The Church Council replaced the traditional Leaders’ Meeting under the changes brought about throughout the Methodist Church in Ireland through the Connexions reforms programme. This was a time when the Methodist Church underwent a period of review to determine its focus a little like our journey through Clearing our Vision.

The first Church Council was elected by the presiding Leaders’ Meeting in November 2005 and commenced in January 2006 under the Chairmanship of Rev Peter Murray. It was agreed that there would be 18 elected members and 6 officials. The officials are appointed for a 3 year period by the minister and the elected members are nominated by the minister but elected by the congregation. Each year 5 elected members retire and another 5 new members are elected.

The Church Council members are ultimately responsible for overseeing the entire work and direction of the church covering aspects of finance, personnel, child protection, work of the teams and development of our premises etc. We currently have 7 action teams which each have a clear area of responsibility and membership – Media and Communications, Vision , Evangelism, Fellowship, Finance and Property, Worship, Youth and Children’s and Training and Action. Some teams have sub groups that are accountable to it e.g. the Small Group Steering Committee and the Hospitality Team are responsible to the Fellowship Team and once the Prayer team is formed it will be responsible to the Worship Team.

Each team is accountable to the Church Council and where possible there is a Council Member on each team to ensure that there is a direct link with Council. It has a very demanding programme of events and work, and relies on other members of the congregation to assist with these responsibilities.

The Society Stewards assist the minister in overseeing the day to say running of the church and addressing any needs that are not specifically attached to any team or official. The team leaders meet a few times each year to ensure that they are supporting and informed about the work that is going on throughout the whole church and identifying areas and events that they can work together on a project basis.