Agenda Volume 3 - Methodist Conference

57. The Fruitful Field Project
people from accessing local and
affordable resources.” Reflections
such as these were relevant factors
when the Committee discussed the
need for the pathways, opportunities,
programmes and resources offered
by the Network to be developed
through interactive relationships and
in dialogue with local communities
– their diverse and continually
developing contexts, needs and
aspirations. They were also relevant
to the Committee’s deliberations
about the concept and nature of
spaces and centres, as outlined in
sections I and J below. However, they
have been particularly important
in the Committee’s consideration
of the relationship between the
proposed staff team and certain
functions currently located within the
Connexional Team, in particular the
work located within the Discipleship &
Ministries Cluster of the Connexional
Team.
182 The Discipleship & Ministries Cluster
of the Connexional Team operates in
four key areas: chaplaincy; children
and youth; evangelism, spirituality
and discipleship; and ministries,
learning and development. There is
a strong alignment between these
functions and purposes of the
Network, to the extent that, in the
Committee’s judgement, it is not
feasible to envisage these functions
being supported and delivered by
the Discipleship & Ministries Cluster
in a manner which is detached from
the Network. Of particular relevance
to this judgement was the strong
regional model of working for the
proposed staff team. The Committee
judged that this strong regional way
of working offered the opportunity
to bring certain functions currently
located within one location closer
to Circuits and Districts. This has
the potential to aid collaboration
and responsiveness, and to address
concerns about centralisation,
distance and duplication of work.
183 We are therefore able to recommend
that the majority of the work currently
undertaken within the Discipleship &
Ministries Cluster of the Connexional
Team be incorporated within the
Network.
184 As further work is undertaken during
2012/2013, it will be important to
ensure that this integration of the
work of this Cluster of the Team
within the Network is careful and
considered. It is already possible to
see some areas where the synergies
between what we have proposed
above and the existing work of the
Cluster are strong and robust. In
other areas, further work will need to
be undertaken to ensure that those
aspects of the Cluster’s work which
have a distinctive and cherished
place for the Methodist people – such
as the Children & Youth Team’s work
and the activities which it supports,
such as the Youth Assembly and the
work of the Youth President – can
be robustly supported within the
Network.
185 It will also be important, as
718 Conference Agenda 2012