One Year On...

It's the last day of June. The 2011 Methodist Conference is due to begin in a couple of days.

A short walk from the Conference venue in Southport, 43 people are gathered for a pre-Conference Consultation – amongst them World Church representatives, partnership coordinators, a few mission partners and some members of staff.

High on the agenda for this consultation is the response to the All Partners Consultation which took place in London a year ago. The Methodist Conference appointed a working group to look into the APC's findings in detail.

“The challenge from the APC report was to follow up the opportunities of the possibilities that came out of it,” says Dr Daleep Mukarji, who chairs the working group. “But we couldn't have our discussions in isolation of what other churches were talking about, and what they were sharing with us.

“Our hope is that by this listening process, we will produce a mission statement, with a vision component and some understanding of mission, - and more importantly, will develop models of working together which will update the nature of the Methodist Missionary Society. But if we want partnership with churches overseas – and if we want to have equal relationships – it won't happen with Britain leading. And so we're looking to the World Methodist Conference, and the World Methodist Council, to provide that overall coordination and cooperation.”

“It's really interesting to see how an event like the APC stimulates people at the time,” says Christine Elliott, Secretary for External Relationships. “But the dynamic of going back and working in your own context and in your own situation – and the demands of that – means that you kind of put it on hold. And it's when we gather again and see each other face to face, we think 'Okay – now I need to think again and move on and be challenged.'

“This morning's session gave us the chance to look again and highlight areas where we need to think together. What does it mean to be addressing issues where women are in the majority in the church, but not in the leadership? How do we encourage young people to take up responsibility in our churches? What about our regional gatherings? We said we wanted to be part of a world-wide body of people, and we meant it – but we've done nothing with what we promised we would do!”

“For us, mission is about justice.,” says Daleep Mukarji. “It's about an inclusive world; it's about dealing with a broken society; it's also dealing with healing and reconciliation, and it's about making disciples of Christ who will then themselves be equipped and challenged to build a world in the perspective of the kingdom of God. And that's what I think this process is about.”

All Partners Consultation: Re-imagining Future Mission Together. June 2010

This consultation was arranged as part of Methodist Church in Britain’s celebration of the centenary of the mission conference Edinburgh 1910; and in recognition that all the former overseas districts of the MCB are now autonomous Churches.

200 men and women from 60 countries and representing 44 conferences of Wesleyan and Methodist traditions, also including those from United and Uniting Churches and ecumenical organisations, were invited to an All Partners Consultation in London June 2010 by the Methodist Church in Britain. We celebrated the journey travelled in the century since Edinburgh 1910, the period that expected to bring people and churches together as friends. The four day gathering worked and worshipped together through prayer, Bible study, presentations, group discussions, conversation and fellowship.

Participants sought to discern the will of God in so far as it concerns the theory and practice of God’s mission through the instrument of the Church. Insights were shared as to how, in a world context that includes wealth, poverty, wars, inequalities of all descriptions, as well as ecological damage, the Church might help to bring about transformation into a world of justice in which the way of God might be discernable. To achieve the vision, all are to be involved; the local congregation, the Church regional, connexional and global – all witnessing and acting together in a spirit marked by togetherness, interdependence and partnership.

In the second half of the consultation the representatives looked at practical ways of realising this vision of God’s mission by working together, notably our use of resources. We recognised that in our interdependence we intentionally choose to be responsive in Church to Church relationships through the sharing of people, insights and money. It was also recognised that all Churches need to learn that self-sustainability is also spiritually healthy. While the invitation from the Methodist Church in Britain to her partners was ‘come over and help us’, it is clear that the participants gathered at the APC believe that ‘we’ are definitely re-imagining future mission together.

We believe that God’s Spirit is calling us to respond to this mission in the following ways:

A. To enrich Church to Church Relationships:
1.By bringing together various theological approaches and methods to reflect the Church’s unity which expresses itself in diversity; in particular rediscovering the emphases of Methodism in today’s context as a gift for all.
2. By valuing each Church’s gifts, experience, theological perspectives, programmes, resources and people; and where we can to share them in practical ways.
3. By working together on informed responses related to global issues such as justice and peace, migration, economy and climate change.
4. By sharing joys and pains, successes and failures, through the establishment of an effective Methodist and Uniting Church communication network.
5. By putting on the appropriate agendas of our national Churches, regional Church groupings and the World Methodist Council, the need to develop a world-wide family of Methodists and Uniting Churches engaged in effective action together.

B. To engage in people to people exchange:
1. By recognising the incarnational mission imperative of people crossing boundaries and learning to live alongside others.
2. By building exchanges of personnel based on deep respect, establishing good protocols and in a spirit of mutual partnership.
3. By enabling and facilitating encounters of many kinds that enrich our churches and our faith; and by committing ourselves to short, medium and longer-term exchanges of people.

4. By committing ourselves to the training and preparation for all personnel sharing, to be done in collaboration to ensure mutual accountability.
5. By promoting initiatives that build capacity such as scholarships and skills based training, notably south to south.

