14. Local Preachers Mutual Aid
Association
Transformation – Be transformed by the renewing of your mind …
(Romans 12:2)
The General Committee of LPMA will present this, its 155th Annual Report to the Annual Aggregate Meeting of the Association to be held from the 12th-14th June 2004 at the Central Methodist Church, Brighouse, West Yorkshire. Most of the Report is reproduced here to inform the Methodist Conference to be held at Loughborough from the 24th June to the 1st July 2004.
St Paul presented Christianity as a radical new reform movement, set to challenge traditional religious mindsets. The General Committee of LPMA has been extremely busy in the past year with proposals for radical reform of the structures and functioning of the Association, in response to changing social conditions and legal and regulatory frameworks in the early years of the 21st Century.
Aggregate 2003
The Annual Aggregate Meeting of 2003 was held at the Central Hall, Plymouth, and Mr Frank Pickles of Elloughton, East Yorkshire, was installed as President. The principal business over which he had to preside was the consideration of a paper entitled ‘A New Vision’ which had been approved previously by the General Committee. (It had also been approved by the Methodist Council and the General Committee of the Wesleyan Reform Union of Churches, both of which bodies were important stakeholders in the reform process.)
The principles of reform proposed in the paper took account of the findings of an extensive consultation process and can be summarised as follows.
The basic changes proposed:
1. A new trust would be created to enable new funds to be used for a wider remit than LPMA. It would offer resources and help to support the Church’s work where there is need:
– with those who are responding to God’s call to preach
– in the encouragement of young people in preaching ministry
– in the initial training of preachers and worship leaders
– in the nurture, fellowship and continuing development of preachers
and worship leaders
– in the development of preaching ministry
(e.g. in local ecumenical partnerships)
2. Existing LPMA funds would continue to be used for their existing purposes to fulfil the objects of LPMA as defined in its rules and subject to the oversight of the Charity Commission. The new trust would also offer pastoral care, financial help and assistance in accessing benefits for those in need in the Church, particularly preachers and leaders of worship.
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14. Local Preachers Mutual Aid Association
3. Within the Methodist Church, there would be recognition of a specific remit for the pastoral care of preachers (lay and ordained) in the Circuit Preachers’ Meeting. This would be an opportunity to continue and extend the work already being done by LPMA but bring it more firmly within the Preachers’ Meeting. One system and one meeting, rather than two, would enable the mechanisms for care to be more efficient and effective.
4. There would be amalgamation of many administrative functions of the Methodist Local Preachers’ Office and LPMA in order to:
– capitalise on existing resources (e.g. ‘Ichthus’) and skills
– reduce duplication (e.g. in managing support for those in need)
– increase the efficiency of both Offices
This would reduce organisation costs in time as well as money. ‘Ichthus’ could provide a wider group of preachers and leaders of worship with additional help (supplementing ‘Roots’) for Worship, Learning and Caring, Service and Evangelism.
5. The constitution of the Methodist Connexional Local Preachers’ Committee would be revised by the Methodist Council:
– to provide wider representation of Local Preachers across the Connexion
– to ensure the full range of Local Preachers’ ministry and welfare is
overseen effectively
The new trust would continue to welcome donations from individuals and churches as LPMA has done in the past. Financial projections for the new trust indicate a healthy, cost-effective organisation, provided that churches and individuals continue to support the work.
These proposals were approved in principle by overwhelming majorities of the Aggregate Meeting as well as by the Conferences of the Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Reform Union.
With the benefit of the approval of the principles of reform, the General Committee’s task was now to take the lead in working out the detail. The Joint Local Preachers’ Steering Group and Task Force, set up by the General Committee in February 2002, have worked together since the 2003 Aggregate Meeting to develop more detailed proposals to be put to the 2004 Aggregate. At their meeting at Freckleton, (North Lancashire District), in November, members were advised that the joint group were working on proposals to set up a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee as a vehicle to deliver the new objects. The Committee overwhelmingly agreed the proposed definition of the new objects in the following terms.
1. To support the initial training, education and continuing development of those leading worship and preaching.
2. To develop resources and materials to assist those carrying out their duties in leading worship and preaching.
3. To support the pastoral care of those leading worship and preaching.
4. To assist those in need who are involved in leading worship and preaching, whether active or retired, and their widows or widowers, parents, parents-in-law, children, and other dependants, including the provision of housing, treatment, care, advice and advocacy.
5. Those leading worship or preaching shall include both those training for and those retired from such activity who are or have been part of a Church organisation having objectives agreed by the trustees and being similar to those held by the Methodist Church, the Wesleyan Reform Union and the Local Ecumenical Partnerships that include Methodists.
It was also agreed that whatever name the new trust should be given, its logo would continue to be based on the ‘fish’ symbol familiar to members and supporters of LPMA, which clearly expresses commitment to the Christian faith.
A further residential meeting of the Committee at Luther King House, Manchester, in January 2004, approved the draft memorandum and articles of the new Company and agreed, after long and prayerful consideration, to bestow upon it the name ‘Leaders of Worship and Preachers Trust’, (LWPT) which succinctly encapsulates the objects already approved. Although, strictly speaking, what is being established is not a ‘trust’, (i.e. it is not being set up under a deed of trust), it was felt that this name expressed the sentiments that:
1. People would entrust the new organisation with their money.
2. In return, the new organisation would be trusted to spend the money wisely and fulfil the objects of the new organisation.
