Guidelines for writing reflective accounts
Before going to your interviews arranged by the Synod, you have to supply a reflective account of Church Meetings attended. You will also attend the Synod and be asked to write a reflective account of that meeting as part of the whole candidating process. The following guidelines are intended to help you to do this. Around 300-500 words is a reasonable length for such an account.
- A reflective account is not simply a description of everything that occurred at a Church meeting or Such an account might be described as narrative. It is not reflective.
- It will need to identify what seemed to you to be the most important These are likely to include the major agenda items; but they may also include, for example, the worship with which the meeting probably started and ended, the nature and size of the attendance, and the fellowship structure within which the meeting took place. A reflective account should not attempt to cover every aspect of the meeting.
- In preparing your reflective account, you may like to consider the following questions:
- Did members of the Church Meeting /Synod seem to be seeking the will of God, or simply trying to persuade others of the rightness of their own point of view? Did they listen to those whose opinion was different?
- Was the meeting significantly different from comparable meetings of other bodies you’ve been to? If so, how?
- Did the meeting reflect an inward-looking, defensive Church, preferring to concentrate on business matters; or a Church anxious to relate its faith to contemporary society?
- Did those attending the meeting seem happy and comfortable to be there? Or did some seem to be isolated or anxious? What about you?
- Was there a reasonable balance amongst those attending, in terms of age, gender and ethnicity? If not, why not?