Agenda Volume 2 - Methodist Conference

35. Larger than Circuit
confirmed by the views that others
involved have expressed, suggesting
that the priorities in any review would
be to look for ‘larger than circuit’
approaches which would:
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maintain a clear focus on
serving local churches and
circuits in their mission;
provide a professional and
coherent provision for local
churches and circuits;
prioritise relationships,
connections and networks,
rather than boundaries;
enable the connexion to be
inter-connected effectively
through good communications
and networks.
106. The working party also engaged in
some more specific thinking, based
upon the ‘Healthy Circuit’ model,
about what such a model might
look like in a ‘larger than circuit’
context. This was offered to various
groups during the formation of this
report and was found to be of some
value. Building upon that material
the working party has worked on a
more detailed paper designed to
offer guidance as to how the task
of addressing the questions raised
by this report could be approached.
This can be found in Appendix
4 below. It will be seen that the
questions focus upon the criteria of:
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being shaped for mission,
and supporting mission and
missional teams;
inspiring discipleship;
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working in partnership.
107. The working party recognises that
more work will need to be done on
shaping this process of exploration
if the basic proposal is accepted,
but believes that it would be helpful
for the Conference to consider and,
if thought appropriate, give general
approval to the criteria offered in this
section.
d) The role of District Chair
108. Reference has been made at various
points above to the changing, and
demanding, role of the District
Chair, and the proposed process
will inevitably involve a further
exploration of it in relation to districtbased
activity, not least the different
patterns of personal and corporate
leadership which have emerged in
different contexts.
109. However, these increasingly varied
patterns of leadership, and the
demands of time and energy made
upon the Chairs as connexional
leaders, leads the working party to
recommend a more focused piece
of work be done in any case on
these connexional aspects (which
may involve revisiting or building
upon What is a District Chair?). For
instance, the working party would
suggest that there is a need to
review the balance of ordained and
lay leadership in the Connexional
Leaders’ Forum. This could perhaps
best be undertaken by a group which
is separate from the coordinating
Conference Agenda 2013
393