An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

local church formulates their own governance procedure which is overseen by the minister.The minister can be full time paid or part time unpaid (non-stipendiary). The organisationalhierarchy is outlined in Table 3 above. The international council of churches meets everyseven years.4.9.1 The Local History and Character of the URCBelow is given a brief oral account from an informant of the early days of the URCchurches including the one in the study. This is a brief oral account of the URC which hassome bearing on the written version. It is a different, more subjective (and not necessarilyhistorically reliable) account, compared with the published versions.In the Congregational Union there were the elders who governed and their focus was onthe spiritual life of the members. (Power, Control and male dominance) In thePresbyterian Church it was the deacons who governed the church and their role was tolook after the church building. When the two churches merged they decided to keep theoffice of Elders who would fulfil both roles of the looking after the spiritual life of themembers as well as looking after the church building.The Methodists 2 joined the URC after the sanction by Parliament in 1972.One minister states that ‗it is risky to draw comparison between museums and churches,yet one particular church and one particular museum have a shared beginning‘ A teatrader collected specimens artefacts from around the world during the 1860‘s and keptthem in his home for people to look at until the Horniman Museum was opened in 1910.2 This refers to a very small section of Methodists, not the majority.129