Linking with Lausanne
Our congregation met at the close of worship on Sunday February 4 2024 to vote on a basis of deferred linking with the Scots Kirk Lausanne. The Lausanne congregation met on the same day. Both congregations agreed to the linkage.
The agreement between the two congregations was approved by the International Presbytery at a special meeting on February 23 2024 and has also been approved by the Presbytery Mission Plan Implementation Group in Scotland.
The Scots Kirk Lausanne has been vacant since its minister retired in June 2023.
On June 16 2024, the two congregations, meeting separately, elected a nominating committee – seven members from the Scots Kirk, six from the Church of Scotland, Geneva – to seek a new minister based in Lausanne, who will become the minister of the linked charge when our own minister steps down.
The new minister may be drawn from the Church of Scotland or one of our sister churches in the World Communion of Reformed Churches and will be elected by both congregations, voting separately.
If the new minister comes from outwith the Church of Scotland, she or he will serve for three years in the first instance, with the possibility of a one-time extension for up to three years. (To continue in post after that, the minister would need to “transfer” into the Church of Scotland.)
When our own congregation in turn becomes vacant, the same procedure will be followed.
Why (on earth) are we doing this?
In Genesis 12, we read that Abram (Abraham) goes down to Egypt because there is a famine in the land of Canaan, and the famine is severe.
Today, too, there is a famine: a severe shortage of ordained ministers in the Church of Scotland.
We are one of 12 congregations in the International Presbytery . 10 of these congregations are in Europe (outside the UK), the other two in Bermuda and Sri Lanka. The current presbytery plan allows for no more than five full-time Church of Scotland ministers. Making sure all 12 congregations are adequately supplied with ministers required some fancy footwork!
We and our sister congregation in Lausanne are agreed to wanting a full-time minister each. Linking our two congregations allows us to do that, with, in each case, a minister from either the Church of Scotland or one of our sister churches.
Linking is not union (but can be close)
Geneva will remain Geneva and Lausanne, Lausanne. We will each have our own kirk session (the committee of minister(s) and elders that oversees the congregation). We will still have separate finances, if only because we are in two different Swiss cantons.
The linking can mean as little or as much as our two congregations want. This may well change over time.
One of the two ministers in Geneva and Lausanne will be the minister of the linked charge; the other, an associate. The minister of the linked charge may chair both of our kirk sessions but may delegate that role to the associate in the congregation where the associate is based.
Our two kirk sessions will meet together at least once a year. Otherwise, we can choose to be ships passing in the night.
Or we can choose to grow closer together over the years. This would be to live “ecumenically” with our sister congregation in Lausanne, doing together all those things that are better done in common.
Last updated: October 18 2024
