This evening the Mission Partnership Exec received the Review Report. This recommends some fairly major changes to the way the Mission Partnership is run, which may sound quite scary but may actually be really good news:
1. The Mission Partnership is going to become a partnership of diverse groups who are working together in mission - rather than an attempt to build an alternative ecclesiastical structure. This may sound like "deconvergence" and on some level it will be, but it's fundamentally about widening the circle so that more partners can join in.
2. The LEPs will continue and there will be some form of "sponsoring body" but decisions will be made by those who are legally empowered to do so, rather than by big MK wide committees. There will be a new "trustees" group which will include the presidents and will have defined powers.
3. There will be a new "mission strategy" which will consist of those ecumenical projects that we agree to support together. There will be some form of coordinating group which will make sure that things happen.
4. The Assembly will become an annual event rather than a burdensome converged council. This will be an opportunity to come together, celebrate, learn, tell stories, etc...
5. The denominations will need to take more responsibility for their own affairs. This means that there will need to be a revamped deanery synod (meeting more than once a year) and the URC/Methodist joint district will be formalised.
I think this is a brief summary of the salient points - we had a large document to look through. There will be more presentations over the next few months and a lot of tidying up to do.
Basically the exec thought that the thrust of this proposal was good, but more work would need to be done.
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