The board meeting in May was the first with the two new board members and a number of re-elected members. The new board members introduced themselves briefly and were warmly welcomed at the beginning of the meeting by the chairman. It will be exciting to work together in the coming year!
After a theological reflection from the Interim Senior Pastor Claes-Göran Ydrefors and a conversation around the theme ‘Green church’ the meeting continued with a reflection on the annual meeting that was recently held. Thoughts about what went well and not so well were shared by board members and documented to be used in the future and in order to make future meetings at least as good as this annual meeting. The Presidium, and above all the chairman, received a lot of praise for their safe implementation, with explanations of the processes in an understandable way.
In order to simplify and streamline the Board’s work, the board has a number of work committees (such as the finance committee or staff committee). These committees prepare matters that are discussed or decided on in the board, as well as support the congregation’s management where needed. We discussed existing committees, some proposals for new committees and ways of working with these committees. At the next board meeting (9 June) we will discuss and decide on the staffing of the committees.
The chairman suggested having a strategy day for the board and the management this autumn – the exact date will be decided at the next meeting.
There is a lot of ongoing recruitment in the Church. The personnel committee and management gave a status report on this. A more in-depth report was made on the recruitment process of the international interim pastor. The candidate pastor Gabor Lassu was presented and the board decided to hire him as interim pastor.
The international council has sent a letter to the board, which we discussed in our meeting. A proposed response by the chairman was discussed and we agreed that there is much value in continued dialogue and clarification of the roles and responsibilities of the board, the councils and the church’s management and pastors. The chairman was tasked with responding to the international council in line with our discussion.
At the end of the meeting, a number of reports and organizational matters were discussed. Examples are the invitation to the board by the diaconal committee to a “future cafe” in October, a report from Probitas that bookings of Hotel Birger Jarl has increased, a minor restructuring of the Probitas board as well as decisions regarding signatures for the congregation.
After praying, the meeting ended.