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.

Behind the Scenes, #3: El Jefe

The last of our translators is Donald Reasoner. Donald is from the United Methodist Church; he’s based in New York, and his full time job is co-ordinating translation services at conferences such as APC in various parts of the world. At APC he has also been translating into Spanish and Portuguese, and he wrote the full text of the English version of the statement given by the Latin American church leaders yesterday.

Behind the Scenes, #2: Bonjour, tout le monde…

Let’s meet another member of our team of intrepid interpreters. This is Dr. Valentin Dedji, a circuit minister at the New River Church in north London, who is handling French translation duties here at APC. Enchanté

Wednesday: A Recap (part 1)

(Note from George: the blog was a bit thin on the ground yesterday, due to me suddenly becoming ill with an extremely sore neck. My sincere thanks to everyone who looked after me, prayed, and helped gather information while I was unable to do any blogging myself.

And with that, here’s a round up of what happened here yesterday.)

Actually, let’s start with the last few things that happened on Tuesday – picking up from where we left off, which was the first of our three visions of where the Church ought to be in the year 2020.

Our second ‘visionary’ was the Revd. Hans Baxby, representing UMC Europe (Eurasia). Hans had three points, the main theme of which was that he wanted to see the Church less dependent on outside finances. Churches should be self-sustainable, using their offerings to fund basic running costs and only applying for connexional grants for special projects. Conferences should also be self-sustainable.

Hans pointed out that the Church in his part of Europe is relatively young (the Russian church, for example, is only 19 years old). He concluded by saying that “We will only be a spiritually sound church when we are a financially sound church.”

Then the Revd Dr Joshva Raja (from India) gave his vision for the future. Obviously a keen sportsman, Joshva told us that mission was a ‘do or die’ game in which you needed to get good numbers (just like in 20:20 cricket).

Then, football in hand, Joshva gave a few other pointers –not just to the assembled delegates but also the England team (who must have heard him, since they went on to qualify for the next round the following day). His pointers were:

• Have one mind. Be single-minded, but not identical.
• Put the Church in the context of others.
• When necessary, change your approach.

After we’d heard the visions and had some time to think over them, it was the turn of Revd. Stephen Poxon (Secretary of the MMS) to speak. He gave us a historic background to the role of mission work within Methodism, telling us the story of Nathaniel Gilbert – a slave owner who had converted to Christianity and been baptised, along with his slaves. The first recorded Methodist from outside Britain was an un-named black female slave, illustrating the point that Methodism had always provided a spiritual home for people society deemed ‘nameless’, and that Methodists should continue to do so. He concluded with a challenge to us to consider how to move on in the future, and whether the time was right to form a World Methodist Missionary Society.

With the talking over, it was time for everyone to assemble in front of the auditorium doors for a group photograph. Much hilarity ensued as the photographer conducted the huge task of getting everyone in shot.