"METHODISM OFFERS TO DIE, TO RISE AGAIN"

From Ruth Gledhill:

No-one ever expects much from presentations with titles such as 'An Address by the President and Vice-President of the Methodist Conference'.

So it rather surprised us all when we suddenly realised that David Gamble, President of the Methodist Conference, told us that the Methodist Church was prepared to sacrifice its very existence and return to the Anglican fold, for the sake of the greater good of the Gospel.

From the website of the Methodist Church in England on the address to General Synod by President Revd David Gamble and Vice-President Dr Richard Vautrey of the Methodist Conference:

The President and the Vice-President of the Methodist Conference addressed the Church of England’s General Synod this morning, expressing the Methodist Church’s commitment to a covenant relationship with the Church of England and answering questions from synod members in a discussion following their address.

Revd David Gamble and Dr Richard Vautrey said that the Covenant relationship was a “serious, deeply committed relationship” and “not an irrelevant extra”. They said that responses to the challenges of the Covenant should be driven by a desire for mission.

Revd David Gamble said: “Within God’s overwhelming gracious covenant relationship with us and with our churches, we are in a covenant with each other. For better for worse, for richer for poorer, but always for the gospel.”

Dr Richard Vautrey talked about the work that the two Churches do together, referring to the Churches’ joint action on climate change and support for the Citizens for Sanctuary campaign.

“We can and do work together on issues of social justice, on issues that we both know God calls on us to challenge our society and our world,” said Dr Vautrey. “There is more that we could and should be doing together. David and I have just come back from a visit to Israel/Palestine. There can be few other places in the world where the cries for justice and peace strike deeper in to the heart. We know that Archbishop Rowan is shortly to visit Israel, and perhaps on his return we should explore ways that we could jointly work to help Methodists and Anglicans to respond to the increasingly desperate cries for help coming from the Holy Land.”

Revd David Gamble posed the question of how the two Churches could respond to the challenges of the 21st century; a society of different faiths, cultures and histories.

“Methodists approach the Covenant with the Church of England in the spirituality of the Covenant prayer,” said Revd David Gamble. “So when we say to God ‘let me have all things let me have nothing’, we say it by extension to our partners in the Church of England as well. We are prepared to go out of existence not because we are declining or failing in mission, but for the sake of mission. In other words we are prepared to be changed and even to cease having a separate existence as a Church if that will serve the needs of the Kingdom.”

Oh my! This sort of self-sacrificial offering takes my breath away. What a fine example of following Jesus' teaching on the grain of wheat. As numbers continue to decline in the mainline denominations, the churches may be forced into ceasing to have separate existences, but it's lovely to see the Methodists take the initiative to offer to die as a denomination for the sake of the mission of the church.

I have no idea how this offer will resonate with the clergy and laity of either church or whether the offer will bear fruit, nevertheless, I commend the Methodists for taking the first step.