The autumn meeting of Assembly Executive opened on 26 November with a welcome by the Revd Tim Meadows, Moderator of the United Reformed Church (URC) General Assembly.
The meeting was held online and convened principally to discuss the URC’s Ministry and Mission (M&M) budget for 2025, and to note the target figures for 2026 and 2027.
Assembly Executive opened with devotions led by Andrea Heron, one of the General Assembly Moderator’s Chaplains.
Mentioning the church in Lucerne church that invites members make confessions to a digital Jesus, Andrea showed an image that AI had created for her in a moment, using the prompt ‘resurrection’ – the Moderator’s theme for the year. It showed a phoenix rising from the fire. Not a bad image, but not one that reflected our sense of what resurrection is.
So, she said, she created another AI image on the same theme. This, with her help, showed people holding hands in the light of heaven. It was better, but when you zoom in the faces are blank. Quick creation might not have depth.
Andrea asked: “What have you created today?” She talked about the value of uncertainty for creators, “negative capability”, the way that real creativity is out of our control.
Looking at Genesis 1, she asked: “Does God just snap his fingers and create or does God find joy in the act of creation?”
Andrea called us to enter into “negative capability” in church life. “Change can feel like loss, but it can be a beautiful uncertainty where all is possible leading to something more beautiful than we can now imagine”.
En Bloc
The following resolutions were passed en bloc. En bloc resolutions are voted on without debate, having been deemed uncontroversial. This has no reflection on their importance. Find the full report and resolution in this case is available here.
Paper R1 Complaints Procedure (Section Q)
A rewording of the appendix. The existing text distinguishes between records held locally and centrally. As local and central records have been amalgamated, this resolution changes the wording to reflect the present arrangements.
Paper G1 The 2024 M&M Budget
The paper outlining the proposed Ministry and Mission Fund (M&M) budget for 2025 was introduced by the Revd Michael Hopkins, Convenor of the Resources Committee, and presented by the URC’s Treasurer, Mr Alan Yates.
Mr Yates first noted corrections in the paper as originally circulated, including a reduction in the 2025 budget compared with 2024 of £620,000, not £520,000 as originally stated.
Assembly Executive in 2023 voted to tackle the Church’s M&M budget deficit over a period of five to seven years. Mr Yates outlined reasons for the reduced deficit during 2024. They have included the willingness of synods to underwrite M&M contributions, so they are maintained at 2023 levels. There has also been a reduction in ministry costs, primarily as a result of losing more ministers than are gained.
Some costs have increased. Significant cost reductions take time and investment, Mr Yates said, mainly of people to help future savings in a controlled way. If we compare non-stipendiary expenditure year-on-year, it has increased by £776,000 – which is “only acceptable if it helps us make future savings”. Mr Yates’s view was that the favourable budget for 2025 has been arrived at by “less favourable means”.
However, he did make a positive observation, that there has been “a distinct improvement” in the way the Church views the budget – “Church culture has caught up with reality,” he said.
In questions for clarification, Mr Yates did not comment on the Church’s ability to reach a balanced budget by 2028-30, and he said he only had “moderate” confidence in the accuracy of the current predictions for 2027.
The proposed 2025 budget assumes M&M income being maintained at 2023 levels. Moving to discussion, Romily Micklem asked about the Church’s ability to maintain M&M income at 2023 levels beyond 2025. Mr Yates said he thought this was realistic until 2027, but he shared Mr Micklem’s concern about the pressures that churches and synods are under, and he thought changes would have to be made in the financial strategy nearer 2027. He reiterated his previously expressed belief that the M&M system “is broken”. He said he was confident that Church House committees and staff “don’t throw money around” – they “spend with a purpose”. So, there will come a point “when they have to stop doing things”.
In a vote, the M&M budget for 2025 was adopted unanimously. Assembly Executive also noted the target figures for 2026 and 2027.
Paper G2 Budget strategy from 2025 onwards
The Revd Dr John Bradbury, URC General Secretary, spoke briefly on Paper G2 which supported Paper G1. Revd Bradbury explained that Paper G2 was a draft and was based on relative assumptions about the budget, but when Assembly Executive meets again in February 2025, a proper chance to look at what will be a final version of Paper G2 will be given.