee there was an extended debate followed by a vote in which the proposal was amended and then approved in its amended form. The meeting concluded at around 9.45pm.

As a result of this motion, all PCCs are asked to consider:

The Deanery Synod hopes that it will be able to choose one of the options at its next meeting (on 13th February 2006), and intends to ask the deanery clergy, PCCs and diocesan senior staff to work towards the option which it chooses.

NOTES OF CALVERLEY DEANERY SYNOD 29.6.05

The Synod met at St John the Divine, Thorpe Edge, and opened with prayers led by the Rural Dean. After a long discussion, it was agreed by 17 votes to 16 that the Deanery Standing Committee should also act as the Deanery Pastoral Committee. The officers and members of this committee were appointed. It was agreed to recommend that this committee should coopt Rev'd John Walker as he had wished to stand for election, and also a lay person to maintain the balance of clergy and laity.

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed, and it was agreed to fund two projects from the Deanery Devolution money: £3,000 towards equipping a community minibus with facilities for the disabled (for use in Tong, Holme Wood and Laisterdyke), and some money towards The Bridges community project (in Barkerend, Tong and Holme Wood).

After refreshments the Triennial Accounts were accepted and it was agreed to set the subscription for the next 3 years at £10 per parish, and to give away £30 (10% of the current balance of £294.57) to a charity determined by Synod.

The final part of the meeting consisted of a presentation of a document: "Calverley Deanery Mission Strategy - The progress so far (June 2005)" by the Rural Dean, and a debate on the subject. Points made included:

• there needed to be more positive progress towards decisions and we should definitely aim at accepting a strategy by November (as outlined in the document),
• the opposite: we weren't at a stage to make decisions and a decision would only harden opposition,
• we were short-changing the parishes in vacancy by not making definite provision for their future,
• what were "groups" of parishes, and how tight or loose was the "working together" which they envisaged?
• are the recommendations to be prioritized in some way?
• we should ask an external person to help us by doing an audit, so that we would have an objective view about our future,
• no we shouldn't, because it just shelves the responsibility.

NOTES OF CALVERLEY DEANERY SYNOD 1.2.05

The Synod met at St Clement Barkerend, and Rev'd John Bavington led worship. The minutes of the last meeting were agreed, and Rev'd John Bavington gave a profile of the parish and the aims of the church in ministering in an area which was 74% Muslim, including 60% who came from Meerpoor in Pakistan.

Rev'd Paul Slater spoke on Ministry Development in the Bradford Diocese, outlining the ways that Deanery Pastoral Plans fed ideas into training programmes for clergy, ministry teams, and local courses. He outlined proposals to launch a new "Foundations" course which would serve both as a general growth course for Christians and as a point of entry to training for different types of ministries.

After refreshments, it was agreed to fund "ViTal", a project for outreach among women over the parishes of Wrose, Eccleshill and Bolton. It was also agreed to continue funding the youth project "Sorted" across Greengates, Idle and Thorpe Edge. (Further details of these can be found here and here.)

NOTES OF CALVERLEY DEANERY SYNOD 27.9.04

The Synod met at St Wilfrid Calverley, and Rev'd John Walker led brief prayers. The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted. Rev'd John Hartley reported on the latest General Synod meeting. Rev'd John Walker presented a profile of Calverley church and parish, and Rev'd Suzanne Irvine outlined a project to reach women in the Wrose-Eccleshill-Bolton area.

The Rev'd Paul Ayers gave a presentation of "Natural Church Development" - its ideas and methods, and his experience of using the approach in Pudsey parish; and he answered questions.

The main part of the evening was further discussion of the "Deanery Pastoral Strategy", presented by Rev'd Paul Walker. This included individuals considering the question "suppose your vicar announced next Sunday that s/he was leaving and there was no possibility of a replacement - what would you do to ensure the continuing mission of your church?" with responses fed back, and a "clustering exercise" during which members were asked to divide the deanery parishes into clusters, and then get together in possible cluster groups to share ideas. In plenary discussion Paul pointed out that the resulting chaos showed how difficult this exercise was, and that it needed a lot of time and energy and thought. The Synod agreed that the Standing Committee should plan a Deanery Day when the questions can be explored properly.

NOTES OF CALVERLEY DEANERY SYNOD 10.6.04

The Synod met at St Luke Eccleshill, as the Cathedral was suffering an electrical power cut.

The Very Rev'd Christopher Hancock (Dean of Bradford) gave a brief "parish profile" of the life of the Cathedral. He dwelt particularly on the problems of debt and insolvency, which he anticipated would be laid to rest within the next few weeks; but he also outlined other areas of the Cathedral's ministry. He then answered about 20 questions from members.

The Rev'd Paul Walker gave a presentation on "Rethinking the Deanery Pastoral Strategy". The essence of it was that the allocation of stipendiary clergy to the deanery will fall from 15 at present to 14.5 in 2005, 13 in 2007, and probably to around 11 in ten years (2014). He suggested five principles on which we should agree, and then invited synod members to consider two questions:

• if there are 11 clergy in 2014, how should they be best placed / used; and
• what steps should we be taking in the next few years to reach this best position?

