NI Presbyterian mutual society, Short of funds for withdrawal?

crusty_toenail

Witless wrote: »

Scourge the moneylenders & throw them out of the temple?

never a borrower or a lender be:) maybe the most christian thing to do is sell some of the churches assets to pay back these savers NOW? Waiting for the property/land market to recover will take years.... money wont flow back into the same bubble it gets re-directed elsewhere, bubbles take 17 years or so to peak.

fivealive_2

Yesterday I received a letter from Lady Sylvia Hermon detailing her recent exchange of correspondence with Arlene Foster; there is nothing new or encouraging in this; however I find it encouraging to see concrete evidence that people like herself are continuing to beaver away in the background on our behalf AND take the trouble to let us know. :T:T
If I lived in her constituency she would certainly have my vote. :A

goodbyepci

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/presbyterian-minister-turns-to-art-14927807.html

BETRAYED

Belfast Telegraph

on Keith Drury Former PCI Minister

The work on the PMS crisis had particular resonance for the Presbyterian minister of 19 years.It portrays a man with a painting under his arm running away from a slogan declaring "come back with the money".
"That was also a sort of self portrait as the person running away and exiting the scene from the church," he said. "It's also a commentary on how I think Presbyterian church as a whole has run away from the savers and hasn't really addressed the problem."

expat68

I heard there is a meeting at Bannside church next Friday (10 Sept) at 730pm - apparently Stafford Carson and some MPs will attend.

Are similar meetings planned at other churches - anyone know reasons for this one?

expat68

expat68 wrote: »

I heard there is a meeting at Bannside church next Friday (10 Sept) at 730pm - apparently Stafford Carson and some MPs will attend.

Are similar meetings planned at other churches - anyone know reasons for this one?

Found the answer myself !!

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/PMS-savers-urged-to-attend.6502929.jp

joylikes2shop

expat68 wrote: »

Found the answer myself !!

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/PMS-savers-urged-to-attend.6502929.jp

I went to the PMS meeting at Bessbrook Presbyterian Church this evening.I don't have time to write much right now, but for those of you who are looking for information about how it went, here is my synopsis:-
The panel were made up of Stafford Carson,Danny Kennedy, Rev McIntyre and 3 members of the PMS SAVERS LOBBY GROUP NI & ROI which included Ian McGimpsey.


Danny Kennedy introduced himself as the chairman of the meeting, and explained that as well as a political interest in the PMS situation,he had a personal interest as the clerk of session in Bessbrook.

Ian McGimpsey spoke next,for about 15 minutes, detailing the work of the PMS Savers Lobby Group to date.We heard how the lobby group need our support and that we need to 'unite as Presbyterians' in our efforts to lobby Government and local politicians. There were information sheets available at the end of the meeting which contained email and postal addresses for the relevant politicians along with suggestions about what to include in any communication which was very helpful.

Stafford Carson spoke for about 20 mins detailing the work which he and 'the church' has been involved in, including who he'd met with, and spoken to, in an attempt to find a satisfactory resolution.( All this information is available in some shape or form if you look back through all the various links on here.)He also mentioned that in the last year he had regularly attended 2 different church congregations every Sunday to talk about the PMS situation.He admitted that the whole affair had 'cast a long and dark shadow over the church'.

Then the chairman asked if there were any questions from the floor.

The first question related to the £4 million being spent on 'luxuries at Church House. Interestingly Stafford Carson highlighted the fact that not all Presbyterians have money in the PMS and (sadly) not all Presbyterians 'share the same concerns' of PMS savers, and this needed to be taken into account.

Someone asked if the judge- who described savers as 'investors' -might be challenged about making this distinction. ....Stafford Carson replied that due to a number of legal issues ( which I don't have time to type up) he couldn't be.

Questions were asked about the proposed bank take over of PMS and also what would happen if the take over didn't happen. The answers were along the lines of 'it makes good business sense for a bank to take it over' and 'we'd ask the government to do something else' ...but these...an a few other answers to some questions were- in my opinion- no more than supposition....I mean this in a 'nice' way.

There had been talk about who was to 'blame' for the current PMS situation...at one point someone suggested that since the savers themselves had actually caused the current situation by withdrawing so much money, that actually 'WE' were to blame !!!!....needless to say this did NOT go down well.

Because the church hall was packed to capacity ( approx 200 people according the minister) and there is quite clearly a need for more (and regular) meetings through out the province,the question was asked if more could not be done by the church to organise more regional meetings in order to update savers. Stafford Carson explained that he as an individual couldn't contact every church to arrange this, and also admitted that 'there is a flaw in the process' whereby the information sent out from the church does not always make it through to everyone.

Someone else - from Belfast- said that they'd been discouraged from even mentioning the PMS in their church, and another person said that they'd been made to feel like a leper by their church.
Stafford Carson seemed genuinely concerned that these people felt the way they did and said 'I am so sorry'.


In addition to the above information, I realised that meetings like the one in Bessbrook tonight need to be arranged through the Presbytery, and they only seem be to arranged if someone ( or a group of people) request it, so if you are interested in having one in your area, it seems that you will need to hassle your clerk of presbytery.

Finally, great emphasis was put on the importance of lobbying the ministerial working group before its next meeting on the 8th September, so if anyone hasn't already done so, or doesn't know how to, please feel free to PM me.
Having said that, I'm off to bed now, and will be at work tomorrow so apologies if I don't reply very quickly.

JOY

fivealive_2

Thanks as ever Joy for all your hard work behind the scenes lobbying, networking, and keeping people informed etc :T :T
:happylove

anneofavonlea

Since I am new to this forum, I would wish to congratulate Joy on her most informative blog. Having retired a few years ago, I like so many others felt I was helping the church by putting my lump sum in the mutual. I did not think for one minute that I was investing, I assumed it was simply a means whereby I could help the Presbyterian Church and have a safe place to save my money. How wrong I was. The savers in Templepatrick presbytery have been kept in the dark. Would value a meeting in this area!!!

fivealive_2

anneofavonlea wrote: »

Since I am new to this forum, I would wish to congratulate Joy on her most informative blog. Having retired a few years ago, I like so many others felt I was helping the church by putting my lump sum in the mutual. I did not think for one minute that I was investing, I assumed it was simply a means whereby I could help the Presbyterian Church and have a safe place to save my money. How wrong I was. The savers in Templepatrick presbytery have been kept in the dark. Would value a meeting in this area!!!

Welcome to the Forum. :wave: