Survey of Church Union Negotiations 1996-1999

Ecumenical Review, The, Jan, 2000 by Thomas F. Best

We are maintaining growth with the formation of new ventures remaining greater than the dissolution of existing cooperative venture agreements. Currently 162 cooperative venture agreements exist within New Zealand. We celebrated with the Hutt City uniting congregations two years ago when eleven existing congregations merged into one cooperative venture. This is the largest group within our Forum and the formation posed some interesting questions which we are still resolving.

We have a manual for use within cooperative ventures -- our Guide to Procedures -- and we are constantly revising this guide to reflect the reality of our current situation, with updates being regularly produced. We have a number of rewording projects underway and new sections of the guide are also being produced. Currently we are looking at the issue of lay leadership in the celebration of the sacrament of holy communion, ministry appointment and accountability issues (particularly related to questions of ethics and sexual harassment), and a revision of our regional structures where accountability and authority is being discussed.

We have revised the way in which we handle contributions from cooperative venture parishes to the wider work of the church. The new cooperative ventures joint missionary fund administered within the Forum structure provides a central collection facility to manage contributions from parishes and channel monies received from our congregations for distribution both to the Forum and to the negotiating partners for the wider work of the church nationally and overseas. Some "teething troubles" are being worked through but we will have these finalized very soon.

A combined approach is being undertaken by the five negotiating partners and the Forum on production of a risk management manual for cooperative ventures in conjunction with our insurance brokers. It is anticipated that this work will be shared among our partners as they too look at this complex subject.

At the end of 1998 Kathryn McKenzie, our executive officer, stepped down after serving five years in that role and it was with considerable regret that we said farewell to her. Kathryn had guided the Forum from its formation and had always been a source of inspiration and strength. She filled her role not only in administration but also as a teacher and we all learned much from her. Dr David Ross was appointed to take Kathryn's place as executive officer and was formally commissioned in February of this year. David, with a strong church background as well as administration in secular life, brings new vision to the job and he is already making his distinctive mark on our ecumenical journey.

We still see our role as the "cutting edge" of union within the negotiating churches' structures. Two of these partners are internally experiencing faith crises related to conservative versus liberal ideologies, which has had some effect on the amount of energy available for union discussion. One other partner is questioning its involvement in the unity journey as set out in our act of commitment, originally signed in 1967, as their revised internal structure of three partnerships has difficulty in dealing with this issue. This lack of forward thrust from our total partnership is raising questions within our own constituency about organic union. We are being asked whether we should consider more positive planning for union -- or even whether we should take the initiative to go it alone, inviting our partners to join with us if they so desire. The discussions in July 1999, as reported above, and others, are helping as we move forward into the future. We are confident that our journey will continue with perhaps a stronger focus on effective mission and ministry as we incorporate new thinking into our strategic planning and strengthen the accountability with our membership and the partner churches.