The next Synod meeting will be on Monday 27th September 2004.

P.S. The "five principles on which we should agree" referred to above are:

• There's no chance we'll be able to have a priest in every parish,
• Ministry and mission are jobs of all, not just of clergy,
• Each congregation has the potential to unlock its ministry & mission,
• To put clergy in the strongest / wealthiest / loudest / oldest parishes and say the rest can make do, is a strategy for decline,
• We must be collaborative, creative, ecumenical and imaginative.

NOTES OF CALVERLEY DEANERY SYNOD 4.2.04

The Synod met at St James the Great, Woodhall, and opening worship was led by Rev'd Fliss Shaw (vicar).

Rev'd Paul Deo reported briefly on progress at Laisterdyke towards a new building. The Secretary reported that the Synod had been asked to consider its Pastoral Plan, which basically meant clergy numbers across the Deanery. The Diocese has decided to work to Sheffield figures instead of 5% above them, which translates into a 5% cut in clergy numbers. Our own Deanery has 15 clergy (not counting curates), and is supposed to have 14.5. So we have to lose half a vicar - who shall it be? This item will feature on the next meeting's agenda.

Elections were held to fill vacancies on the Diocesan Pastoral Committee and Property Committee.

The Synod heard and approved two proposals for spending the money devolved to it under "Deanery Devolution". The first of these was for £2,000 for a Consultant for HELP (Housing Estates Link Parishes), who would assist HELP to review its ways of helping the parishes in the three Bradford Deaneries which worked with outer estates, and would enable good practice to be shared. The second was for £1,500 towards a Christian presence at the Bradford Mela (26-27 June 2004) which would involve a marquee with lots of Christian activites on the theme of "looking for the sun" (and also "for the Son"). There was then an open discussion about possibly putting on an event for children's workers across the Deanery.

The Rev'd Fliss Shaw presented a brief profile of St James' parish and church, and its need of finding a focus of identity in a very homogenous area. The last item on the agenda, "Natural Church Development", was shelved as vicar of Pudsey who was to have spoken was ill.

NOTES OF CALVERLEY DEANERY SYNOD 23.9.03

The Synod met at St James Bolton, and opening worship was led by Rev'd Carole Lloyd, newly-arrived curate there. The rural dean welcomed her, Suzanne Irvine (curate at Wrose), Fliss Shaw (vicar of Woodhall) and other new members of synod (in absentia).

The Eccleshill motion about Synod debates of Parish Share allocations (instead of the Standing Committee doing it), which had been postponed from last time, was defeated after discussion in the light of a paper from the Deanery Treasurer. The Synod then took note of the criteria for Deanery Devolution projects which had been agreed at the last meeting.  After this Andy Milne spoke briefly: Andy is the Church Army Youth Worker who will be doing detached youth work in the area covered by Idle, Thorpe Edge and Greengates parishes.

After coffee, the Synod heard a "profile" of St James' Bolton, presented by the vicar David Swales; and then an account of thinking about the ministry of St Mary Laisterdyke, presented by the vicar Paul Deo. Paul outlined why it was that the church building was now in the wrong place, and asked for prayers and support as the parish thought in earnest about whether to declare the building redundant and try to build another one, possibly by redeveloping the site of the present vicarage.

NOTES OF CALVERLEY DEANERY SYNOD 12.6.03

The Synod met at St Cuthbert Wrose, which has been newly reordered: although this is not as extensive or as expensive a reordering as those at Pudsey or Idle, it is still pleasant and worth seeing.  Opening worship was conducted by Paul Walker making impressive use of a video projector and music on CD.

The rural dean gave notice of Diocesan Synod elections. Candidates have 14 days (i.e. until 26th June) to be nominated and seconded for election. Please note that any members of the churches in the deaneries can stand for election, not just members of Deanery Synod.

Synod approved a motion from the Standing Committee asking the Diocese to get better organised about matters which are referred to Deaneries from Diocesan and General Synods. However, various people pointed out that the chances of improvement were slim, and some factors were beyond the control of the diocese. Another motion, from Eccleshill, asking for whole Synod debates of Parish Share allocations (instead of the Standing Committee doing it) was adjourned to the next meeting to allow the Deanery Treasurer to write a background paper.

The rural dean outlined the programme for the forthcoming Bishop's visit to the Deanery, 18th-20th July. As well as introducing him to the Deanery and the Deanery to him, this is to be a weekend of mission and outreach, and all church members are asked to think of who they might invite to the various events. Fliers are available in all churches.

The Synod then agreed criteria for projects to be supported under Deanery Devolution (our deanery now has around £14,000 to spend on local projects and activities as it wishes).  After this it was agreed to support a proposal for a Church Army Youth Worker to do detached youth work in the area covered by Idle, Thorpe Edge and Greengates parishes.