Supporting Papers - Proposed Worship Pattern; Proposed Readings List.

UNITED BENEFICE OF BISHOP THORNTON, BURNT YATES, MARKINGTON, RIPLEY & SOUTH STAINLEY JPCC MEETING

Minutes of Meeting - 7.30pm, Tues 26th Nov, 2019 at Burnt Yates Community Rooms

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Preliminaries

1. Opening Worship and Prayer. Rev. Paul opened the meeting with a reading from Matthew’s Gospel description of Jesus’ instruction to the 12 disciples to go out only to the Jewish nation, and take nothing with them, and to preach salvation. Should they be ignored or spurned to shake off the dust and leave and that the lesson to be learned was to set priorities, purpose and direction. If something isn’t working then move on and do not consider things that are a waste of time and energy. He then offered a prayer.

2. Approval of previous Minutes & matters arising. Minutes approved from meeting held on 03.09.20 There were no other matters arising.

3. Matters to be considered for inclusion at AOB - (i) Benefice diary

(ii) Magazine

Legal & Administrative

(1) Safeguarding Report - nothing current to report

Vision & Identity

(1) Worship Pattern for 2020, to be finalised and approved - Feedback given from individual PCCs:-

Bishop Thornton PCC - felt the pattern for St. John’s was a good reflection of the feedback given to the last JPCC, however the clearly instructed intent of the benefice ‘to work together as one church’ was not reflected in parts of the service grid, with the united benefice service being a contradiction in terms if some churches opt out, and should not, therefore, be titled as such. With the addition of individual churches actively being encouraged to opt out, as services are scheduled to overlap eg 10.45am Morning Prayer. The PCC had queried that if some churches were not taking part in the joint service how were the collections to be split? Rev Paul said that, whilst the JPCC had no authority over finance, he would imagine that the host church would retain the full collection from this rotating United Benefice Service. Rev Paul reminded the meeting that collections from the five scheduled Festival Services would go into the JPCC managed fund.

Burnt Yates PCC - shares Bishop Thornton’s enthusiasm for committing to a United Benefice monthly service and is happy with the base pattern provided, particularly with the 10am start time.

Markinton PCC - are happy with the proposed structure and with the two proposed visits to the Cathedral during the year and are very keen to host the Pentecost service on the fifth Sunday in May. Support for the rotating Benefice service was expressed.

Ripley PCC - expressed satisfaction with the pattern of services.

South Stainley PCC - happy with the rota and particularly with the addition of more Communions to their rota.

2020 Readings Calendar

(1) Rev. Paul explained that the Common Worship pattern of readings usually was Old Testament, Psalm of the day and a New Testament reading, however the Psalm option was generally overlooked in most services. He would like to change this by replacing the O.T. reading with the Psalm, and referred to the order of readings calendar already produced. It was asked if the metric reading of Psalms would be available and Rev. Paul confirmed this would be the case.

(2) He would like at least one service a month to additionally reflect on a more secular theme, for example:

January ‘Holocaust Memorial Day’ coincides with Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

February ‘Random Acts of Kindness Week’ could tie in to the parable of the sower theme.

March Mothering Sunday, there is already a secular connection

April Easter

May ‘Mental Health Awareness Week’

June 7.06.20 is ‘World Environment Day’ as well as Trinity Sunday

July National Simplicity Day

August St. Wilfred’s Day (uplifted from Oct date) to tie in with Ripon Parade and Yorkshire Day

September International Day of Charity and Harvest and/or Shoebox Appeal

October ‘Baby Loss Awareness Week’

November ‘Remembrance’

December Christmas

Rev Paul would like to explore these themes and also prompt the congregation to provide feedback on which particular themes they would like.

Burnt Yates stated that they would prefer to celebrate St. Andrew’s Day at the correct time in November as this is the time marked on the secular calendar for the English saint, rather than in June, Rev Paul had tied this celebration into the ‘Int. Day of the Seafarer’ but was happy to move to B. Yates’ preferred date. It had been moved in the reading scheme to the earlier date, so that it was not missed in our local calendar, as it would otherwise be on Advent Sunday. The solution was suggested to move the Benefice Communion on 8th June, which was to be Ripley, to Burnt Yates to make even more of St. Andrew on the new date, and for Burnt Yates' PCC to continue to organise their usual St. Andrew's day social around the national date.

As that moved the only new 'Benefice Communion' that was scheduled to be in Ripley, it was proposed the earlier April 26th communion be moved from Markington to Ripley.

Within the rota two visits to the cathedral were lightly proposed, to help engage with the wider Diocesan strategy of helping people to recognise that in each of our parishes we are part of a larger church. The two dates that had been tentatively pencilled in were 23.02.30 which is the last Sunday before Lent and 18.10.20, which is the Sunday following St. Wilfrid's day. The meeting agreed to the idea in principle, but felt that that to break the pattern of United Benefice Communion services so soon in the new year would be detrimental to establishing a routine. But there was favour expressed towards not holding any services locally and encouraging our congregations to join together in making their way to the Cathedral on 18th October.

