The Covenant Agreement of the Yorkshire Regional Training Partnership

19th January 2008

1 Vision

The people of God are called to celebrate and participate in the missio Dei. To this end, churches must treasure the Holy Spirit’s gift of listening and responding faithfully to God, to one another and to the world around them.

In participating in the life of God who is Trinity, we are committed to community and mission. At the heart of our work, therefore, is a passion to support and develop local church congregations and their formation in discipleship, wisdom, holiness, prayer and response to the needs of all people.

Ministers, lay and ordained, have a crucial role in this building up of the life of the Church. Such ministers need to grow in and reflect the creative, nurturing and redeeming nature of God. They need to be reflective practitioners who are well resourced and formed in the disciplines of biblical, historical, theological and pastoral study, of liturgy, spirituality, and evangelism.

2 Expressing the Vision

To respond creatively and faithfully to the changing and challenging context in which the Church finds itself, we believe that formation and training within the Yorkshire Regional Training Partnership will:

be grounded within a formational community and learning cohort, bearing in mind other formational and learning contexts to which students may belong,
value the creative partnership working already in existence in the region, and encourage new initiatives to emerge,
promote the principle of life-long learning and thus ensure the linking and co-ordination of training for Education for Discipleship, authorised lay ministries, ordination training (IME 1-7), and Continuing Ministerial Education,
be flexible in the level to which lay ministers/ordinands are trained, and in pathways through training. The expectation is that candidates attain a level which is appropriate to their ability, but which also stretches them and equips them for their focus of ministry,
deliver training which is as dispersed and accessible as possible academically and geographically, bearing in mind the need to ensure a viable learning cohort, a high quality of scholarship, teaching and delivery, and adequate teaching and library facilities,
be diverse and ecumenical, whilst also enabling students to be confidently formed in their own denomination or tradition,
be innovative in developing new forms of training, mission and ministry to respond creatively to challenges and opportunities within the church and the world,
be of high quality, and meet national church standards and learning outcomes.

3. Covenanting Partners

3.1 Church Leaders:

The Anglican Dioceses of Bradford, Ripon and Leeds, Sheffield, Wakefield, and York represented by their Diocesan Bishops.
The Methodist Districts of Leeds, Sheffield, West Yorkshire, and
York and Hull, represented by their respective Chairs of District.
The Methodist Church Formation in Ministry Office (or its successor) represented by a person nominated by that Office.
The United Reformed Church represented by the Moderator of the Yorkshire Synod.

3.2 Governing Bodies of Training Institutions:

The College of the Resurrection, Mirfield
Urban Theology Unit, Sheffield
The Wakefield Ministry Scheme
Wilson Carlile College of Evangelism
York Institute for Community Theology
The Yorkshire Ministry Course

4. Covenant Commitments

4.1 We, the Church leaders, commit ourselves to:

the vision for ministry and training as outlined in section 1 of this document,
participate fully as partners in the process of implementing this Covenant, and relate to the structures established under the Covenant, having due regard to our wider role beyond the region and to our foundation and governing documents,
share in the development and delivery of training programmes that are ecumenical, shared and of a consistent standard across the Region, drawing on all the resources of the Region and including training for Education for Discipleship, authorised lay ministry, ordained ministry and continuing professional development of lay and ordained ministers,
participate in the development and implementation of new patterns of formation and training for Initial Ministerial Education (‘IME’) across years 1-7 as an integrated whole, consistent with the agreed Learning Outcome statements of the Churches joining in this Covenant, recognising the requirements of, and the guidance that comes from, the Ministry Division of the Church of England, the Methodist Church Formation in Ministry Office or its successor, and the Education and Learning Committee of the United Reformed Church,
consult regularly with those in training and ensure that their
support the development of best practice in validation, moderation, quality assurance and accountability that ensure consistent, high-quality provision across the region in conjunction with the validating Universities,
develop our institutions as centres of excellence in particular specialisms, and to offer these areas of excellence for the benefit of the region (as well as in other contexts),
commit members of staff to participate fully in the structures described in this Covenant where relevant, supporting this through appropriately written job descriptions and the payment of necessary expenses, and to work towards establishing a common teaching faculty
consider all staff vacancies with reference to regional needs and priorities, while having due regard to the needs of the Institution.

5. Structures to implement the Covenant

5.1 Annual Meeting of the Regional Training Partnership

The purpose of this body will be to develop policy and to give oversight to the process and development of the Regional Training Partnership. Its membership will consist of;

a Bishop (or deputy) from each of the five participating Anglican dioceses,
the Chairs (or deputy) of the four Methodist Districts,
the Moderator (or deputy) of the Yorkshire URC Synod,
a representative from each of the three national bodies of the partner churches (the Ministry Division of the Church of England, the Methodist
Church Formation in Ministry Office or its successor, and the Education and Learning Committee of the United Reformed Church),
a representative from the governing body of each of the covenanting training institutions,
the Chair of the Co-ordinating Group,
the Co-ordinator from the Co-ordinating Group
any other observers/associates deemed appropriate by the meeting invited to be in attendance (representatives from other interested denominations).

