2009 News Items

Energetic start!
Greetings in these first weeks of a new connexional year ! We trust that you have been refreshed by the summer break for the round of fresh activity that the autumn always brings.

We have been energised in a number of ways recently:

• by meeting the 17 ministers who have just arrived in the District and by sharing in the  welcome services arranged by their Circuits which bring together local churches, community partners and individual friends from many places – gathering to pledge their prayers and offer their support.
• by a new format Synod, with its inspiring reminders of the wide-ranging involvement of the Christian community beyond the walls of the church.  While the day itself show-cased some of the higher profile expressions of Christian presence it also prompted informal sharing of a wide variety of local initiatives – keep checking the web-site for new stories of what Methodists in London are doing!
• by reports of the Big Buzz , a day when 40 young people and some of their leaders got together to suggest ways the District could support some of the significant youth work that is going on.  We anticipate real developments in the profile of youth activities across the District in the coming months – as well as a lively London contribution to the connexional Youth Assembly in November.

Each of these events involved people stepping off the normal treadmill, taking a risk or sharing a vision – things that don’t always come easily but very often repay the extra effort.    As programmes already begin to shape up for the year ahead, could the Spirit be leading you to explore an initiative that might refresh God’s people where you are?

• How could Advent be celebrated in a new way? Or Lent?
• Could you share the current district focus on the contribution of young people?
• Or keep some space in the diary to follow up the initiative to explore vocation that will be launched next Spring?

Anything new is likely to take energy and longer-term planning – and the beginning of a new Methodist year is as good a time as any to start!   

We look forward to sharing the coming months with you - as we travel both the well-trod paths and perhaps some that are less familiar.

With every blessing for all that you undertake,

Ermal, Jenny & Stuart

Special anniversaries can be both significant and slightly dangerous. Marking the  Big-O’s in our lives and the lives of our churches is important and inescapable; they can be times of celebration and remembering, and even opportunities for taking stock and making new commitments.

The risk is that they become ends in themselves: church members may need a year to recover from centenary celebrations that took two years to plan, and in the meantime there is little energy for the continuing mission. Or, again, it is possible to highlight certain features of the past and be oblivious to other things that have taken place that might have been of greater significance in kingdom terms.

In 2010, the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and Americas (MCCA) will celebrate 250 years of Methodist work in that region. In 1758, Nathaniel Gilbert, a plantation owner from Antigua, arrived with two slaves at a house in Wandsworth which was owned by his brother Francis. While he was there, an itinerant preacher, the Revd John Wesley, visited on a number of occasions.

It was not only the Gilberts who were impressed by Mr Wesley’s message, Nathaniel’s slaves also responded and were baptised by Mr Wesley. In June 1759, Nathaniel Gilbert and his slaves left Wandsworth to return to Antigua and it was from their preaching and teaching that the Methodist work developed.

This anniversary is worth noting because there are several fascinating connections with the present London District, which have been brought to light by the work of Phyllis Plummer and the Revd Kavula John:

• The house of Francis Gilbert was on a street now called Fairfield Street and in 1772 the first Methodist Chapel in the area was built just round the corner in what is now Wandsworth High Street. The St John’s Church in the Wandle Valley Circuit traces its origins back to that Chapel.
• In his Journal, John Wesley refers to one of the slaves he baptised in November 1758 as “the first African Christian I have known”. We can be fairly sure that she was originally of West African origin. The present Superintendent of the Wandle Valley Circuit, the Revd Emmanuel Aggrey-Ogoe, is from Ghana.
• On his return to Antigua, Nathaniel Gilbert built a Chapel in one of the rooms of his home and also preached to his slaves from the steps of his house. Two pieces of those stone steps are to be found in the London District: one serves as the Baptismal Font at Methodist Church House and the other fulfils the same purpose at Wesley’s Chapel, City Road.
• Nathaniel Gilbert travelled from Antigua to Wandsworth to hear Mr Wesley and returned to Antigua to spread his message. The Revd Ermal Kirby, one of the District Chairs, was born in Antigua, came to England as a child and was called to faith through the preaching of the descendents of those early Methodists.

