Minutes of meeting held in Holy Trinity, Elvington on 12 June 2023 at 7.30pm.
Present: Revd Jackie Doyle-Brett (Area Dean and Chair), Revd Jan Nobel, Mr Paul Botting (Lay
Dean), Mrs Margaret Eldridge, Mr John Ellwood, Mrs Alison Gilmour (secretary), Mrs Anne Gray,
Mrs Judith Hewitt, Mrs Caroline Wandless and Mr Steve Wilson.
1 Revd Jackie introduced David and Tina Pownall and the meeting began with Lectio Divina
led by Revd Jackie.
2 All members were welcomed.
3 Apologies for absence: Apologies for absence were received from
Revd Dave Rogers, Revd Maxine Waller, Karen Bloor, Canon Linda Ali, Tracey Carr,
Anne Saunders, Susan Sellars and Julie Wainwright.
4 “What is inclusion?” led by David and Tina Pownall. The Pownalls had read our Deanery
Plan and aimed to talk about the next steps to achieve our aim of being a welcoming and
inclusive Deanery. We aim to be inclusive, we are all created in God’s image, and how we treat
each other is how we treat Jesus. Being inclusive enables the church to grow, to develop youth work, bring in those aged 20 – 40, to support people later in life, to provide a safe place for all, to welcome people wherever they are in their personal journey, to have welcoming spaces for little people during services, and to must ensure the safety of all to make everyone feel secure and safe (safeguarding).
There are many barriers to inclusion e.g. no toilets, no suitable toilets, physical barriers
such as steps, not knowing the site of a suitable wheelchair position, not knowing what will
happen next in a service, whether clothing style is acceptable, ‘churchy’ liturgical language, lack
of gender neutral or gender inclusive language, style of our noticeboards and newsletters, seeing
provision as too difficult to do, style/warmth of welcome.
What can we do? Look at inclusive church.org; work through the access audit template
on the Diocesan website, make a plan – focussing on one or two areas at a time, look at online
resources to improve our understanding of the needs and gifts of others (Oxford.anglican.org),
think about neurodiversity issues, acknowledge our own attitudes listening attentively to those
who think/perceive differently, be prepared to be positive about change.
In the discussion that followed we considered
a) PCCs need to make a resolution and communicate to the whole membership,
b) we do not celebrate diversity but invite everyone universally to join us at the communion
rail without a label (making no fuss over differences),
c) saying welcome positively – it is not the building that welcomes, it is us – the people
5 Minutes of the last meeting: the Minutes were accepted as correct and signed by the
Chair.
6 Reports: the reports from DLT and Diocesan Synod were taken as read.
7 Closing Prayer: We closed the meeting with The Grace at 9.10pm.