Both these sentiments would be underpinned by our trust in God.
The Company would initially have eleven trustees/directors, five of whom are to be nominated by the Methodist Council, five by LPMA General Committee and one by the Wesleyan Reform Union. All these bodies were in the process of selecting nominees for appointment as this Report was written. The process had a very tight time schedule to enable elections to be held at the April meeting of the General Committee but nominations were invited for any Member or Honorary Member of the Association, through individual contact with Branch and District Officers, through the Methodist Recorder and through the LPMA website.
All the proposals are being presented for approval in parallel by the appropriate committees of the Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Reform Union, and the LPMA General Committee remains confident that, when representatives to Aggregate 2004 receive the final recommendations for the transformation process, they will have the support of both these Churches as well as the General Committee’s unanimous and unqualified recommendation.
Revisions to Beneficiaries’ Weekly Allowances
The present Government implemented further reforms to the welfare benefits structure during 2003. Many means-tested benefits are now paid under the generic description of ‘tax credits’ and low-paid employment has been brought into the tax credit system to encourage people into paid work and discourage dependency on benefits. The outcome of all the changes to the welfare benefits structure in recent years is that financial support from charity funds is needed more by people of working age than, as traditionally believed, the elderly. However, for residents of care homes, support from public funds is much more readily available for younger people unable to live independently than it appears to be for the elderly.
The General Committee agreed to accept receipt of working tax credit, or child benefit at higher than the minimum rate, as evidence of potential financial hardship. Applications for weekly allowances can now be considered from preachers in receipt of such tax credits, as well as from those receiving Job Seekers Allowance, long-term sickness and invalidity benefits or retirement pensions. The previous savings thresholds (£3,000 age under 60, £6,000 age over 60) remain unaltered for purposes of LPMA financial assistance.
Overall the amount spent by LPMA to support people living in the community in the past financial year rose a little from £35,584 to £36,658. The amount spent on those living in care homes rose more sharply from £92,880 to £130,111. Although targets for financial assistance change with changing social and economic conditions, there is no reduction in the need for LPMA’s charitable work.
Finance
Income from members, churches and donations, including the Annual Appeal, amounted to £319,302. This was just below the previous year’s record achievement of £339,460, but was nevertheless very gratifying. Income from members’ subscriptions, at £81,647, was only slightly lower than the £82,766 of the previous year and grants and collections from churches at £178,309 (£185,830 in 2002) represent a generous recognition of the debt of Methodist and WRU congregations to Local Preachers for their ministry, in difficult times for churches’ finances. The Association wishes to place on record its sincere appreciation of the high level of continuing financial support from its members and the congregations they serve.
The increase in expenditure outlined above entailed the use of some of the income from legacies during the year for current expenditure. Legacy income for the year amounted to £146,501, a below average figure, but disregarding legacy income, the excess of ordinary expenditure over ordinary income was £60,284. Nevertheless, grants of £79,648 were made to Mutual Aid Homes for capital expenditure. The value of the reserves was maintained by a net gain of £9,171 in the value of invested assets. The reserves are thus in a very healthy state and this, together with the strong influx of legacies in the first half of the year 2003-04, has encouraged the General Committee to agree to fund a major proportion of the cost of a very substantial project planned by the LPMA Homes to renew the heating and hot water distribution systems at Westerley, Westcliff on Sea.
The gain in investment values is the first such gain the Association has been able to record since 1999 and arises from a more stable economic environment in 2003, despite the political uncertainties that remain after the events of the 11th September 2001 and the war in Iraq in Spring 2003. In March 2004, terrorists have wrought havoc again in Spain and a leading Palestinian has been assassinated in Gaza, but it is too early to measure the long-term impact of these atrocities on investor confidence.
Personalities
On the nomination of the Aggregate Meeting, the Methodist Conference meeting in Llandudno in June 2003 confirmed the election of Mr Noel Clarkson as President Elect. It also reappointed Mr Clarkson as Senior Honorary Secretary, Mrs Ros Peedle as Honorary Secretary, Mrs Doreen Shuttleworth as Honorary Secretary (Homes) and Mr Keith Rothery as Honorary Treasurer. During the year, both Mr Clarkson and Mrs Shuttleworth indicated their intention to retire as Honorary Officers at the Aggregate Meeting of 2004, but at the January 2004 meeting the General Committee regretfully accepted Mr Clarkson’s premature retirement as Senior Honorary Secretary with immediate effect on health grounds. The President proposed that Mrs Ros Peedle be appointed as Acting Senior Honorary Secretary in all duties and responsibilities, with immediate effect, until the next Aggregate Meeting. This proposal was seconded by Mrs Doreen Shuttleworth and was unanimously approved.
The Committee also wishes to record its appreciation of the services of the Head Office staff, without whose support the Association could not function.
Marketing and Publicity
The Association continues to promote its activities through Ichthus, the website, press advertising, promotional merchandise, and through the various leaflets which are produced from time to time. The Association remains grateful to all who take part in these aspects of its work.
Preachers planned to conduct worship on Local Preachers’ Sundays (sadly still referred to as LPMA Sunday in some churches!) are asked to thank their congregations for their support, and to inform them briefly about the work of the preachers’ charity. Preachers are also asked to invite members of their congregations to remember our work in their wills and, most of all, to pray for all those who seek to support preachers and their dependants in times of need. LPMA has some support material for those conducting worship on Local Preachers’ Sunday. This has recently been revised and is obtainable direct from Head Office.