C. To use financial resources in the following ways:
1. By using them in responsive and responsible ways that include shared decision-making and clearly defined objectives; and could include a variety of methods such as investment, long-term loans and credit union facilities.
2. By enhancing the building of the Church globally through education, leadership development, personnel exchange and releasing local resources towards self sustainability.
3. By encouraging the use of technology more effectively to improve church to church communications, feedback and story-telling;
4. By encouraging and, possibly, developing imaginative trading consortia to promote fair-trade between partner churches, and other organisations, with the aim of helping congregations and communities to benefit from each other’s resources.
5. By developing a code of good practice for using money throughout Methodism and ecumenically, that embodies transparency and accountability, including mutual agreements in writing.




x/1 Conference receives the report.

x/2 Conference directs the Secretary for External Relationships to set up a working party to:
i. Explore how best to take forward and build upon the conversations initiated at the Consultation (at local, national, and international levels of the Church).

ii. Make specific recommendations regarding the future of the Methodist Missionary Society in the light of those conversations.

iii. Consider how the Methodist Church in Britain might explore with partners the best structure through which our ongoing and future mission partnerships might develop.

The working party will report to the Conference no later than 2012.
x/3 Conference directs its representatives to the World Methodist Council to inform the WMC of the Consultation and invite the WMC to engage with the issues raised by the Consultation in Durban in 2011.

Pilgrims on the Way Together: A Prayer of Commitment

Recalling how God raised up John and Charles Wesley to preach the Gospel
And respond to social need in their time and place,
We commit ourselves, under God and empowered by his grace,
to work together to preach the Gospel and respond to need around the world in our time.

That means that, by the help of the Holy Spirit
We accept God’s purposes for us
And the call to love and serve God in all we do.

Christ has many services to be done

- Some we can do as individual churches, others can only be done well when we work together
- Some demand that we give of our resources, others demand a readiness to receive resources and people from other places
- Some demand that we work out formal arrangements, others may thrive through informal links
- Some will come naturally to us and give us pleasure, others will challenge all we hold dear

Yet the power to do all these things is given in Jesus Christ, who strengthens us.


Response:

Eternal God, in your faithful and generous love
You call us to share in your mission to the world.
In obedience, we hear and accept your call upon us
And pledge ourselves to work together, that the world may believe.
As Churches around the world and as individual Christians
We willingly offer all we have and all we are to serve God’s people and bring the Kingdom closer.
We offer to serve you, as and where you choose
and ask that your grace be showered on us that we may accomplish your will.

This prayer we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen

Wednesday: A Recap (continued)

The day’s proceedings began in worshipful mode with a communion service. Revd. David Gamble (our outgoing president) led the service, emphasizing the point that communion is an inclusive thing, and that no Christian should be kept from receiving it.

Following communion, delegates set about looking at major issues in our working relationships, so as to facilitate future planning and policies.

The first speaker of the day was Ivan Abrahams, presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of South Africa. Ivan’s talk covered three issues: money, people exchange, and church-to-church relationships. After a very busy morning, there was some respite in the afternoon, during which some delegates went on a visit to Wesley’s Chapel.

For two regions, the day’s discussions had led to some major breakthroughs. When we gathered together again in the evening, we were presented with two joint statements. The first was from the Council of Latin American & Caribbean Methodist Churches, read by Bishop Moises Valderrama (their president). The full text of that report has already been posted elsewhere on this blog.

The second came from leaders from the Indian sub-continent: the Church of South India, Church of North India, Church of Pakistan, Church of Bangladesh and the Methodist Church of Sri Lanka – all represented by Bishop Kumar, moderator of the Church of South India.

Bishop Kumar told us of how their being together here had given them the opportunity to meet together and discuss ways of moving forward together. As a result, the Indian churches now plan to visit Pakistan in November, with the Pakistan church making a return visit in 2011. The South India and Sri Lanka churches have also made a commitment to work together on issues of reconciliation and restoration arising from the civil war and the 2004 tsunami.

Nearly There...

Thursday, 4.00PM: The Consultation has reconvened after a long break during which the Writing Group drew up a first draft of the statement to be presented to Conference. Here, Christine Elliott reads out the first draft (it's actually still being worked on; this is the first bit of it).

“Let Us Reason Together…”

Thursday, just before noon: As the All Partners’ Consultation works its way towards creating a 'credo for mission', this morning has been a time of hearing each others’ ideas from yesterday’s discussions.

A lot of pointers have been brought to the table. It’s been proposed, for example, that we do away with terms such as “receiving church” and “sending church”, as they foster old stereotypes of the churches in poorer countries being dependent on those in richer parts of the world for all their support. And the churches in those less well-off countries have a new determination to find ways of becoming financially self-sustaining.

Having listened to each other’s expectations, priorities and practicalities, the delegates are now having further discussion amongst themselves. The aim is that by the end of today, we should have produced a joint statement laying out exactly what we believe God is calling us to as a body of churches.

Like vuvuzelas in a South African stadium, the room is abuzz with the sound of conversation...

And we're off (again)...

The final day of the All Partners' Consultation has begun. We've just prayed and sang a song from New Zealand; right now Rev. George Mulrain is giving the assembly a recap of Wednesday's proceeedings. I'll be doing the same here later today.

When George's recap is over, it will be time to start the job of putting together what this consultation will present to Conference next week.