wannabepriest

If you are a member of General Synod or you know someone who is on General Synod, can I encourage you to point them to this website and these key questions relating to the outsourcing of much of the publishing services that CHP provide to the Archbishops’ Council.

I’m not going to blog ad-infinitum about this issue but I think it’s important to note that, as things stand, I’m not sure if General Synod will get a say on the outsourcing of CHP. However, I think they ought to be given the chance to comment and debate this move.

The recent Archbishop’s Council Financial Review (PDF) didn’t cover it. It just said in paragraph 43:

‘Clearly the Council will have continuing publishing requirements. How they should best be met and what net cost if any there should be to the Council’s budget is currently being reviewed separately by the Council and we have not therefore examined that area ourselves.’

So, as far as I can tell, this is yet to come before Synod in any form. So, Synod members, ask the questions!

If anyone wishes to add a key question in the comments (or re-word my questions more appropriately or sharpen them up), I’ll be happy to update this post accordingly.

• Under the terms of the agreement to outsource CHP’s publishing function to Hymns Ancient & Modern, will the Archbishops’ Council retain the right to publish any product that it considers important to publish, even if it is expected that such a product will not be commercially viable?
• If the Archbishops’ Council future publishing output is now subject singly to commercial concerns following the outsourcing of its publishing function to Hymns Ancient & Modern, can the Archbishops’ Council confirm which titles and genres of title stand to be lost to the Church of England in the future?
• Is the Archbishops’ Council able to confirm that, with the outsourcing of CHP’s publishing function to Hymns Ancient & Modern, the new-media work of CHP (including Visual Liturgy) may be discontinued?
• Under the terms of the agreement to outsource CHP’s publishing function to Hymns Ancient & Modern, can the Archbishops’ Council confirm that technical support will continue to be provided to CHP’s existing portfolio of new media products including Visual Liturgy?
• What provision — pastoral as well as financial — is being made for staff who now face the very real possibility of redundancy? (ht: Phil)

The following two questions are not quite as important as the others, I think… but are still good questions.

• Can the Archbishops’ Council give an indication of how much money it receives in refunded VAT each year as a result of having Church House Publishing in-house and how does it expect that arrangement to continue once CHP’s publishing function is mostly outsourced to Hymns Ancient & Modern?
• To the Ministry Division. Is the Ministry Division able to say how many ordinands currently in training and curates currently serving title posts cited the publication of Mission-shaped Church as a significant factor in offering for ordination? (ht: Sheridan)