This past Sunday (1 September), Alistair mentioned that there had been some minor changes to the draft of the new church constitution. I have included these changes below, extracted from the constitution itself. If you would like, you can access a full draft of the constitution here.
Changes to constitution draft:
The position of Chair has to be an Elder. (It could have been atrustee)
68. The Treasurer, the Secretary and the Designated Chairperson shall be the office-bearers of the Church. The same person cannot simultaneously hold more than one of the three offices of Treasurer, Secretary and Designated Chairperson. The position of the Chairperson must be an Elder.
There was nothing in the constitution about Deacons. So, having appointed one it might be better to at least mention them.
95 The Oversight may delegate to any or all of the Office-bearers, apart from the chair, such of its powers as it may consider appropriate. This delegation will be to Deacons. The office of deacon is described in 1 Timothy 3:8-13 and Acts 6:1-7. The Elders shall recognize men and women who are giving of themselves in service to the church. These members of the church shall be set apart as deacons. There shall be as many deacons as there are biblically qualified male and female members of the Church who are willing to serve. Deacons shall be appointed by the Elders as they believe is best for the Church.
Doctrinal Distinctiveness and Ethos statement.
There were questions about what this was. My proposal is that we change every mention of Doctrinal Distinctiveness and Ethos statement to “Statement of Foundational Values”.
Where members can call an EGM and vote on a trustee.
There was a possible situation where 5 members could call an EGM and force the Elders to appoint a trustee.
30 & 31. Increase this from 10% to 20%. Membership of 45 requires 9. Membership of 100 requires 20.
Numbers of Elders
It does not matter the size of the Church the minimum number of Elders is 3. (This is a change from 4)
3 Elders (Therefore maximum of 2 other trustees)