PriorityAreasActionPlan-ChurchofScotland.pdfVIP

Church of Scotland Ministries Council Priority Areas Action Plan January 2010 Introduction The 2009 General Assembly approved a set of strategic principles and priorities for the Church’s work in its poorest neighbourhoods over the next seven years (Celebrating the Past, Glimpsing the Future, May 2009). In doing so it instructed the Ministries Council, in collaboration with others, to bring forward a detailed Priority Areas Action Plan to the 2010 General Assembly. The responsibility for the Church’s work within priority areas is the shared responsibility of all parts of the Church in line with the General Assembly’s longstanding commitment that ‘priority for the poorest and most marginalised is the Gospel imperative facing the whole Church.’ As such, any effective Action Plan must work effectively across all parts of the Church’s national (as well as regional and local) structures. Over the past year the Priority Areas Committee, which has a developmental and coordinating function for the work of priority areas has worked collaboratively within the national structures of the Church – as well as a whole range of other partners – to bring forward an Action Plan which builds upon previous work and which focuses on the priorities agreed by the 2009 General Assembly. Three Spheres of Activity For the last seven years the work within priority areas has been focused around three inter-linking spheres of activity. These are: ? Engaging with Wider Church Society where the primary focus is about challenging the injustice of poverty in Scotland. People in Scotland continue to die young – and to live damaged lives because of poverty. The Church cannot remain silent (or ignorant) for as long as this situation continues to exis