At our Presbytery meeting in February, we agreed to undertake an exercise to establish a list of everyone who was conducting worship on a regular basis throughout our Presbytery. You may be one of those people!
Our particular focus is on those who are leading worship in the absence of a Minister of Word and Sacrament and where it is more than a one-off.
The details of who is permitted to conduct public worship can be found in this extract from the 2018 Parish Ministry Act - II PARISH MINISTRY ACT Conduct of Public Worship. For example, under Section 9, elders can occasionally lead worship at the invitation of the Parish Minister. However, someone who is regularly leading worship, who does not fall within the categories listed in Section 7 (1)-(9) does need to undergo selection/training of a standard approved by Presbytery {section 7(10)}.
You may have been approved by one the former constituent Presbyteries. Unfortunately, we do not have a complete list of everyone who was approved and every Presbytery did things slightly differently.
Therefore, I have written to every congregation within our Presbytery to ask for details of those invited to lead public worship, who are not covered by Section 7(1)-(9) in the 2018 Parish Ministry Act.
If you are one such worship leader, please can you either check with the Minister/Interim Moderator/Session Clerk to make sure that your details are on the list sent to me or email me directly.
Please provide me with your name, contact details (e.g. email address) and details of any training you have undertaken relating to the conduct of worship. Please include if you were approved to lead worship by your former Presbytery.
The deadline for collating information is Friday 25th April.
Once we have reviewed the list, we will be able to share it with Presbytery and ensure that we have appropriate oversight over all those permitted to lead worship within our bounds.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Rev Stella