PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: CHILDREN AND SOCIETY
In his Presidential Address, the Archbishop noted that 2009 had been designated the Year of the Child. The global recession had hit hard in Wales. According to the National Assembly for Wales, 29 per cent of children lived in relative poverty in households with less than 60 per cent of average income; and it was well-documented that children who grew up in poverty were more likely to be in poor health, have learning and behavioural difficulties, underachieve at school, become pregnant at too early an age, have lower skills and aspirations and enter low-paid jobs or become or welfare-dependent. Rescuing children from poverty was therefore an economic imperative as much as an issue of morality and justice. He asked what it meant for claims to be a civilised society when at least 7,500 parents every year were a danger to their children and there were at least 200,000 children on the At Risk Register. The problem with young people today was the adults and the society that they had created – and there were no quick fixes.
The theme was carried forward by an address from the Children's Commissioner for Wales, Keith Towler. He identified a number of highlights in the past year, notably the UK Commissioners' Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Children and the review of local authority strategies for access to play for children and young people. Two reports would be published in the coming year: Young Carers and Make Learning Better.
RETIREMENT AGE FOR OFFICE-HOLDERS
The longest debate was over the recommendations of the Standing Committee that the age limit of 75 for churchwardens should also apply to sub-wardens, that the age-limit for lay members of the Electoral College should be raised from 70 to 75, that an age limit of 75 should be introduced for lay members of the Provincial Court, that the age limit for clergy on provincial bodies or committees should be 70 or the date of retirement if earlier and that sub-wardens should not normally be eligible for re-election or re-appointment after six consecutive terms of office. Though it was acknowledged that there were sometimes difficulties in finding people to hold office, particularly in the smaller rural parishes, the recommendation was accepted and will come back to the Governing Body at a later date as a Bill.
THE ANGLICAN COVENANT
The Governing Body noted that since its agenda had been circulated the St Andrews Draft of the Covenant had been superseded by the Ridley Cambridge Draft. The response of the Church to the St Andrews Draft was that it was committed to the Covenant process; however, some found the concept difficult, others had concerns about its nature while others recognised the need for it. The covenant process had to be dynamic: allowing for development in matters of doctrine and understanding truth and mindful of the role of the Holy Sprit, the needs of the human person, the evolving nature of context and of the historical process. The Anglican Via Media had to be reinforced and authority should be focused through conciliarity in a developed Anglican Consultative Council, modelled on participatory and egalitarian principles. The Church in Wales would have to face a very difficult constitutional issue: the possible surrender of its autonomy to an outside body.
PRAYER BOOK
A Bill was passed to incorporate additional orders of service for Morning and Evening Prayer into the Prayer Book, which will also include orders for Prayer during the Day and for Night Prayer. Consideration was being given to the bilingual publication of the three-year Church in Wales Lectionary but, in the meantime, the texts were available bilingually on CD.
MARRIAGE LAW
An unintended consequence of the Church of England Marriage Measure 2008 is that couples intending to marry in the Church in Wales assume that the liberalisation of residence requirements applies to them also – which it does not. Those wishing to marry other than in their parish church still need a Special Licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury; and to remove that precondition requires amendment of the Marriage Act 1949. The Governing Body approved a private member's motion asking the Standing Committee to seek the necessary legislation.
PROVINCIAL ASSISTANT BISHOP
The question was again raised about the appointment of a Provincial Assistant Bishop to provide oversight for those who could not accept women priests. In reply, the Archbishop reiterated that the bishops remained committed to giving pastoral and sacramental care to every member of the Church and had given an assurance that there was room for those who could not, in conscience, accept the ordination of women. However, the bishops were
not minded … to perpetuate a system whereby conscientious objectors may avoid not only the ministry of ordained women but also the ministry of male bishops who have ordained them. That leads in the end to fundamental division and a denial that things are other than they are – that we do live in a Church that ordains both women and men.
