WEDNESDAY'S NEWS

"Management and Leadership" - Representative Church Body report
(from Elaine Whitehouse, Communications Dept, RCB)

The report of the Representative Body of the Church of Ireland (RCB) to the General Synod 2003 covered a wide range of issues affecting the Church of Ireland.

The RCB reported on the current global economic climate and its implications for investments. Its financial statements showed a small deficit, but whilst investment markets had performed badly, the RCB’s defensive investment strategy had enabled it to soften the blow and its in-house and external investment managers had provided better returns than the markets in general.

Proposing the report, Mr Sydney Gamble of the Diocese of Derry told Synod the RCB’s duty of care derived from its responsibility to support the ministry of the Church of Ireland. Referring to the recent “unparalleled decline” in stock markets, Mr Gamble assured Synod members that the RCB through its Investment Committee continued to “seek to balance its primary duty as trustee of obtaining the best sustainable financial return on investment with reasonable ethical investment expectations”.

Church property issues addressed in the report included provision for disability legislation, architectural heritage protection and historic churches. Mr Gamble reminded Synod members that attention must be paid to the prudent management of property, and issued a plea to parishes to “examine their physical resource as it presents in buildings and property”. Singling out the report of the Historic Churches Advisory Committee for particular comment, he exhorted Synod members to share the information in it with “as wide a constituency as possible”.

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Mr Gamble also asked for the support of the Church for the proposed severance fund for clergy whose ministry had suffered pastoral breakdown. Bill No 16 sought to create a vehicle for raising capital to enable financial settlements to be made following a process of mediation.

Seconding the report, the Rt Rev KR Good, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, spoke of the connection between management and leadership. In every discipline and enterprise, said Bishop Good, “whereas managers are always needed - to keep systems on an even keel, to administer efficiently, to see that things are done well, good leadership is crucial, particularly in times of change - to discern direction, to clarify vision and to identify priorities”.

The ‘genius’ of the central structure of the Church of Ireland, he said, was the “creative outworking and delicate balance” between the direction and vision identified primarily by the General Synod and the bishops and the resourcing of those priorities and goals by the RCB. Bishop Good singled out for praise the performance of the RCB’s in-house investment team, who had produced better returns than the external fund managers. He also thanked the staff of the RCB Library for their excellent work.

Bishop Good finally drew the Synod’s attention to the Disability Discrimination Act, due to come into force in 2004 across Northern Ireland. He urged parishes to carry out Access Audits of their property and make provision to alter any physical features which made it difficult for disabled persons to participate fully in church life.

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