Constitution

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Partnership Holy Trinity Shaw. St Mary’s Lydiard Tregoze. Toothill. Westlea. emerge Youth groups.

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Constitution Documents

The Charity Commission refer to our Constitution as a Guidance Document. It is in three parts:

A Statement of Ecumenical Vision
Constitution
Schedule to the Constitution

Adopted, at a Partnership Extraordinary General Meeting, during the Joint Service on Sun 30th Jan 2011

Last updated, at a Partnership Annual General Meeting, during the Joint Service on 12 April 2015

Covenanted together for mission

We exist in order to BE the People of God and EXTEND the Kingdom of God throughout West Swindon and Lydiard Tregoze

Approvals

Originally signed by 5 Local Church representatives, 3 Staff Team, 4 Denominational representatives, and the Partnership Council (the Trustees).

16 signatures - the stakeholders, 30 Jan 2011

Most computers will open PDF files automatically, if yours does not, get Adobe Acrobat PDF reader to read and print some of the documents.

Section (read online)	Print (PDF)	Commentary
Vision Statement, Constitution and Schedule	(PDF 19 pages, 173 kB)
-	-
Vision Statement	(PDF 4 pages, 80 kB)
Front Cover (this page)	-
1. The Covenant	-
2. Our Shared Vision	-
3. Our Theological Basis	-
4. Our Core Values	-
5. The Mission We Share	-
6. Our Covenant	-
-	-
Constitution	(PDF 10 pages, 60 kB)
1. Introduction	-	Commentary
2-3. Purpose	-
4-8. Membership	-
9-21. Congregational meetings	-
22-27. Trustees	-
28-44. Proceedings of the Trustees	-
45. Accounting and reporting	-
46. Powers of Trustees	-
47. Application of funds	-
48-51. Trustee benefits	-
53-54. Investment	-
55-56. Amendment of Constitution	-
57-63. Dissolution of Charity	-
-	-
Schedule to the Constitution	(PDF 5 pages, 48 kB)
1. The LEP	-
2. Area of benefit	-	Commentary
3-5. Participating Churches	-
6. The Sponsoring Body	-
7-13. Christian Initiation and Belonging	-
14-16. Worship	-
17-22. Ministry	-	Commentary
23-26. Relationships with the Participating Denominations	-
27. Buildings	-
28-29. Ongoing development	-
-	-
Appendices	-
1. Glossary of terms	(PDF)
2a . List of current staff	-
2b. Partnership Council (Trustees)	-
3. Standing Orders	To be Completed
4. Geographical map of partnership area	To be Compiled

2020 - Why change again, again, again?

Over a period up to 2020 the manse at Toothill was sold by the URC, and Westlea's shed was demolished. So we no longer have use of those buildings. Schedule para 27 updated

2015 - Why change again, again?

In 2013 All Saints Lydiard Millicent elected to leave the Ecumenical Partnership. This was effected at the AGM held on 23 March 2014. The administrative tasks caused (a renaming of the charity and registering the updated constitution) were completed at the AGM held 12 April 2015

2011 - Why change again?

Previously, churches that were members of certain denominations were exempt from charity registration (or were included in an overarching registration). Local Ecumenical Partnerships were a particularly confusing issue and poorly understood by the Charity Commission. Registration became compulsory for us, and overdue. The main barrier to application was our Constitution, which the Charity Commission refer to as our Guidance Document. There is a standard text which we adopted, with only very minor customisation by us. This standard text was defined (by Churches Together in England) after our 2009 constitution work was already done. The new document incorporated much of the learning we went through, but also included some legal stuff which was new.