ST MICHAEL'S COLLEGE LLANDAFF
Presenting the Annual Report, the Principal, Canon Peter Sedgwick, said that St Michael's now had 28 residential students and 55 following non-residential courses. A business plan for developing and modernising the College buildings would be presented to the Representative Body in November, and it was hoped to begin work on modernisation in 2010.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE
The Archbishop used his Presidential Address to call on Christians not to lose their nerve over the place of religion in public life. The world was more receptive to the religious viewpoint that many might think; and religion was not to be excluded from the public square as a kind of marginal and private pursuit.
For Christians, engagement with society was inescapable since, ultimately, all things had their origin in God; moreover, it was simply not true to say that we lived in a totally secular society. Though the Church was in decline in the West, it was growing in Africa, Asia and Latin America – and not even a determined attempt to stamp it out in Eastern Europe had succeeded in superseding religion. There was no culture that was not profoundly influenced by religious values.
The economic recession had brought a groundswell of public concern about excessive self-interest and the breakdown of community. Since the 1960s, moral and ethical debates and passion for great causes had been increasingly frozen out of politics – and to some extent the Church had been complicit in this. It was time to raise the consciousness of congregations and communities, to look at the bigger picture and to help put the difficult moral debates firmly back on the political agenda.
EDUCATION REVIEW
In his address the Archbishop had also referred to education and, in particular, the recent decision of the Welsh Assembly Government to allow sixth-formers to opt out of collective school worship. The theme of education was continued in a debate on the recent Education Review. Footnote 3 The Church in Wales has 168 schools which together educate more than 20,000 pupils. The review presented a five-year work programme including the creation of a formal structure at provincial level, the strengthening of diocesan education teams and the creation of deanery working groups on education to develop the Church's work with secondary schools, further education and university chaplaincy. The Governing Body reaffirmed the Church's commitment to education and called upon the Bench of Bishops to carry forward the work programme.
RESOURCES AND PENSIONS
Resources
Although 2008 had seen a decrease in the value of the Representative Body's assets, it had been possible to allocate an additional £1 million per annum to expenditure, including an additional £500,000 of annual funding to dioceses via the block grant system. After a slight fall from 2006–07, total parish income had risen in 2008 to its highest level since surveys were introduced in 1990. Direct giving had increased by 2.7 per cent in 2008, comfortably ahead of the Retail Price Index. Income tax refunds from direct giving had increased in 2008 to £2,814,000, though returns suggested that a further £450,000 of potential refunds remained unclaimed in 2008 and parishes were encouraged to make full use of the Gift Aid scheme to maximise their income.
Pensions
The Representative Body reported that, despite the global economic downturn, careful stewardship of resources had enabled it to extend the range of support provided to the Church. The triennial actuarial valuation of the Clergy Pension Scheme confirmed that it was well-funded and remained within prudent parameters in terms of the size of the pension liability.
The Governing Body agreed to changes to the Clergy Pension Scheme that would require amendments to the Constitution: a provision for voluntary early retirement from the age of 62 and a facility whereby members of the Scheme would be able to take a larger lump sum on retirement at the expense of a smaller annual pension.
RE-ORDERING THE CONSTITUTION
At its meeting in September 2007 the Governing Body had agreed to simplify and restructure the Constitution, a Working Party had produced a New Model Constitution and the Bill to Amend the Constitution had been passed. A Working Group had been set up to consider and advise on the style, typeface and format for printing the new Constitution.
MEMBERSHIP
The figures for 2008 showed that the rate of decline in average Sunday and total weekly attendances had slowed and average weekday attendances had increased. There had been no major decline in the average attendance figures for young people; and though there had been a significant decline in the number of confirmations, the number of baptisms had risen.
NOMINATIONS TO VACANCIES
It was felt that the four months allowed for an appointment to a vacant parish by a Board of Nomination was no longer realistic in view of the complexity of the process of advertisement and interview and the direct involvement of the parish concerned. The Constitution was amended to allow an appointment to be made within six months of a vacancy occurring before the right of nomination passed to the Bishop.
