COVID-19, REARRANGED MEETINGS AND TECHNOLOGICAL ISSUES
The Governing Body had been due to meet in April 2020 in Llandudno but, like so much else, this meeting was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown imposed by the Welsh Government.
In the absence of any power in the Constitution of the Church in Wales for the Governing Body to meet via online means, a short in-person meeting was arranged at the start of September. At that point in time, a governance meeting of this sort was clearly permissible under the English Regulations then in force but the position was ambiguous under the equivalent Welsh Regulations. The Standing Committee therefore authorised the meeting to take place at the Aztec Hotel in Almondsbury, Bristol (following consultation with the Bishop of Bristol). This was the first time that the Governing Body had met outside the Province of Wales since the first-ever meeting of the Governing Body on 8 January 1918 at Church House, Westminster – more than two years before disestablishment.
The meeting was held with a bare quorum of (just over) 40 members and lasted little more than half an hour. The sole item of business was a range of constitutional amendments to permit most governance meetings of the Church in Wales to take place, where necessary, via online video conference. The only exceptions to this authorisation are for annual vestry meetings (which may only take place online with the consent of the bishop) and for an electoral college to elect a bishop or archbishop (which must take place in person, with the Standing Committee of the Governing Body empowered to delay an electoral college until it can safely be held).
The intention had been to reconvene the following two days via online means to execute the remainder of the Governing Body's agenda for the year. On the morning of 9 September, the Archbishop of Wales gave his presidential address, noting that the pandemic had brought unexpected opportunities and that churches were emerging with a fresh spirit and a can-do attitude, particularly in relation to digital ministry. He urged all churches to embrace change, to ‘trust and to try’. He noted his view that the lockdown had also brought a greater sense of unity and purpose in the Church and announced the setting-up of a new strategy body, called the Archbishop's Consultation Group, to coordinate and plan for the future.
Unfortunately, due to a catastrophic failure of the voting software in the online platform, the meeting had to be abandoned and adjourned shortly thereafter. The Governing Body reconvened via Zoom on 3 and 4 November when – to the huge relief of all involved – the technology worked perfectly.
MINOR CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
A range of relatively minor constitutional amendments were all passed overwhelmingly by the Governing Body. The first was a highly technical amendment, inserting into the Constitution a definition of ‘Clerk in Holy Orders of the Church in Wales’ for the purpose of section 78 of the Marriage Act 1949. The amendment removes any doubt as to the entitlement of a cleric ordained overseas, but authorised to minister in the Province of Wales, to officiate at a marriage service.
Amendments were also passed altering the membership of the Church's Rule Committee (the body responsible for setting the procedural rules of the Church's courts and tribunals) and the classes of person to be entered onto the Archbishop's Registrar's List (the Welsh equivalent of the Archbishops’ List maintained pursuant to the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 in the Church of England). Provision was also inserted in the Constitution to permit a limited number of salaried employees of a diocesan board of finance or the Representative Body to sit as full members of certain committees and subcommittees (but not the Governing Body, Standing Committee or Representative Body).
In accordance with a commitment made to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), a new provision was inserted into the Constitution barring persons convicted of certain specified offences from membership of the Governing Body. The provisions mirror the position in civil law as regards charity trusteeship.
ELECTORAL ROLL
The Governing Body made various amendments to the process of maintaining and displaying parish electoral rolls in the province, in light of both the pandemic and the General Data Protection Regulation. The public display of the rolls in churches was abolished and replaced with the power for any member of the Church in Wales to request inspection of any electoral roll. The years in which the roll is to be fully revised were changed by the Governing Body so that the next full revision will be in 2022, as the majority of parishes had been unable to revise their rolls in 2020.
DISCIPLINARY TRIBUNAL REFORM
Two Canons were approved and promulgated, both of which reformed aspects of the operation of the Church's Disciplinary Tribunal. The first, the Disciplinary Tribunal (Membership and Preliminary Stage) Canon 2020, implements the recommendations of a 2018 review into the disciplinary procedures. The primary change is the replacement of an initial three-person committee stage of the tribunal with a preliminary assessment by a single legally qualified member of the tribunal. The Canon also reduces the size of the tribunal panel for a substantive hearing from five to three and the overall membership of the tribunal from 24 members to 17.
The second Canon, the Safeguarding (Suspension and Disciplinary Tribunal) Canon 2020, implements two key commitments made by the Church in Wales to IICSA. It creates a new disciplinary offence for clergy and church officers of failing to follow the advice of the Church's independent Provincial Safeguarding Panel without reasonable excuse. It also introduces a power for any office-holder in the Province to be suspended by the Archbishop's Registrar if the Registrar is advised to do so by the Provincial Safeguarding Panel. This introduces for the first time a power of suspension exercised independently of the diocesan bishop.
SAFEGUARDING POLICY
A revised Safeguarding Policy, to replace the 2016/2018 policy, was presented and approved by the Governing Body, to be adopted as the Safeguarding Policy for the whole Church in Wales. It was explained that the new policy is considerably shorter than its predecessor but is being supplemented by a suite of supporting procedural documents and guidelines.
ANNUAL REPORTS
The annual report of the Representative Body of the Church in Wales and its accounts for the year ending 31 December 2019 were received, together with reports for a number of other bodies, including the University of Wales Trinity St David, the Church in Wales Widows Orphans and Dependents Society, the Overseas Mission Fund and St Padarn's Institute.
FAREWELLS
Among other farewells, the Archbishop of Wales led tributes to the Very Revd Lister Tonge, recently retired as Dean of Newport, and to Ms Lis Perkins, standing down as the Chair of the Governing Body's Standing Committee after four years. One farewell that was not given was for the Chair of the Representative Body, Mr James Turner. Because of the interruption of the pandemic, the Governing Body agreed a motion to permit Mr Turner to remain as Chair of Trustees for an additional year beyond his anticipated retirement date of December 2020.
