Changes in Trustees and Leadership Team

Hi All, On Sunday Joy Heenan and I explained some proposed changes to the Trustee and Leadership Team.  (You can watch the announcement here if you missed it).  We have been praying and seeking God’s leading over the last few months, and are now making some proposals that we’d value feedback from the CCE family on – your comments, questions, or simply “Amen – this is good with me”.  This is part of our communal discernment and are listening for God’s voice of confirmation or caution through the community.  We are looking for feedback by the end of May.  You can email Joy (heenanjoy@gmail.com) for the trustee feedback, please email me (rupert.ward@cce.community) for the Leadership Team. Trustee Changes:  Joy Heenan writes – “We’d like to consult the congregation on some suggested changes to the Trustee group: – Tom Cumming has agreed to become our Safeguarding trustee, Tom is a social worker and brings his professional experience, a love for our community and a level head to this area. – I (Joy) am going to step down as Chair of trustees but will continue to offer HR advice to the staff team. By the time I finish I will have been Chair for almost 5 years and it’s time for a change! – Ashleigh has kindly agreed to take on the Chair role, Ashleigh brings a wealth of professional experience from the public and private sectors and has been a trustee of two different charities, serving as Chair at one of them. She has been a CCE trustee for over 3 years, as a “Spiritual Leader”, she will now step off the Leadership Team, and therefore become a non-spiritual leader trustee. We want to consult the congregation on these changes, so that we ensure that both Trustees and Leadership Team are representative of our community. We plan to ratify these changes at our next Trustees & Leaders meeting on 8th June, which gives us the summer to rest, then do a good handover and hit the ground running in September/ October. We’d love to hear from you – any questions or concerns, or just a “yes & amen” is really valuable. “ Leadership Team: With the proposal that Ashleigh steps off the Leadership Team to take on the chair of Trustees role, and with a aim of raising up new leaders from the next generation, we also want feedback on the proposal that Joy would become a member of the Leadership Team.  It has been increasingly obvious to me that Joy has been growing in leadership beyond her governance and trustee role, especially in the area of mission.  While Joy will bring different gifts to Ashleigh, she does bring a wisdom and strategy to the Leadership Team, that we will miss when Ashleigh isn’t part of this team.   Going forward, we are aware we need to review the role of “Community of Leaders” (CofL) that has been a valuable group for discernment and vision/values conversations, but currently isn’t functioning.  We also want to keep raising up others to lead and contribute in the future, helping people to find ways to serve in the church and beyond. On a really personal note, I want to thank both Joy and Ashleigh for the way they have served in the last few years.  Ashleigh returned to CCE from a few years in Cardiff and got stuck in straight away, at a time when there a huge need to support Hope Counselling and help with the governance and leadership in CCE.  Joy has been such a supportive person in the last few years of change and upheaval, bringing her wisdom to bear in many situations.  I am really not sure what I would have done without them both, and am hugely grateful to them.  I am glad that the proposal is to keep their contributions, just serving in different ways.   Thanks so much for being on the journey together. With blessings, Rupert and Joy