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Appendix E-7: Guidelines for Granting Ministerial Seats on Presbyteries

(Adopted by General Assembly 1979)

Preamble

These guidelines are to be used when presbyteries are considering granting seats to those ministers who do not otherwise qualify for a seat under Regulation 124. It should be noted that the procedure for applying for seats in certain cases is set out in Regulation 205 and that applications for seats should be made to the Presbytery within whose bounds the ministry is to be based, or the minister will reside. The following sections of the Guidelines should always be interpreted in terms of the principles that full membership is appropriate when the appointment:

i) Enables the minister to fulfil to a marked degree the ‘peculiar task laid on the ministry’ as set out in paragraph (D) of the Statement on Ordination and the Ministry of Word and Sacraments (see also Appendix D-4); and

ii) Also allows for the effective expression of the minister’s responsibility to the Church and the Church’s responsibility to him or her.

Associate membership is appropriate:

i) When the appointment gives a significant opportunity to fulfil the ‘peculiar task laid on the ministry’ already referred to, or

ii) In the circumstances set out in section (7) below.

1) Full membership should be given to a minister holding an appointment in the Assembly Service Team, or Presbyterian Support Services, or who is engaged in a new form of ministry and mission authorised under Regulation 172(c) or a sphere of service within this Church when the scope of ministerial service so warrants; otherwise associate membership may be given.

2) Full membership should be given to a minister who is employed by an organisation in which our Church has official representation through appointment by Church courts. Such organisations include the Conference of Churches in Aotearoa New Zealand, The Churches Education Commission. On the national level, appointments are made by the Assembly, and on the regional level, by Presbyteries. Our representatives are responsible to the courts which appoint them.

3) Full membership may, or failing this associate membership should, be given to ministers employed by an organisation which our Church supports but on which it has no official representation. Such organisations are the Leprosy Mission, the Bible Society and the Student Christian Movement. Ministers and lay people serve on the controlling bodies by invitation and not by official appointment.

4) Associate membership may be given to ministers employed by organisations or departments with which our Church has no connection, official or otherwise, although it is interested in the work being done.

5) Associate membership may be given when a minister is appointed an honorary assistant parish minister.

6) When a minister is engaged part-time in one or more forms of ministerial service, full membership shall be given when a substantial amount of time is spent in the part-time ministry or ministries and when full-time service of that form would have given full membership; otherwise associate membership may be given.

7) When the Presbytery considers it to be in the interests of either the minister or the Presbytery to do so, associate membership may be given to a minister following the cessation of his or her ministry in that or any other Presbytery through mental or physical incapacity (see also Regulation 196); home and family obligations (see also Regulation 198); resignation (see also Regulation 204); cessation of tenure (see also Regulation 194 (2)); or the ending of an appointment. Membership granted under this section shall be for an initial period of up to two years, which the Presbytery may extend from time to time to a total of five years from the time of cessation of the ministry. Membership granted under this section shall also not interfere with the operation of Regulation 212, which provides that when a minister has been engaged in another calling for five years his or her name may be removed from the Ministerial Roll then or following subsequent review.

8) Membership and/or the type of membership granted under these Guidelines may be reviewed in terms of the principles given in the preamble following application by the member or at the initiative of the Presbytery.

9) Full membership of a Presbytery may be given on a yearly basis to any minister emeritus or emerita to whom Presbytery gives a presbyterial responsibility, or who requests full membership to enable him or her to participate regularly in Presbytery.