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Overture 7

About Lay Ministry

At Calvin Church Gore on 2 July 2002 the Presbytery of Mataura met and was constituted.

Among other things the Presbytery agreed to adopt and transmit the following overture to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand appointed to meet in Wellington on 22 September 2002.

Whereas there has been an increasing number of appointments of lay ministers to parishes in Stated Supply and other forms of supply.

And whereas these appointments are of increasing length and are fulfilling a real need within the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand;

And whereas many of these ministers come with significant qualifications and/or experience for ministry and gain further significant experience within the parishes they are serving;

And whereas the increase of these appointments has, in part been brought about by a lack or ordained ministers;

And whereas there is little evidence to suggest that this pattern is about to change in the foreseeable future, especially given the imminent retirement of many older ministers;

And whereas many of these ministers, although fulfilling significant ministry roles, are unable to exercise a full range of ministry functions, or for that matter, receive a full range of reasonable benefits which include participation in an adequate superannuation fund;

And whereas the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa recognise that the previous justice issue needs to be resolved whilst maintaining it's concern for quality assessment and training standards for ordained ministers.

It is hereby overtured:

(1) That the General Assembly affirm and acknowledge the tremendous contribution that these lay ministers are making to our Church.

(2) That the Church develop a custom-built process whereby people in lay ministry can be trained and ordained that:

(a) fully recognises existing qualifications of candidates.

(b) takes into account and fully values the previous experience gained in ministry situations.

(c) includes only those components that are considered to have not been covered by previous training or experience and avoids unnecessary duplication.

(d) requires minimum of disturbance , through the provision of suitable modules etc (many of which are already available) that allow candidates for ordination to be equipped for ministry in a way that both allows them to continue in their position wherever possible but also meets the church's ordination requirements.

(3) That the Assembly commission the appropriate people to design and implement this process and to report back to the next Assembly.

Or that the General Assembly determine otherwise as in its wisdom it consider best.

The Presbytery appointed Rev John Gullick and Rev Peter Cheyne to support the overture before the General Assembly.

Extracted from the records of Presbytery by

Trevor McIntosh

Presbytery Clerk

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