Social Covenant between Montreal Presbytery of the United Church of Canada (PRESBYTERY) and its EXECUTIVE (EXECUTIVE) effective September 2011.

 

Whereas PRESBYTERY is a Court of the United Church of Canada and serves vital functions both in fulfilling its duties under the United Church Manual as well as in carrying out its animation of Christ’s ministry in a changing Québec;

Whereas the size of PRESBYTERY, both in geography and in numbers, and the ability of PRESBYTERY to meet for approximately 2 hours up to 10 times a year, make it difficult to carry out these dual functions without some selective delegation to its EXECUTIVE;

Whereas to avoid misunderstanding and show proper trust and respect between PRESBYTERY and its EXECUTIVE, this Social Covenant is to set out a framework for the scope and nature of such delegation.

  1. PRESBYTERY covenants to continue to respect and trust the competence and experience of those Presbyters who have graciously volunteered to serve on its EXECUTIVE and confirms its delegation to the EXECUTIVE of:
        1. routine matters consistent with PRESBYTERY’s past decisions and policies;
        2. matters involving sensitive personal and privacy issues;
        3. urgent aspects of all other matters
  2. EXECUTIVE covenants to continue to respect the representative and collective wisdom of PRESBYTERY (of which EXECUTIVE’s members are an integral part) and to confirm its gratitude for the respect and trust PRESBYTERY has shown in EXECUTIVE, and in return commits:
        1. to reserve decisions on PRESBYTERY-shaping matters and important variations in past decisions and policies to the determination of PRESBYTERY alone;
        2. in the case of sensitive personnel and privacy issues, to inform PRESBYTERY promptly of the overall nature of its decisions to the fullest extent consistent with those issues; and
        3. in the case of the urgent aspect of all other matters, to restrict EXECUTIVE’s decisions to the minimum necessary to deal with such urgent aspects.
  3. In matters which are reserved to PRESBYTERY, EXECUTIVE further covenants to endeavour, as much as possible, to present PRESBYTERY with informed choices as to courses open to PRESBYTERY, with advance sharing of information and with principal reasons for and against such choices, rather than asking the PRESBYTERY to concur in a single recommended course and, in setting the agenda, to attempt to allocate sufficient time for questions, discussion and active participation in decision-making.
  4. This Social Covenant is to be implemented always in the context of a united mission to animate Christ’s ministry in a changing Québec.