Page 40 - Presbyterian Connection

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PRESBYTERIAN
SUMMER 2024
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Connection
JUST WONDERING...
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What should a congregation do if they can’t find a treasurer?
What is the required quorum for a congregational meeting?
Answered by the Rev. Don Muir, General Assembly Office, and Karen Plater, Stewardship & Planned Giving
With the extensive responsibilities asked of a treasurer, including paying church staff and bills, as well as reporting on financ- es to the congregation, Canada Revenue Agency and the national office, some con- gregations have difficulty finding a member or adherent with the skills or time to take on this vital work. Here are a few suggestions:
1. You might consider hiring a bookkeep- er to manage the payroll, pay invoic- es, fill out T3010 and PCC statistical forms and provide a regular statement of income and expenses. That would reduce the responsibilities of the con- gregation treasurer to:
a. be a communication link between the board of managers and the bookkeeper;
b.advise the bookkeeper regarding payment priorities (which payments are urgent and which can wait);
c. be the second signature on cheques as required. (For example, some- times a bookkeeper is authorized to prepare cheques up to $500 or $1,000, while higher amounts re-
quire a signature from someone in
the congregation.);
d. report on finances to the board,
Session and congregation on a reg- ular basis and at the Annual General Meeting.
2. Even with the above, some congre- gations make this work more attrac- tive by hiring a treasurer or paying an honorarium to a volunteer from within the church.
If you find yourself in this situation, you may want to talk to neighbouring congre- gations to see who they have fulfilling their bookkeeping and treasurer responsibilities. As the roles are very similar across de- nominations, someone in your community who is doing this for another congregation may be willing to help your congregation as well. Please be aware, that whether to sup- port a volunteer or paid staff, there are many practical resources available at the national officetosupportcongregationaltreasurers, including an extensive Treasurer’s Hand- book and a number or webinars which can all be found at presbyterian.ca/stewardship/ managing-gifts, not to mention church staff in Stewardship & Planned Giving and Finan- cial Services who are willing to help you find answers to your questions.
Answered by the Rev. Don Muir, General Assembly Office
Question: How many Presbyterians does it take to change a lightbulb?
Answer: Two. One to change the bulb and another to reminisce about how much bet- ter the old bulb was.
But seriously, the question is sometimes asked, how many Presbyterians does it take to hold a congregational meeting? What is the minimum number of people needed to make the proceedings valid? In other words, what is the quorum for con- gregational meeting?
The Book of Forms, the document that describes how the PCC is governed, con- tains a different quorum for each of the four courts of the church (General As- sembly, Synod, Presbytery, Session) and for a congregation’s board of managers. But there is no quorum specified for a
congregational meeting.
This may be one of those aspects of
our polity that is deliberately vague to al- low for necessary flexibility across the de- nomination. There are larger and smaller congregations. There are congregations making massive decisions and others making decisions that could be described as routine. So far, the church has declined to establish a one-size-fits-all congrega- tional meeting quorum.
That said, the Session, as the governing body of the congregation, has a responsi- bility to ensure there are enough members and adherents at a congregational meet- ing to make competent decisions. Most of the time that number will be self-evident. Reasonable people can usually tell if those present adequately represent the congre- gation and have the faith, commitment, knowledge or experience needed to make and carry out decisions—or if the meeting needs to be rescheduled.
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What is the “equalizing minister” category on a constituent role?
Answered by the Rev. Don Muir, General Assembly Office
One of the foundational principles of The Presbyterian Church in Canada is that the courts of the church, except the Session, are made up of an equal number of min- isters and elders. This creates a lay-clergy balance of training and experience that broadens discussion and decision-making.
This balance has been more difficult to maintain at the presbytery level in re- cent years because a number of pastoral charges are not able to call a minister. While each pastoral charge is expected to send a representative elder to presbytery meetings, the vacant congregations have no minister to send. Therefore, presby- teries increasingly find they have several more elders than ministers on their rolls.
To try to maintain the lay-clergy balance,
the 2019 General Assembly adopted legis- lation that created an “equalizing minister” category of membership on a presbytery constituent roll. The legislation states, “Where there are more elders than minis- ters on the constituent roll of a presbytery, the presbytery may, on an annual basis, add to the constituent roll ministers from the appendix to the roll, who are serving as interim moderators, to act as equalizing ministers” (Book of Forms 176.1.10).
The reason the equalizing ministers cat- egory is limited to ministers who are on the appendix to the roll (retired or without a pastoral charge) and who have been appointed interim moderators, is that the church decided equalizing ministers ought to be engaged in congregational ministry in order to be part of the body that cares for the ministers and congregations within the presbytery’s bounds.
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