And Methodism's leadership says...? #synod

I was copied into a brief email conversation late last night between the senior leadership of the Methodist Church who are currently engaged in dealing with some heightened media attention...and, I think, enjoying the opportunity to make clear what the President of Conference was saying. I've had further emails from various people this morning and have finally been given the go ahead to use some direct quotes from them...

The President himself, apparently the most senior Methodist in the land (surely not, he doesn't look a day over...), is pleased with the positive message that is coming across in a good deal of the media conversations he has been having, and especially in the conversations held at Synod after the speech yesterday.  That message is clear – for Methodists, the mission of God, the kingdom of God, the need to spread a gospel of love and justice, are more important than to us than even our continued existence as a church or denomination.  It’s not that we’re reconciled to Methodism’s end or have some sort of death wish.  It’s our love for Church and our passion to serve God in whatever way we can.

Chris Elliott, our Secretary for External Relationships, was present in Church HOuse yesterday and spent time with Synod members after the meeting, picking up on comments and opportunities. Chris commented:

I am confident that members of General Synod I spoke with yesterday in the tea room and at the ecumenical lunch understoodthe challenge the President and Vice-President gave, and also the extremely bold offer of being prepared to lay down something good we have as a Methodist Church for something that could be better, and stronger...and different, but always for mission and the gospel.

Ken Howcroft, Assistant Secretary of Conference and our Ecumenical Officer summed up the argument behind what was after all a concluding comment:

Methodism began as a discipleship movement within the wider church, a society of people seeking holiness and engaging in mission. It’s calling was expressed as “spreading scriptural holiness throughout the land”. The modern expression of that is the programme Our Calling. We have over time gradually become a church.  We cherish our traditions and history as a church. We cherish our institutions and structures. But we still have the DNA of a  movement. And we recognise that if our institutions and structures get in the way of mission and the kingdom, the demands of mission and the kingdom must take precedence. So Methodists have voted constantly over the years for unity schemes that are designed to increase the whole church’s effectiveness in mission. This is not a death wish, but a desire to be obedient and a willingness to be transformed. We can countenance ceasing to exist as a separate Church because we know that we will still be the Methodist people within a wider Church. There is a renewed self-confidence amongst Methodists in many places (the President and Vice-President mentioned some of them in their address drawing on their experience on their travels) and an increasing sense of the energy of God’s love being released amongst us.

This is, of course, not easy. The spirituality of the covenant service challenges us. It also challenges our ecumenical partners. Are we all prepared to be changed for the sake of mission and the kingdom?

We often talk of ecumenism being about receiving gifts from each other. When gifts are exchanged both the givers and the receivers are changed. Are we prepared to be changed and transformed by each other as we grow together in the service of Christ? I wonder whether this comment could be expanded with an analogy to engagement and marriage: two people become one flesh. That does not mean that they become less than two individuals but more. What they are as individuals is enhanced by the ways in which they enrich each other. And at the same time both parties are changed by their relationship.

Ken is drawing here on quite a bit of the background about which I blogged the other day. And I am glad that there is so much agreement about the very heart of what David Gamble was saying. 

Richard Vautrey is the current Vice-President of Conference and co-presented the address to Synod with David. Richard said to me in an email this morning: 

Our sense at Synod was that we were warmly welcomed and that our visit has acted as a catalyst to further movement in our relationship. However the most important sentence was our final challenge to the Church of England. We are ready to be changed, we have been for years and repeatedly said so as you have so helpfully reminded us, but are they? 

Richard raises an important point here that hasn't really been picked up in the media coverage so far. 

If we are willing to cease to exist for the Kingdom's sake, is the Church of England? 

Is the Church of England, reformata semper reformanda (reformed but always for reforming), willing to embrace change and renewal through its ecumenical endeavour? 

I can't speak on their behalf, but my feeling after working on a number of committees and with key people in the Church of England's ecumenical structure, that the answer might be a resounding yes! The point here is not Methodism's imminent demise. The point is that both our churches have a passion for mission, and a fixed intention reach out to all people that all might know the saving love of Christ.

Pete

1 Corinthians 9:19-22: Though I am free and belong to no human, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

Comments

[Duttyo]

I'm glad Richard made that point....it's what i was trying to ask in this blog http://duttyo.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/always-for-the-gospel/