Governance
General Church Meeting
The General Church Meeting is held annually, normally in April; details will be shown in advance on the calendar.
All members and friends of the church are warmly invited to attend, though only church members are eligible to vote in elections.
The meeting will designate a Project for the following year. For 2008/2009 it will be to support extra-curricular activities at a school for autistic children in Middlesbrough.
At the meeting, Church Stewards will be elected for the coming year and up to 15 representatives will be elected to the Church Council.
The Church Council
In common with all Methodist Churches, Elvet’s Church Council has authority and oversight over the whole area of the ministry of the church, including the management of its property. In practice, most of this responsibility is devolved onto other committees with authority to initiate action and co-ordinate the work done in the church in their own areas of authority. They have the responsibility to report to and advise the Church Council and are subject to its authority and oversight.
Elvet’s Church Council usually meets four times per year, in January, March, June and October – though extra meetings can be arranged if situations calling for quick decisions arise.
The membership of the Church Council currently is:
- All circuit ministers (though in practice usually only the Elvet minister attends)
- All Church Stewards
- Church Treasurer
- Church Council Secretary and Assistant Secretary
- Pastoral Committee Secretary
-
One Circuit Steward
Gwynneth Watchman and Robin Harris
- Representatives from the Pastoral, Finance, Property and Church, Community and Mission committees
- Representative from the Worship Development Group
- Representative from the Youth Council
- Representative from the Junior Church
- A Communion Steward
- Newsletter editor
- Project co-ordinator
- Representative from MethSoc
- Church Safeguarding Officer
- Up to fifteen members elected by the annual Church Meeting
Church Stewards
There are six stewards at Elvet, who serve for four years.
Two stewards leave when they have served their four years and two new ones are elected annually. Stewards become 'senior stewards' in their third year, introducing new stewards and organising and encouraging the others in their duties.
Their main functions are to ensure the smooth running of the church and to support the minister. They keep in touch with the congregation, hearing their thoughts on services, events and procedures, and passing on ideas and anxieties to the appropriate quarters. They often hear about pastoral concerns and then link up with pastoral visitors or the minister.
Three stewards are on duty at each service; they welcome visiting preachers, ensuring that they, and all participants in the service, have all the information they need. Before the service one steward says a prayer with the preacher in the vestry, in preparation for the service, and the other two welcome the congregation and any visitors.
Stewards are represented on all other committees, so that there is good communication between different groups and they also encourage groups in special events, such as ecumenical services, social events or fund-raising for the Elvet annual project.
The present Stewards are : Christine Higham and Ken Slater (senior stewards)
Val Harder, Gwyneth Watchman and Robin Harris
Anne Scott and Paul Harrison
Communion Stewards
Elvet Church normally holds three Communion Services each month:
- 10.45 am on the first Sunday in the month,
- 8.30 am on the second Sunday (using the 1936 Order of Service),
- 6.00 pm on the third Sunday of the month,
- there are also Christmas Eve Midnight Communion and an Ash Wednesday Communion.
At the end of each Communion service a retiring collection is always made for various charity organisations. These collections are made over a monthly period. The retiring collections go to the charities specified on the Benevolence Fund page.