Bishop Chris reminded Council of the words of Jesus in Luke 14 28-33; and asked the Lord to give us  a godly mixture of faith and prudent counting of the cost.

In a time of listening to God the words “Build steadily”   were given; and the sense that if a project was worthwhile it was better to do it well than quickly. A picture was shared that we were not in the business of creating a firework sparkler (which would have an initial burst of  great excitement but fizzle out);  but rather that God was calling us to build a large beacon-fire,  with a multitude of people involved gathering logs  from many different places to feed the flames.

Welcome to Philip Ratcliff
    Bishop Chris welcomed Philip as a new member of Council. Philip is human resources director at the University of York and brings special expertise in this important area to Council.  He gave testimony to the way in which God had quite unexpectedly called him to serve at Scargill; and Council thanked God for another example of his faithfulness and provision.

Licensing of the new Director
The date for the licensing of the Revd Phil Stone as Director of the new Scargill  has been fixed as February 7th.  This will also mark the official welcoming of Phil and Di as they join the embryonic Community at Scargill.
More details of this event will appear on the website in due course, but the  provisional timings for the day will be as follows:

• 12.30 pm House and grounds open.  

• 2.30 Licensing service   at which the Revd Phil Stone will be licensed as the new Director of Scargill.  Bishop Chris will be leading the service and representatives of the Diocese of Bradford and others will take part.

• 4-5pm Refreshments

• 5-6.30   “Where are we now?  - an informal time for updating Scargill supporters with input form Council members and plenty of time for questions.
• 
  

Plans

Simon Browning our project director, with our architect Adam Clark and quantity surveyor Nigel Slack, introduced  and explained the revised plans which took account of the comments made by Council at its meeting on October 28th.  
They  set out the plans in five phases  This would be an ongoing operation over a period of time.  Some of the initial works of refurbishment would not require planning permission, but inevitably most of them would.  The works would include improved disability access to the chapel. It was also agreed that, to honour our Christian responsibilities for care of the environment,  any new buildings should comply with proper ecological and sustainability requirements even if the initial capital cost might be increased.
Council reviewed the proposals with great care and, after detailed consideration,  unanimously  resolved to proceed with all the detailed work necessary to complete a planning application – with the hope of  being in a position to submit the full application by the end of January.   
We expressed our great appreciation of all the work done by Simon, Adam  and Nigel and the speed with which they had made very substantial revisions since the previous meeting less than three weeks earlier.
If possible details of the final proposals with plans will, when completed,  be on display during the special day on February 7th, and also be shown on the website.

Radio 4 live broadcast from the Chapel
Plans for this broadcast  from the Scargill Chapel  on February 21st 2010 were confirmed.  Bishop Chris is organising this with the BBC.    There will be a rehearsal  in the Chapel on February 20th.
More details will appear on this website nearer the time
If you would like to attend this broadcast service, please contact the Scargill  office

Business plan
Stephen  reported that the business plan  was almost complete and should be available in a final form next month. The remaining areas he and others were considering: were (i) stress-testing on areas where the budget assumptions may be particularly sensitive to variables  (ii) business risk assessment. He and Simon would be meeting with the Warden of Lee Abbey Devon on November 18th to discuss the business plan and test it against the experience of the  Lee Abbey.  Some further work on market research was also desirable

Fund-raising   
Bruce Duncan outlined the way ahead for fund-raising. This would be a major project with initial involvement of  existing supporters, followed by approaches to the grant making trusts. He advised firmly that it was better not to make approaches to these trusts until planning permission had been obtained.

Child protection
 Susie and James reported on work they had been doing on child protection issues. Council approved their interim recommendations taking account of the new requirements of the Safeguarding of Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and the guidance being issued by the Independent Safeguarding Authority.


Project Director’s report
Simon Browning who has been very fully engaged on the development plans gave a brief report covering some other issues on the present operation of Scargill and highlighting again the very valuable work being done by volunteers.

 Communication
In response to a suggestion from Hilary, it was agreed that a newsletter should be sent out to all those supporters of the new Scargill who are not on e-mail and do not have access to the website.
Further work would be done on the content of the website

Thank you for your prayers.
At the end of the Notes of the October 28th meeting we asked  that you would
“continue to pray for Council in its deliberations; that we may be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading in the  preparations for our next meeting on November 16th and the  vital decisions (including the nature and phasing of the building  and refurbishment programme) that need to be made.”

 We want you to know that we believe your prayers were clearly answered.  The decision to approve the revised plans produced by our architects and to proceed expeditiously with an application for planning permission is a major step forward. Bishop Chris described it as “historic”.     We  do indeed thank God.

Please continue to pray

And now we ask you to pray for

(i) all the work that needs to be done in preparing the planning application

(ii) preparations being made for the fund-raising programme and

(iii) developing connections with supporters and especially enabling us to reach supporters who , for whatever reason,  are no longer in touch with Scargill

Next meeting of Council
The next meeting of Council will be held on December 10th at Scargill

The adventure of faith continues……