Agenda Volume 3 - Methodist Conference

57. The Fruitful Field Project
155 Such an ecumenical Higher
Education partnership does, however,
have repercussions for other parts
of the Network’s structures, policies
and procedures. In some ways it will
necessarily limit the autonomy of the
Network within the Higher Education
partnership, as the partnership
between the Network and the
university will be mediated by an
ecumenical management body. It is
likely that careful planning during the
early stages of the partnership will
mitigate any disadvantages here.
156 However, the mediated nature
of the relationship between the
Methodist Church, the Network
and its centres on the one hand
and the university partner on the
other does have another significant
planning ramification for the
Network’s structures. The ecumenical
Higher Education partnership will,
necessarily, be one which is capable
of supporting a partnership between
the university and several institutions,
colleges and centres no matter
where the latter are located. In the
past, church institutions and their
university partners have tended to be
geographically proximate. Due to the
geographic distribution of Anglican
theological colleges, the university
partner in this case will need to
be able to support programmes
delivered within institutions which
are far away from the university’s own
base. The nature of the ecumenical
Higher Education partnership, and
the ways in which its supporting
mechanisms are structured, will
consequently need to be configured
to enable well-resourced relationships
to be sustained across significant
distances. This therefore has the
potential to make available to the
Network and its centres a “strong
HE provider” whose awards will be
recognised as “the Gold Standard
for lay and ordained learning and
formation,” regardless of the location
of those centres. This permits the
Network to focus more closely on the
quality of its learning environments
without those considerations needing
to be constrained by some issues of
geographical location. This is a factor
discussed again in paragraphs 196,
200.5 and 240.5 below.
Section H: A Team of Expert Staff
Recommendation: The establishment of a
Discipleship and Ministries Learning Network
staff team, located across the Connexion.
One staff team
157 In order to support the work of
the Discipleship and Ministries
Learning Network, we recommend
the establishment of a single team of
expert staff. This team’s goals will be
the same as the goals of the Network
as a whole:
l
l
discipleship development:
supporting Circuits and Local
Churches to nurture and equip
the Methodist people to be
Christ-like disciples in the world
ministry development, in all its
forms: forming and equipping
706 Conference Agenda 2012