EC Meeting – November 2024
The Executive Committee of the General Assembly held a hybrid meeting on the 23rd and 24th November, in Birmingham and on Zoom. It was the first meeting with our recently co-opted EC member, Zac Baker (South East Wales), and we were grateful to have his thoughtful input.
We are grateful for the warm welcome from Birmingham Unitarians at their Sunday service (led by Mark Hutchinson), and the chance to be in conversation with Unitarians from across the Midlands over a delicious lunch!
We were glad to hear a report on the work of Unitarian Transformers from Mark Hutchinson and Laura Dobson. Unitarian Transformers were launched three years ago with funding from the Wood Green Trust, to This includes collaborations with congregations (recently Doncaster, Norcliffe, and Macclesfield), as well as working with the Midlands Unitarian Association to conduct a ‘sustainability audit’ of congregations. The project has also supported the Malvern Transformers youth group connected with Evesham Unitarians, in creating resources that can be used by other congregations for their youth and family ministry. We heard Unitarian Transformers’ plans to continue development of their ‘Connections’ series of online gatherings, as spaces for Unitarians and others to find inspiration and connection.
Our context
The first part of our meeting was spent sharing our perspectives on the context we are working in, through the questions that Convenor, Jo James asked “What are the virtues that are regularly and intentionally happening in our movement?” We then moved on to explore the opposite qualities of that list of virtues, and identifying where those negative qualities are at play. We found the exercise of sharing these virtuous and challenging qualities very helpful in grounding ourselves in a shared understanding of our context, and found it helped guide our decision-making through the meeting.
The EC heard reports from the GA staff, including a report on a gathering that Chief Officer, Liz Slade recently convened bringing together Unitarians, other liberal faith leaders, theologians, artists, and community-builders to explore the questions of how we work in a time of transition – what we hold on to, what we mourn, what we let go of as not useful, and what ‘dropped threads’ of past practices we pick up. The gathering was framed by Dougald Hine, author of At Work in the Ruins, and Iona Lawrence, Director of the Decelerator.
Governance
- We heard an update on progress of the EC elections process, and that our election partner, Popularis, has sent out information to the membership to welcome nominations. You can find out more about the elections here, if you or someone you know may be suited to act as one of our national trustees for the movement.
- The EC reviewed the proposed constitution for the GA’s move to CIO status, following its update after feedback from the movement earlier this autumn. A motion proposing that this moves ahead will be put to the membership at April’s annual meetings, and we will share further information on this shortly.
- The EC continued the exploration from the previous meeting of reviewing our quota payment system. We agreed that quota payments should be revised, recognising that the current figure of £35/head has not changed for over a decade, and would be much higher if it had kept pace with inflation. There will be a likely increase to £40/head from next year and we will share further information with congregations on this change shortly.
Ministry and ministry support
- The EC approved the Interview Panel’s recommendation that Melda Grantham receives Full Member status, after successfully completing her Newly Qualified Minister status.
- The Ministry Students’ Fund, which provides grants to support students’ living expenses while they are in ministry training, needs additional funds in order to support future students, and the EC committed to putting £200,000 in to the fund. Investing in the ministers of the future is essential to the health of our movement, and we will be inviting other Unitarian bodies to support this fund.
- The EC agreed a recommendation to revise the way in which ministers’ housing is supported, in recognition that housing costs have increased significantly in recent years, resulting in some of our ministers living in housing poverty. This paper will be shared with the membership shortly.