The Last Christmas Breakfast

Christmas Team Social at Dobbies
- and farewell to Richard....

We had a special team social to celebrate Christmas and say goodbye to Richard. He's on good form at the moment and had three pieces of good news to share... We began to reminice back to 1999 - when most of us had yet to arrive...

Liz is going to do her first solo funeral next Wednesday. She'll be fine.

Time to think...
Went to the dentist (a filling repair) and did some Christmas shopping. I parked at All Saints' and walked into town via the dentist. It was good to have some space to think. I spent some time thinking about the Christmas events I need to plan - and also about the work I want to do during my sabattical... following the meeting of the Fresh Expressions Oversight Group, and with an awareness to how the Local Shared Ministry Project seems to be developing, it would seem to be sensible to shift the emphasis of my work into the area of ministry - since that's my specialist area - rather than get too bogged down on finance... still thinking... "Emerging Ministry" is looking like a good working title... (must check the web address)

Deanery Finance Committee
The Deanery Finance Committee met in the evening and we finalised the share allocations for 2008 - Alleluiah! This has been a massive project. We started work in January - setting out our working principles in February...

1. Know what we’re paying for: Each parish/partnership needs to have a clear target to aim for. This should include all payments associated with their clergy (of all denominations), denominational costs and sector ministry.

2. Transition Plan: We want to have a clear plan, which enables us to reach 80% of these targets in five years and 100% by ten. This plan should start with what parishes/partnerships are actually paying at the moment, not with what they have been asked to pay.

3. Openness: We need to nurture a culture of openness and create opportunities for all parishes/partnerships to share their difficulties and expertise. This will help with planning and crisis management. Different methods of raising finance could also be explored and shared between parishes/partnerships.

4. Mutual Support: All parishes/partnerships should be meeting 80% of their responsibilities within five years. Variations will continue for various reasons (e.g. unexpected costs, major change, poverty, etc…). These will be agreed between the parishes/partnerships through a process of conversation and discussion. Factors like relative wealth will be used as an aid rather than made part of the calculation.

...the rest of the year has been taken up with making this happen. We now have a ten year transition plan, and some detailed notes for 2008, and the the Mission Partnership is working with our figures, and the Diocese is working with us...

Producing figures for 2009 should be much more straightforward. The next challenge is to visit the three parishes who are in the most precarious situations, and then the three parishes who are borderline. This is the challenge for 2008...