Agenda Volume 3 - Methodist Conference

57. The Fruitful Field Project
single governance structure will help
the Network to achieve the collegiality
and coherence which is envisaged in
the submissions quoted here. The
Committee is also confident that
several measures and emphases
will ensure that such a governance
structure and the Network as a
whole will value collaboration and
attentiveness to the diverse and
contextual needs of the Connexion
and guard against centralisation and
hierarchy. In terms of the governance
structure, these measures and
emphases include: (a) working in
collaboration with the Network’s
collaborative coordinating team;
(b) a commitment to identifying,
measuring and learning from the
Network’s achievements, including
its positive and negative effects;
and (c) a commitment to transparent
and understandable accountability,
including ensuring that the Network’s
activities are founded on, and develop
out of, interaction and collaborative
relationships.
253 The membership of the governance
structure will need to include the mix
of skills, knowledge and experience
necessary for the efficient and
effective administration of the
Network.
254 The manner in which the governance
structure will be able to exercise
its responsibilities at the Queen’s
Foundation will require careful and
sensitive consultations with the
Governors of the Foundation and
with colleagues from the Church of
England. The Committee is committed
to the principle that oversight of the
Network’s activities at the Queen’s
Foundation should be robust and
consistent with the governance
structure’s oversight of the Network’s
activities elsewhere. The Committee
is also committed to the principles
(a) that the governance structure
should be able to share robustly and
consistently in the holistic oversight
of the Queen’s Foundation, and (b)
that the governance structure should
be able to exercise clear stewardship
of the Network’s resources newly
deployed there, as well as of the
Methodist Church’s past and present
capital investment at the Queen’s
Foundation. However, the Committee
also wishes to honour and hold fast
to the organic ecumenical nature
of the Queen’s Foundation, where
governance is currently exercised
by an ecumenical governing body
to which the Methodist Church
and the Church of England can
nominate governors. As noted above
in paragraph 240.7, the governing
body of the Queen’s Foundation has
already indicated a willingness to
review aspects of the Foundation’s
current existence, including its
governing arrangements, in order
to enable the Foundation fully to
participate within the Discipleship
and Ministries Learning Network.
Legal advice has already offered
routes whereby both a commitment
to a single governance structure for
the Network and to the ecumenical
oversight of the life of the Foundation
could be held together without
Conference Agenda 2012 751