Anniversaries are significant; and perhaps one way of avoiding some of their risk is by making sure that the focus of our celebration is always on the amazing grace of God that can be traced in so many unexpected ways.

Growing Up

Hymns can be dangerous: they lure us into affirming things that we would think twice about saying if they were not set to such a catchy tune or couched in such lyrical verse.

(Beware, also, the hazard of songs presented via PowerPoint, where there is no chance to scrutinise the words and we can sing things contrary to our doctrines before we realise it – but that’s another matter!)

Even within the approved canon, there can be pitfalls. How real is the picture of Church suggested by lines such as, “Ev’n now we think and speak the same and cordially agree” or “Lowly, meek in thought and word, altogether like our Lord”?

It never was the case that Christians always held the same view about everything; differences of understanding and interpretation are found from the very beginning. It is, perhaps, a sign of growing maturity when a group of people will openly acknowledge their differences and yet remain in union with one another.

There was undoubtedly a painful moment for many members of Synod, as we debated the Notice of Motion on membership of extremist parties, but it was also a moment of growth when people could be free to express views that were in conflict with those of fellow members.

The task now is to continue to affirm and deepen our unity without diminishing our evident diversity.

Now, there’s a challenge as we journey to Pentecost!

District Chairs

 

Eastertide

After several years when the winters have seemed quite untypically mild, this winter we have had ‘real snow’ and spring has come as a welcome burst of light and new life.

In some parts of the Church and in our nation more generally, we have been experiencing the cold of winter. Our looking forward, as Christians, is not to the natural cycle of spring following winter, but much more profoundly to the hope of resurrection – which can be discerned in the depth of winter, just as readily as in the brightening days of spring.

Christian hope is not a synonym for ‘wish’: it is confidence in the purposes of God being fulfilled in life or death. Having journeyed through Lent, we come to Eastertide with hope renewed, shouting with joy, “Alleluia, the Lord is risen; risen indeed, Alleluia!”

May that cry be still resounding in our ears and in our hearts as we meet on 25 April in Synod, the next stage of our journeying together.

Come, share our Easter joy
That death could not imprison,
Nor any power destroy
Our Christ, who is arisen!

District Chairs

 

Lent

For the past two years, as District Chairs we have set aside time in our diaries during Lent for an exercise that we have called ‘Listening to London’. We took the opportunity to walk around the District and meet people who were available for conversation and refreshment at identified staging posts: it was an enlightening and enriching experience.

This year, we wanted to do our listening in a different way, by engaging with people involved in five key sectors of our City’s life –  education, social services, health, London governance, commerce – and reflecting with them on the challenges they faced and how the Gospel connected with their work. It was an ambitious programme and in the end it was not possible to make the necessary arrangements in time for this Lent – though we already have our sights on 2010!  Meantime, we will be attempting a more limited pilot venture this year, using some of the time we had set aside to listen to those who are engaged from different perspectives with issues of asylum and immigration.

On the first day of Lent, we joined friends at Wesley’s Chapel for their lunchtime service. The words of preparation in the Service for Ash Wednesday (Methodist Worship Book, page 141ff) set the tone for our listening and our actions:

In the name of Christ [we] invite you to observe this holy season of Lent, by prayer, self-denial, and charitable giving; by self-examination and repentance; and by reading and meditating on God’s word.

However that seasonal invitation translates into your situation and practice, may your renewed engagement with scripture, colleagues, congregations or local communities be marked by a readiness to listen afresh.

May God bless you richly as, with Christ, you journey through Lent.

District Chairs

 

Greetings and our very best wishes for the New Year! -
Inevitably another January is surrounded by expectations and opportunities for new beginnings. 

As individuals, some of us pursue the well-trodden route of new year resolutions – too often towards a premature dead-end as temporary bursts of will-power run into the sand of habit.
As part of worshipping communities, many of us renew our commitment as Christian disciples within the Covenant service – and in that solemn moment also reclaim the promise of God’s faithfulness to us.

