Whose Union? Which Future?

This post follows on from previous reflections here and here on the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

I came home to read my copy of the Baptist Times (which as others have reported is soon to RIP), to find that the report on Council does not appear until page 4. Surely the fact that the Baptist Union will be in debt to £1 million pounds is a front page story in a Baptist newspaper more so than government plans to cut a green fund? (Does this reflect that the paper is not such an independent voice?) When the report on Council is read it contains one obvious inaccuracy: Council is not going to reduce in size and not going to meet at weekends, at least not at the moment. In my opinion the rest of the report steers away from explaining how serious the situation is, although a short reflection from Pat Took (current BU President), on the same page, does say that she 'wondered whether [Jonathan Edwards, BU General Secretary] shielded us too much from the anxiety and distress of theose who work at Baptist House and in our Associations', who are likely to be affected as cuts will more than definitely need to be made. All in all I'm not sure this report makes clear what is at stake and the changes that may come to the shape of the Union.

I hope that this year's Baptist Assembly while wanting to look forward positively to beyond 400 years, also acknowledges and makes space that the future is very much in the air. 

I have been re-reading Ian Randall's account in The English Baptists of the 20th Century of the Denominational Consultation in the 1990s, which happened at a fairly lesiurely pace and produced big changes. There are likely to be changes as big over the next two years, but without the luxury of the same amount of time for debate and reflection. God help us.   

Some background to the current situation as I see it (I'm open to correction).

Before the re-structuring of the Union in the late 1990s following the reports Transforming Superintendency and Relating and Resourcing, Regional Ministers (or General Superintendents as they were then known) were representatives of the Union amongst the Associations they had juristriction in. Their stipend came from central funds. Now Regional Ministers, and I think all Regional Associations have more than one, (each led by a Team Leader) have their stipend funded by the Association in which they are in. This meant a power shift towards the Associations - 13 voices are each stronger than the 26 voices of the county Associations which existed before the re-structuring. Regional Ministers now represent their Association more than the Union - although this has remained a consistent sticking point and where the tension for some is concentrated - (to put it bluntly) whose pulling their strings?

More recently the last five years have seen the introduction of Trustees (see Keith Jones post on his view on this), the Senior Management Team (the heads of the various Union departments) and the Regional Team Leaders. Here is another place of tension - have these three groupings become a Council within the Baptist Union Council? I am ambigious about these developments. It partly feels a move towards a National Leadership Team, with which I am concerned because it feels unbaptist. However, I partly recognise that these groupings hold a weight of responsibility where it is helpful if they work more closely together.

Furthermore, Council has been hampered in recent years by an inertia - for example, it has struggled to agree a theology of ministry, it has struggled to explain the respective roles and tasks of the Union and Associations, it has struggled to know what to do with the position of President - each of these have had reports written by task groups which have found little result when brought to Council. Beyond Council, voices have questioned whether Council can speak for the Union. Specifically they have questioned the Apology (for Baptist involvement in slave trade) and the resolution about Women in Leadership (you can read them here). It should be also said that for many other voices (in which I number myself) these resolutions have been two high points of recent years. In my opinion both these resolutions should have been brought to Assembly for their affirmation. For too long Assembly has become a non-existent place and/or body for decision making. This has to change.

Some of the key questions that arise then are: Who leads the Union? How is power shared? In what ways does the local church, the association, the Council, the Assembly relate to one another?

In a previous post from 2009 my attempted answer to some of these questions was to explore Paul Fiddes notion of a dynamic view of authority.

Comments

[Julie Aylward]

Thank you Andy: helpful and provocative - just what is needed at the moment.

[Andrew Mumford]

Although not directly involved in the way some are, I found what you have written interesting and helpful Andy (given my current studies:just reached that place in Ian Randall's book!).Its certainly all a concern.

[Keith G Jones]

Andy, thanks for this. On a historical note the Senior Management Team (SMT) was established by David Coffey and myself in the early 1990's as there was a comment from some that Departmental heads only met infrequently and that did not lead to joined up thinking in the Union. So we established a regular Friday am meeting to ensure internal staff strategy was coherent. It was always intended as an internal management meeting, with monthly meetings of all the managers. This is not a recent development, but now has 20 years of history. If it is changing roles, well, that's another point, but the first purpose was to do with coordination and information which some beyond Baptist house saw as lacking in the past.

[CHSpurgeon]

Thanks Andy, this is a very well written post. Your comments on the Assembly and theology of ministry are very astute.

In answer to your question "Have these three groupings become a Council within the Baptist Union Council?" Yes!

Here are some more key questions: How are the BUGB Trustees and managers held to account? Is the Ministerial Recognition Committee be fully independent of Trustee control? What objective standards are BUGB employed ministers held to? Does BUGB have a written complaints procedure? Does BUGB have a clear bullying policy? What legal protection is offered to Baptist Ministers? How much is BUGB spending on legal advice?

[James Richard Scott]

Some interesting thoughts here but in practice very few church members give much thought to the BU, its operation and how it affects individual churches. Similarly few members attend the Assembly. Members are busy doing their own thing, running their church and providing outreach to the local community. This may be a sign of the times we live in. Perhaps older Christians are keen to be identified as a member of a Baptist Church but younger Christians possibly have less allegiance to a particular denomination.

[The Leveller]

Andy

Thought provoking stuff. My concern with the review is that it is being undertaken by the very people who have brought us to this point. It's not the way it would be done elsewhere as it retains the benefits and blessings but also the drawbacks and prejudices of the exisitng structure and personnel.

As regards the BU Council's decision to apologise for the slave trade, I was one who questioned their ability to apologise for the actions of past individuals. Expressions of regret and a desire to be different now are certainly apposite but you cannot really apologise on behalf of another.

The whole idea of this kind of action does not go far enough: the Council should now seek to right the wrongs and express the regret for the things it condoned or participated in on its doorstep. The treatment of unmarried mothers (until recent years) and the constant focus away from the issues of poverty and the "working classes" in the UK.