The Peterborough Circuit Meeting 18/01/17 (Present 36, Voting 29, For 26, Against 0) welcomes the transparency with which the Methodist Church lays out the eligibility criteria that projects must meet to access its various streams of grant funding. However, we note the difference between criteria and assessment, and having examined the application forms for all funding streams, call upon conference to commission a review of how, in its allocation of grant funding, the Church balances missional need, perceived risk, and potential reward. In our view, the requirement that new projects forecast the growth and scope of their ministry over five years (as would be required for stationing) may well, in some cases, be unrealistic.
Whilst we recognise the need for prayerful planning, we are concerned that the request for a ‘work plan’ (which requires projects to present a schedule of ‘activities, targeted beneficiaries, beneficiary-numbers, and measurable anticipated outcomes’ for each year of funding), as well as a five-year financial forecast, is impractical for new and innovative projects where the primary focus includes (separately or as one), serving the poor, community development, and/or ecclesial formation. Crucially, whilst practitioners are required to predict the participation, scope, and scale of their projects, the criteria fail to acknowledge how success in new ventures requires flexibility and an openness to opportunities as they arise. We therefore ask Conference, within its review, to scrutinise how the grant application process balances questions of sustainability with an openness to holiness, risk, and sacrificial giving.