5.2 The RTP Co-ordinating Group

The Co-ordinating Group will be the body charged with the implementation of the Covenant under the direction of the Annual Meeting of the Regional Training Partnership. Meeting three or four times a year, the Co-ordinating Group will consist of:

a Chairperson appointed by, and from among, the Church Leaders,
the Co-ordinator for the RTP,
one representative from each of the five Church of England dioceses,
two representatives from the United Reformed Church,
one representative from each of the four Methodist Districts,
one representative from each of the covenanting training institutions,
one representative nominated from the Yorkshire Trainers’ Group.

It would be expected that those nominated would be current practitioners in the area of training and development.

The Co-ordinating Group has the power to co-opt members from the Practitioners’ Groups as deemed appropriate or helpful to its work and to ensure that all Practitioners’ Groups are represented. It may also invite observers nominated by other denominational Churches to attend its meetings.

The role of the Co-ordinating Group in relation to the Practitioners’ Groups will be to;

monitor and co-ordinate the work of these groups towards detailed implementation of the Covenant,
facilitate communication between the groups,
ensure that training meets national church requirements,
where necessary, call new groups into being.

5.3 Practitioners’ Groups

Working groups of Practitioners will be required for the detailed formulation and implementation of the work of the Regional Training Partnership under the direction and oversight of the Co-ordinating Group.

Some Practitioners’ Groups are already in existence, working ecumenically and across the region. In this respect, the importance is acknowledged of the on-going work of the Yorkshire Trainers’ Group, being an inclusive body of practitioners whose purpose is to enable the sharing of good practice and co-operative working between Churches within Yorkshire.

Other groups may emerge, or may be called into being as required by the Co-ordinating Group. The Co-ordinating Group will be responsible for the direction and co-ordination of the work of these groups.

6.Academic Institutions in Partnership with the Covenanting Partners

It is recognised that Covenanting bodies also currently work in creative partnership with the University of Leeds, York St John University, and others.

7. Review of the Covenant

7.1 The Covenant is to be reviewed at the first Annual Meeting of the RTP and, thereafter, on a three-yearly basis, or as requested or necessitated by developments identified by the constituent members of the Annual Meeting of the RTP, or of the Co-ordinating Group.

7.2 Requests for new members will be considered at the Annual Meeting of the RTP.

The Yorkshire Regional Training Partnership would like to acknowledge their gratitude to the West Midlands Regional Training Partnership, on whose Covenant document some of the above material is based.

Signatories to the Covenant of The Yorkshire Regional Training Partnership

19th January 2008, Chapel of St John, York St John University

The Bishop of Bradford
The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds
The Bishop of Sheffield
The Bishop of Wakefield
The Archbishop of York
The Methodist Council
Chair of the Methodist District of Leeds
Chair of the Methodist District of Sheffield
Chair of the Methodist District of West Yorkshire
Chair of the Methodist District of York and Hull
Moderator of the URC Synod
The College of the Resurrection
The Northern Ordination Course (The Yorkshire Ministry Course)
The Wakefield Ministry Scheme
The Urban Theology Unit
Wilson Carlile College of Evangelismv
York Institute for Community Theology

Members of the Enabling Group

Chair - The Right Reverend John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds
Facilitator - The Reverend Hilary Ison
Peter Allan CR, (2007-08), Acting-Principal, College of the Resurrection
The Reverend Richard Andrew, Director, York Institute for Community Theology
The Reverend Christopher Burdon, (2005-07) Principal, The Northern Ordination Course
The Reverend Lesley Bentley, Initial Ministerial Education 4 – 7 & Continuing Ministerial Education Officer, Diocese of Ripon & Leeds, and Chair of ‘Yorkshire Trainers’
The Reverend Bernie Collins (2005 -07), Training Officer, Yorkshire URC Synod
The Reverend Dr. James Coleman (2007-08) Development Officer (Training), Yorkshire URC Synod
Esther Elliott, Strategic Development Officer, Wilson Carlile College of Evangelism
Dr. Christine Gore, Associate Principal, Wilson Carlile College of Evangelism
The Reverend Christopher Irvine (2005 -06), Principal, College of the Resurrection
The Reverend Stanley Jackson, United Reformed Church (2007)
The Reverend Christine Jones, Director, Urban Theology Unit, Sheffiield
The Reverend Canon Dr John Lawson, Director of Training, Diocese of Wakefield
Mrs Viv Morrissey, Training and Development Officer (Methodist Districts)
The Reverend Canon Cathy Rowling, Diocesan Director of Ordinands & Director of Reader Studies, Diocese of York
The Venerable Paul Slater, Archdeacon of Craven, Diocese of Bradford
The Reverend Canon Dr John Thomson, Director of Ministry, Diocese of Sheffield
The Reverend Dr Ian Wallis (2007-08), Principal, The Northern Ordination Course
The Reverend Dr Gary Wilton, York St John University, Head of the Postgraduate Programme in Theology and Religious Studies.

Co-opted from the Curriculum Group:

Dr. Ken Farrimond, Director of Studies, College of the Resurrection
The Reverend Dr. Stephen Spencer, Director of Studies, The Northern Ordination Course