Baby Loss Awareness Week was one of the dates identified in the reading schedule - and the proposed service could be held on either Sunday 11th or 18th October, possibly around 4.30pm and both B. Yates and Ripley would be happy to host. Rather than making a decision, it was felt it would be sensible for Rev Paul to confer with a number of those who had been affected by baby loss for their input on whether this was a good idea, and what arrangements might be most suitable.

A few other Sundays were looked at for clarity: Remembrance Sunday (08.11.20), there would Communion provision at Markington at 8.15am. Then 10am at St. Michael's, followed by 11am at the Institute; 10.45am at Bishop Thornton, Burnt Yates, and Ripley; and 4pm at South Stainley.

Easter and Christmas - the same pattern as previous years

Mothering Sunday - Rev. Paul asked that the celebration in each church was non-Eucharistic in order that there could be a main communion service at South Stainley, with Bishop Nick officiating.

Rev Paul then asked the meeting to vote on the following:

(a) The proposed base pattern of services for 2020 and the more specific monthly detail of services scheduled across the year, as circulated previous to the meeting, with the following clarifications/alterations:

• On the five Sundays when there is a United Benefice Festival service (Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Pentecost, Early St. Wilfrid, Advent Sunday) the 10.45am Morning Prayer service at Ripley is a catch-net only, designed to make sure there is someone on duty in All Saints' those mornings to direct people on to the Benefice service elsewhere, and to provide a minimal said service for those who still won't travel. It exists on internal rotas only, and is not advertised or publicised.

• Mothering Sunday services (9.30am Markington and Burnt Yates, 10.45am Bishop Thornton and Ripley) to be non eucharistic, with the exception of 4pm at South Stainley to be presided at by Bishop Nick.

• 10am Benefice Communion on 26th April to be held at Ripley, not Markington (replacing the 10.45am Morning Prayer scheduled at Ripley for that day)

• 10am Benefice Communion on 28th June to be held at Burnt Yates, not Ripley, restoring a 10.45am Morning Prayer with Sunday Stars to Ripley on that day.

• October 11th or 18th, if there is sufficient interest and support, for the inclusion of a Babyloss Awareness Week service, details t.b.c.

• October 18th, we will hold no morning services in the Benefice, and encourage and enable our congregations to travel to worship together at the Cathedral.

Yes to proposal (a) - 12

No to proposal (a) - 0

Abstentions from proposal (a) - 1. 

Therefore, proposal (a) was passed by the meeting.

(b) Electing to use the Readings List proposed for 2020, using the Psalms in a more prominent way 

Yes to proposal (b) - 13. Therefore, the proposal was passed by the meeting.

2. Projects we have ‘in consideration’

(1) Wellbeing Weekend - Rev. Paul felt the wellbeing theme would be expressed in the calendar of services across the year

(2) Pastoral Care Team - it was agreed to defer this item to another meeting.

Other Business - none received.

Received from Local PCCs

(1) Decisions - none given

(2) Discussions for timetabling - none given

Conclusion

(1) Correspondence - none received

(2) AOB

(i) Benefice Diary - it was requested that before booking events individuals would refer to the benefice diary of events on ChurchDesk, in order that dates and times do not clash, as has occurred in early December.

(ii) Benefice communication - Caroline queried as to whether the benefice’s information appearing across 7 pages of the newly launched 19 page ‘Village Life and Business Magazine’ would be an ongoing option, and if there had been a cost to the benefice. Rev. Paul confirmed that there was no cost and that it was hoped that the publisher, should the magazine prove viable through advertiser support, would continue to accept the benefice material. Whilst this publication is not delivered door-to-door but dropped in bundles at schools, post offices, etc. the meeting decided that it would be worthwhile taking responsibility to deliver around the various villages each month. Rev. Paul asked for feedback of quantity required for each church.

Caroline agreed to approach the publisher of the established Harrogate Life Magazine to obtain a map of their rolling distribution of 12,000 magazines, delivered across the Harrogate rural district over a 3 month period. The publication is delivered on the basis of 4,000 per month, targeting specific areas, and an A5 leaflet could be inserted at a cost of £40/1000 for a selected catchment area. Caroline to contact

(3) Proposed dates and principal themes of next meetings:

(3.1) AGMs - Rev. Paul asked if an early or later date was preferred? (Easter is 12th April) Meeting advised that later assisted the treasurers in getting books audited and so date following Easter tbc.

(3.2) JPCCs

(3.2.1) Thurs 5th March, 2020 - Engaging with the Diocesan Strategy, identifying our 2 priority

goals. (Note: already working in line with these and ahead of identified goals)

(3.2.2) Tues 2nd June, 2020 - Converting our two priorities into action plans for 2020/21

(3.2.3) Thurs 10th Sept., 2020 - finalising programme for 2021 (this is a replication of this meeting

but earlier in order to get ahead and allow the focus to be more on discipleship)

(3.2.4) Tues 24th Nov., 2020 - Reviewing progress towards goals, and tweaking for 2021.