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Overture 10

About Hospital Chaplaincy

At St Peter's Ellerslie on 9 July 2002, the Presbytery of Auckland 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 the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand has a long tradition of actively supporting Hospital Chaplaincy by way of both central and local funding and

Whereas the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand considers the care of the sick both physically and spiritually to be one of the Church's primary responsibilities and

Whereas the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand recognises and affirms Hospital Chaplaincy as a ministry of the church and funds that ministry in partnership with other churches through the work of the Interchurch Council for Hospital Chaplaincy Aotearoa New Zealand (ICHC) and

Whereas the effect of a reduction in financial contributions made to the Interchurch Council for Hospital Chaplaincy Aotearoa New Zealand could mean a reduction in either, the level of Chaplaincy hours provided in Hospitals, or the reduction in the number of Hospital Chaplain positions in hospitals and

Whereas the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand reduced its central funding to the Interchurch Council for Hospital Chaplaincy Aotearoa New Zealand (ICHC) for the provision of ecumenical hospital chaplaincy throughout the dominion from $192,000 (in year 2002-01) to $100,000 (in year 2001-02)

It is hereby overtured that

(1) The General Assembly affirms Hospital Chaplaincy as a primary function of the Presbyterian Church.

(2) The General Assembly requests the Council of Assemblyto restore the level of funding to the ICHC to the 2000-01 level (before adjustment for the stipend adjustment effected 1 July each year)

(3) The General Assembly in recognizing Hospital Chaplaincy as a Core Activity of the Presbyterian Church transfers the Hospital Chaplaincy Budget to the National Services expenditure programme with effect from 1 July 2002.

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

The Presbytery appointed Mr. Cunny Atchison and the Rev Douglas Lendrum to support the overture before the Assembly.

Extracted from the records of the Presbytery by

Trevor Mosley

Presbytery Clerk

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