Dear Colleagues,
I am getting in touch with an update on the revised process of Church Life Review Phase 2 (Design) and progress to date. Please feel free share this update throughout your synod. Further (less process-focussed) communications will follow in due course.
CLR Phase 2 Objectives
The primary objectives of CLR Phase 2 (Design) are to investigate new ways of working in each of the three workstreams agreed by General Assembly 2023 (financial resource sharing, employment of lay workers, and shared support services), analyse the outcomes of these investigations, and then deliver a set of recommendations to an extraordinary session of General Assembly in November 2025. The emphasis of Phase 2 is on exploration, investigation, and analysis, giving scope for creative responses to emergent change.
CLR Structure
As previously communicated, we did not receive enough nominations and applications to populate the three task groups as they were originally conceived following General Assembly 2023. Our revised approach, which was approved by the Business Committee in mid-April, is to have a single Steering Group guiding the content, with a Sub-Committee of the Business Committee providing operational governance (substantive changes to the agreed CLR process will be referred to the full Business Committee). The CLR will be supported by a wider informal consultative network, consisting of interested individuals who will be drawn into conversations based on their interests and expertise. The consultative network will include applicants to the original task groups.
CLR Workstreams
The revised programme structure requires a new approach to the work. In the absence of the task groups, the Steering Group is not expected to do all the work. Investigations for the financial resource sharing workstream will mostly be carried out by external consultants, who will undertake feasibility studies and report back to the Steering Group – conversations about this are ongoing. This will bring with it the benefit of professional financial and legal expertise, as well as capacity. Care will be taken to ensure that any consultants engaged by the CLR are thoroughly briefed and understand the nuances of the context.
For the support services and lay worker employment workstreams, we plan to devise some new ways of working and test these ideas through living labs, designed and run in collaboration with synods. Where possible and appropriate, the CLR will aim to learn from and join with existing work. The living labs will enable us to trial new models on the ground and see how they work for local churches. The shared support services workstream is closely related to a piece of ongoing work in the Admin and Resources team, around a compliance resource portal for local churches, linked to previous work on the PLATO handbook. An initial questionnaire to local churches and synods is planned and will be rolled out soon. The purpose of this is to ascertain what support local churches need with compliance issues in order to unburden them. Once responses have been collated and analysed, a set of resources will be prepared, and synods will be invited to a consultative event to consider the new resources and other ways to unburden local churches. Conversations at the consultative event will inform the work of the shared services workstream. The relationship between these work items will evolve over time.
Upcoming CLR Consultations
A CLR finance consultation will take place on 13th June. This event has been designed to respond to Resolutions 47 and 48 from General Assembly 2023. Synods have been invited to send three representatives; members of the Steering Group, applicants to the original finance task group, and a number of other individuals will also be in attendance. The aims of the event are to:
- Discuss and shape a vision for what new models of resource sharing might look like and enable, in line with the Values and Principles agreed by General Assembly 2023 (Resolution 47)
- Reach common ground on three models of resource sharing for external consultants to explore through feasibility studies.
As mentioned above, a shared support services consultation with Synods will take place after the completion of some initial work. No date for this event has been fixed, but it is likely to take place in the last quarter of 2024. Future consultations and events will respond to other elements of the Church Life Review’s work.
General Progress Update
In addition to the work outlined above, we have:
- A confirmed Steering Group – Steve Faber, Muna Levan-Harris, Romilly Micklem, Jan Adamson, Jack Charlesworth, Elizabeth Hall, Lythan Nevard, and Tim Hopley
- A confirmed Sub-Committee – John Bradbury, Victoria James, Alan Yates, Darnette Whitby-Reid, and Sarah Moore
- Programme documentation, plans, and processes beginning to take shape.
Next Steps
The major next steps are:
- Delivery of the 13 June finance consultation
- Contracting and briefing consultants to undertake work on the financial resource sharing feasibility studies
- Initial and ongoing meetings of the Steering Group and Sub-Committee
- Planning and delivering a set of living labs
- Managing a portfolio of ongoing investigations (including feasibility studies and living labs) and conducting regular communications
- Receiving and analysing the outcomes of CLR investigations in mid-2025
- Presenting a set of recommendations to the extraordinary session of General Assembly in November 2025.
Thank you all for your continued engagement with the Church Life Review – this is a journey we are on together. The CLR is considering complex and interrelated matters, so iteration and evolution will be necessary. Amongst this complexity, we are committed to making the Church Life Review a transparent and inclusive process.
Please do feel free to share this update around your synod team. If you have any questions, would like to contribute to the review, or want to arrange a conversation, please do get in touch.
Best wishes,
Myles
Myles Dunnett
Programme Manager, Church Life Review | The United Reformed Church
