Agenda Volume 3 - Methodist Conference

57. The Fruitful Field Project
provision of a similar service at MIC.
As is the case within MIC, there is
undoubted value for the students and
career-starters who benefit from the
current provision offered by the Guy
Chester Centre. The accommodation
offered there provides a safe and
supportive place to live, and can
allow access to advice and life-skills
input within a Methodist environment.
However, the use of the Centre’s
site as a base for these activities
constitutes a significant connexional
investment in a relatively small
number of individuals. The purposes
and values of the Discipleship and
Ministries Learning Network envisage
the use of resources to support
widely accessible opportunities
across the Connexion. This includes
a strong emphasis on supporting
the ways in which Circuits and Local
Churches can welcome and embrace
young people and young families from
a wide range of diverse backgrounds
and cultures (see paragraph 164.5
above). It also includes, through the
intentional establishment of gathering
and learning spaces, a strong
emphasis on supporting a number
of safe, sustaining, welcoming,
gathering and learning spaces across
the Connexion (see paragraphs
187-193 above). The Network also
envisages its two centres established
as communities of faith which can
provide a home and a hospitable
gathering place for a community of
students, learners and guests (see
paragraphs 200.1-200.3 above).
As such, these centres provide the
primary context for the Network’s
investment in and subsidised support
for centres as communities of faith
and hospitality.
219 Consequently it is advisable to
reassess the provision of subsidised
student accommodation at the Guy
Chester Centre, and to reconfigure
the site’s activities so that it becomes
an income-generating institution for
the wider Network. It is possible that
such a reconfiguration may lead to
significant changes at the Centre.
These require further investigation
depending upon the nature of the
income-generating use made of
the site, and, in the first instance,
upon whether the existing model of
providing student accommodation
can be undertaken on a businessrelated
basis. The Committee has,
to the best of its capacity, made an
initial assessment of the impact
of such a change on the Guy
Chester Centre. Further discussions
about the implementation of this
recommendation should be taken
forward with the managing trustees
of the Centre and, as necessary, with
the managing trustees of Muswell Hill
Methodist Church and the trustees
of MHA. The Committee is confident
that its recommendation is sound
and reasonable.
The identification of Cliff College
220 The vision contained within the
consultation document proposed
the establishment of a single centre
on one site, and the Committee
remains sympathetic to the focused
734 Conference Agenda 2012