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Summary of Assembly's Decisions

Assembly 2002 approved all the recommendations (some with amendment) of the Task Group on Lay Ministry. In fact it would be fair to say that they were strongly supported.

The decisions can be summarised as follows:

• Assembly affirmed that the ministry of the whole people of God is the core of ministry within the Presbyterian Church, and that the equipping of the whole people of God is a priority for the church.
  
  
• Assembly affirmed well trained ordained ministry of word and sacrament in its importance in resourcing, enabling and empowering the ministry of the whole laos, and as a sign of the heritage and catholicity of the church.
  
  
• Assembly affirmed the significance of the role of eldership and the need for ongoing training and support of elders.
  
  
• Assembly asked the Equipping the Leadership Policy Group to establish a Task Group to investigate and propose further ways of enhancing and equipping the eldership and lay ministries of the church.
  
  
• There are now four strands of ministry of word and sacrament; National Ordained Ministry, Local Ordained Ministry, ordination as part of a Local Ministry Team, and Amorangi ministry.
  
  
• Local Ordained Ministry and ordination as part of a Local Ministry Team are each to have distinctive processes of selection, ordination and training.
  
  
• Some national training modules are to be prepared for use in presbyteries, and presbyteries were asked to consider running at least two half day courses each year on relevant areas of pastoral care, preaching and worship.
  
  
• Provision was made for those ordained for local ministry in relation to seats on presbytery.
  
  
• Where a presbytery agrees to a congregation establishing a Local Ministry Team, Presbytery is required to appoint an experienced minister to be a resource minister to the congregation and those sharing the ministry. The resource minister will act as a ministerial advisor to the ordained ministers in the team and help the development of collaborative ministry in the team. The resource minister has a role in encouraging and supporting individual and shared learning.
  
  
• The Book of Order was amended to provide for the new strands of local ministry. These changes take effect from 1 February 2003. The regulations that were changed are #4, 182, 183, 185, 186, 188, 192, 231. Appendices E-12, E-13 and E-17 were also changed (an unofficial compilation of the new wording of these regulations and appendices is available on the website).
  
  
• The effect of these changes is:
  
  

to exclude those ordained to 'local' ministry from being available for call;

to include those being considered for or preparing for local ordination strands in the student regulations and processes (with specific provisions);

the provision for Limited Local Ministry in Appendix E-17 has been removed;

lay supply has been more clearly limited to situations of short term supply; Presbytery shall not normally approve lay supply for longer than six months.

• The Equipping the Leadership Policy Group was authorised to prepare and authorise such interim provisions in lieu of regulations required to implement the effect of the Lay Ministry Task Group report, and to bring further draft regulation changes to the next General Assembly.