The Governing Body of the Church in Wales: Recent Legislation

Extract

At the April 1995 meeting of the Governing Body, the Constitution of the Church in Wales was amended in accordance with decisions taken by the Governing Body in September 1994. It had been resolved that stipendiary clerics and non-stipendiary clerics under seventy years of age should not receive fees for taking services in vacant incumbencies, but that retired clerics, readers and non-stipendiaries over the age of seventy should receive such fees. All should receive travelling expenses. The Maintenance of Ministry Scheme was accordingly amended to reflect these decisions by minor amendments to section 6 (1) (h) and section 6 (3) of the Scheme and the replacement of sections 4 and 5 of the Third Schedule thereto. The Governing Body had also agreed that a maximum of two lay persons per diocese should be included in the Maintenance of Ministry Scheme, which provides for the payment of ministers, provided that these were accredited lay Ministers licensed by the diocesan bishop to engage in the work of mission and ministry in a parochial or diocesan capacity. The lay persons concerned were to be counted as serving clerics for the purposes of allocating monies among the dioceses. The Maintenance of Ministry Scheme has again been amended to effect these decisions, this time by the introduction of a new paragraph (k) in section 6 (1) – the existing paragraphs (k) to (m) being redesignated (1) to (n) as a result – and by the introduction of a new paragraph (e) into section 6 (2).