The Long Clear-up

The snow is slowly being cleared from Milton Keynes and the rubbish is being collected - eventually. It is taking a long time to clear up the mess left by ice and snow...
A similar thing is happening with clergy deployment and two strands of this came together in a meeting this afternoon...
The first strand is the need to have legal, transparent and accountable structures for appointments and decision-making. This strand has been particularly prominent in the discussions about the Mission Partnership and its review. We need to make sure that everything in done properly so that decisions and appointments are valid and everything can run smoothly - in tough times as well as when everyone is happy.
In the Watling Valley (as in Stantonbury and Willen) this is being worked out (at least in part) through the lifting of suspensions, the appointment of Team Rectors and the re-drafting of team ministry schemes. It may feel like a load of legal nonsense, but it is important that everything is set up so that appointments are made according to the rules and that parishes/partnerships can function properly.
The tricky bit in this instance is that the LEPs were established in woolier times when a great deal of flexibility was encouraged in order to bring people closer together. Rules may not have been broken - but they were certainly stretched. This raised unrealistic expectations and may have led to unneccesary conflicts. As one colleague told me a while ago, "It's like being married for thirty years and finding out that the other person understood the relationship in a very different way to you!" Unfortunatley, that may have been a very accurate observation...
In Watling Valley we have to appoint a Team Rector who will have responsibility for certain Anglican legal business, including the signing of sharing agreements and other documents. There is no reason, however, why this person needs to be the Team Leader - or even fulfil a leadership function at all... It's just a question of being legal.
The scheme will also be ammended to include a representative of the Mission Partnership in all appointents - and Team Vicars/Rectors will also be able to interview prospective colleagues. These are changes that are now possible and it's well worth writing them in...
It is not however, possible at this time, to include all ministers on the interview panel - or use the appointment procedures of another denomination. This may be disapointing for some but there are limits to what we can legally do. The important thing is that decisions are made in a legal and transparent way - and that everyone is included in an appropriate way... which is quite possible.
The second strand is the discussion about deanery posts. In the past these were simply dropped into Milton Keynes with no overall plan - and the expectation that the denominations would just pay for them. In recent years it has become obvious that this is not a sensible approach and that some strategic thinking would be needed.
In 2007 we began a discussion about these posts and started to think about how we would use them, how they would be set up, and how many we could justify. A working group came up with the proposal that we have three half-time posts which would be rooted in half-time parish/local ministry:

1. Strategy/Coordination - planning, organisation, communication, etc... The work traditionnally done by area deans in their "spare" time in addition to their parochial repsonsibilites. We've been fortunate that previous ADs have worked in small churches or large teams so they have had capacity, but the workload is increasing and the workforce is dimminishing...
2. Mission/Empowerment - The work previously done by Tim Clapton and others, making links and discovering possibilities, helping churches to engage with the local community and wider world...
3. Traning/Nurture - The work traditionally done by the Training Officer through the training commission, etc... Peter Ballantine has been looking at ways of making this more responsive to local needs and this movement could continue...

We put this idea forward and attempted to discuss it at Pastoral Committee level with help from outside. This was perhaps a too radical proposal for Spring 2008... In the end it was decided that the easiest way to move forward would be to set aside a "mothballed post" to release the Area Dean 3/4 time to work do the AD work - and move things forward so that an acceptable strategy could be negotiated...
For various reasons this discussion has dragged on and dragged on until we have lost our focus on why this discussion started in the first place! It seemed like a sensible (and non-controvertial) thing to start with the Area Dean - because no-one else would be particulalry affected... One year later and this whole thing has been through so many different phases that I'm beginning to loose track myself... It's time to finish this off and move on... and we need to do so for the sake of Watling Valley.
Looking back, I think I might have suggested leaving the Area Dean post until last - perhaps after I've gone...
Lesson to learn: sometimes it's easier to work harder rather than smarter...