A note about the quantitative and qualitative data
Throughout the report there are references to quantitative data drawn from across the life of the Church. This data comes from Response Forms prepared for the Collective Discernment Phase of the project focussing on the Directions and Options put forward in Act2: In Response to God’s Call. We received responses from 223 discernment groups representing 2,028 participants across Church Councils, Synods, Presbyteries and the Assembly:
- Church Councils (115 discernment groups, 1,080 participants).
- Presbyteries (39 discernment groups, 428 participants).4
- Synods (63 discernment groups, 499 participants).
- Assembly (6 discernment groups, 21 participants).5
The response forms asked people to indicate whether they were:
- Supportive, generally warm to this Direction/Option.
- Open, open to this Direction/Option with questions or concerns.
- Not supportive, generally cool to this Direction/Option.
Within the report two views of these results have been presented:
- Supportive, this shows the percentage of groups that indicated they were supportive of the Direction or Option. For example, 75% of the groups were supportive of Direction 1.
- Supportive + Open, this adds together the percentage of groups that were supportive with the percentage of groups that were open to the Direction or Option. For example, 75% of groups were supportive of Direction 1, 18% were Open to Direction 1. Therefore Supportive + Open is 93%.
Where we have included percentages in the summary, these are percentages of the total number of discernment group forms. Where these percentages are related to feedback from councils of the church, it is the percentage of the total number of discernment group forms received from that council.
Qualitative comments were also collected about the Directions and Options. Church Councils were asked to focus primarily on the Directions while the wider councils of the Church were asked to focus primarily on the Options. There were also 108 responses from individuals to a similar form. Individuals were asked for comments on the Directions and Options. In addition, 77 formal written submissions were received.
Inevitably, there are limitations in the data. All councils of the Church were invited to use the Response Forms and submission process to respond to the Directions and Options. Some parts of the Church set aside significant time in their meetings, engaged deeply with the material, utilised the Response Forms and provided all the material to the Act2 Project. Some approached the material with more qualitative discussion which led to thematic feedback. Some were only able to dedicate a small amount of time in their meetings. Some considered alternative ideas, reflections or proposals. Some councils did not consider the report at all.
The Act2 team sought to collect as much material as possible in whatever form it was available. All responses were read, analysed and synthesised. A summary of the feedback is found in two of the chapters below:
Chapter 6
In Service of the Gospel
Ordering Our Life
Chapter 4
Building One
Another Up in Love
Life Giving Communities of Faith and Discipleship
The quantitative data provides a partial and incomplete picture of the response to the Directions and Options. However, collectively it does give an indicative sense of the sentiment of the Church, particularly when joined with the qualitative comments and submissions. The summary of the quantitative and qualitative data is offered to aid in the discernment of the Church about the best way forward for its life.
Footnotes
