A few details and a link to the Approved Governing Document
Each Church with a total income of over £100,000 is required to register as a charity with the Charities Commission.
For a number of reasons, this requires us and most Baptist Churches to adopt a new Constitution. This has to be acceptable to the Charities Commission and to be submitted to them between October 2008 to October 2009.
The Baptist Union of Great Britain has negotiated a model Constitution with the Charities Commission and we propose to use this as the basis of our own new Constitution. It is called the Approved Governing Document. A copy of this 16-page document is on the BUGB web-site and a direct link to it is http://www.baptist.org.uk/resources/resource_downloads/337.pdf
We recommend that members read it - you do not need to print it - just read the bits that interest you. We recommend this includes the Purpose of the Church, the Beliefs of the Church, Responsibilities of membership and also some procedural matters.
The Diaconate will be bringing proposals on this before the Church later in 2008.