Completely revised Church Representation Rules will come into effect on 1 January 2020. Hard copies are available from Church House Publishing and elsewhere.
The new rules form schedule 1 of the Church Representation and Ministers Measure 2019. They are not as yet available on the Church of England website, which at the time of writing only has the current 2017 rules.
Thanks for posting this. But the link takes one to the TA page when this was announced, ie not to the questions…..
This comment applies to the article below on Synod Questions.
Church House Bookshop £9.99 (free P&P) versus Amazon £8.03 (20% less).
Amazon states “Usually dispatched within 1 to 2 months”. But they do have a Kindle version available from 30 November.
They sent me my copy in two days.
People with a printer can simply copy Schedule 1 of the 2019 Measure linked above. Schedule 1 adds a new Schedule 3 – typically legislation to confuse the unwary – and it is the new Schedule 3 which sets out the Representation Rules. This is offered in two formats with a straightforward print facility.
A summary of changes would be useful
Unlike non-Church legislation, an explanatory note isn’t provided at the end of the Measure. I am afraid it is beyond my ability to decipher the changes in a user-friendly form from the other two schedules. They set out the changes, but only by reference to the legislative text. I wonder whether the published version obtained by Anthony Archer and others is any different and contains some explanatory material?
The new rules entirely replace the old rules, so a simple tracked changes is not possible. The Introduction contains a basic outline of the new Rules and, more useful, a summary of the main features of the new Rules which does highlight some of the main changes from the old Rules. Basically this is simplification, better drafting and some substantive changes, but nothing seismic, e.g. re church electoral rolls, date for APCM (more permissive), PCC meetings (have any number per year, as long as there is effective governance), PCCs must have lay majority etc. (to prevent the gerrymandering that occurred… Read more »
To expand on Anthony Archer’s reply, the edition of the new rules (Church Representation Rules 2020 – with a green cover), published in a 128-page booklet published by Church House Publishing at £9.99 (or £8.03 from Amazon) contains a six-page Introduction, prepared by the Legal Office at Church House, giving an outline of the new rules (the 11 parts into which they are arranged) and, in a section headed ‘Summary of main features of the new Rules’, highlighting the main changes. One of the innovations not mentioned by Anthony is the ability of ‘connected’ parishes (e.g. in a multi-parish rural… Read more »
About 15 years ago, one of my former parishes was formed by the union of two parishes, so one parish, two churches. Nothing was done about bank accounts, and to this day the accounts are in the names of the former separate PCCs – neither of which has existed for 15 years. It dawned on me too late to do anything about this, but when I mentioned it to the Archdeacon he didn’t seem that bothered. Surely this must be illegal? I pity anyone dealing with banks to sort it out.
The “joint council” rules, I think, will come to be used quite creatively – they can achieve administrative simplification without dissolving ancient parishes, and without the legalities and complexities of getting a scheme past the Church Commissioners. The other key feature of joint councils is that they have defined legal personality, so can employ staff in their own name.
The Diocese of Salisbury have produced an explanatory note at
https://www.salisbury.anglican.org/resources-library/whos-who/contacts/comms-team/working-together/church-representation-rules-2020-dec-2019