The most recent meeting of Institute Council earlier this week marked the end of two terms of service on the part of the Revd Professor Paul Foster and the Revd Canon Paul Watson (above). Both men have served the Council, the governing body of SEI, exceedingly faithfully since its inception eight years ago, helping to nurture the emergent plant, guide its development and encourage its flourishing. Or ‘cross many streams’ as the Revd Canon Elaine Garman, a fellow member of the Council, suggests in her account of the business at that meeting below.
The March meeting of Institute Council proceeded like stepping-stones. Our distinct and well-prepared agenda items helped us negotiate the stream. We took a further step in agreeing that an IC member becomes a Board member of the student-led social entrepreneurship project that is being set up in collaboration with Brazilian partners, Centro de Estudos Anglicanos (CEA). This project will support our CEA partners by selling Brazilian craft items in Scotland with profits going to CEA programmes. It also provides a framework for SEI students to develop social entrepreneurship and missional skills.
We noted the successful addition of a third MA programme, this time on worship and liturgical studies. This gives more choice for laity and clergy wishing to further their academic studies not only for a full Masters but also for those topping up their Continuing Ministerial Development with a module or two rather than the full programme. We committed to explore how SEI can support Transitional Ministry training, its need so relevant at a time of extraordinary change. Lay Learning too was discussed, with agreement to consider widening the format used for the increasingly popular Advent and Lent series.
One of the stepping-stones proved wobbly as we deliberated our response to the Provincial Environment Group’s consultation on the SEC’s Carbon Net Zero Action Plan. We encountered the tension of agreeing targets that can be counted: things that are within our control balanced with aspects which are wider that we can influence but not necessarily determine the outcome. However, it is in this area that the church is called to be prophetic, a real need at this time of climate crisis.
Two of the IC members, the Revd Professor Paul Foster and the Revd Canon Paul Watson, complete two terms of office with the Council, and were thanked for their much-appreciated contributions that have helped SEI cross many streams! Finally, we said goodbye from these Council meetings to our much-loved Principal, Rev Canon Dr Anne Tomlinson. As our Principal- elect the Revd Dr Mike Hull stepped on to a new stone, he summed up Anne’s qualities from which SEI has benefitted: she has been efficient and effective and done so with goodness and care. Our heartfelt thanks to all that Anne has achieved for SEI.
Photos courtesy of Paul Watson and Paul Foster