Within the London District we would also want to encourage a ‘third way’ towards renewal alongside our personal endeavours and our covenant relationship of faith – the way of intentionality.

Intentionality is not about doing more but about doing differently.  It’s about reflecting on what we are trying to achieve in our many activities as congregations, Circuits or as a District and how we could be more effective, adding value to what we already do.   That may involve some honest assessment, a greater clarity of purpose or a willingness to try a new approach – but experience increasingly shows how productive such intentionality can be.

• Three applications supported by the District Advance Fund this month were from churches that are taking seriously the need to revitalise their worship and involve young people through an investment in music – instruments, training, technology
• One Circuit has decided that learning and growth are important enough to safeguard one evening a week from all business meetings so that on that evening study programmes can take place – and that common commitment has in turn evoked commitments from individual church members who are keen to take part. 
• Another Circuit Meeting has consciously decided to alternate business and devotional sessions to ensure that its members do not lose sight of their common mission and purpose
• The district-run Local Preachers’ access course is intensive and time-demanding of both students and tutors – but its pattern of weekly tutorials and bi-monthly residential weekends generates a sense of discovery and common purpose which energises all those involved.
• The connexion has invested significant resources to enable the provision of Training Officers alongside District Development Enablers (DDEs).  On February 1 Daniella Fetuga-Joensuu will begin work as the full-time district Discipleship & Training Officer alongside Paul Kybird the DDE.  This is itself the result of a conscious strategy, but Daniella and Paul also represent a significant resource for churches and Circuits who want to be more intentional and effective in what they do.

We are encouraged and enthusiastic about the possibilities 2009 might bring within the life of the District.  Stay with the personal resolutions if they help.  Never forget the Covenant promises – both the ones we make and the ones made to us.  Let’s also be more intentional in what we’re about, so that our witness and our mission might be more worthy of the God who calls us to follow.

Ermal, Jenny & Stuart

Spring Representative Synod

• Keynote address
• Summary of the workshops
• District Report 2009

London District Representative Synod – 25 April 2009

1. Synod convened at Central Hall, Westminster, and members were welcomed by the Superintendent Minister Rev Martin Turner.

2. Opening prayers were led by Revd Stuart Jordan.

3. Thirty dispensations had been given, and there were eleven apologies from lay representatives.

4. Revd. Ermal Kirby gave a keynote address entitled “Practise Hospitality” following which Synod members attended one of six workshops on hospitality themes.

5. Scrutineers were appointed.

6. A collection was taken for the Methodist Ministers’ Children’s Relief Association.

7. Revd Olufemi Cole-Njie was welcomed as the new District Network President.

8. Synod noted the appointments of Julia Moorhouse as Administration & Communications Assistant in the District Office, and Daniella Fetuga-Joensuu as Discipleship & Training Officer; the planned launch of a training DVD ‘Expectations’; and confirmation that, at the end of the one-year ‘protected place’ both Manor and Peckham churches would join the Southwark & Deptford Circuit in September 2009.

9. Synod approved the following resolutions without dissent.

The London District Synod approves the request of the Battersea Mission to transfer worship to Christchurch and St Stephens, Candahar Road and encourages the property development group in its work to find the best use of that site for furthering the mission of the church.

The London District Synod approves the request of the Cambridge Park and Hermon Hill Methodist Churches to be allowed to form a single local church under SO 942 (1) (ii), with effect from 1 September 2009.

Synod endorsed, without dissent, a decision by the Farnborough Methodist Church and Orpington and Chislehurst Circuit Meeting regarding arrangements for worship at Farnborough.

10. The District Treasurer, Michael Allan, presented the accounts and the report on the District Advance Fund for the year ending 31 August 2008, and reminded Circuit Treasurers of the requirements for compliance with the Charities Acts.
Synod approved the following resolution without dissent.

Synod approves the request from the District Trustees, in consultation with Tower Hamlets Circuit, for the capital amount of up to £500,000 to be applied from the Trust Fund TMCP 20520 in tranches for the support of the Circuit’s ministry and mission, subject to the conditions set out by the District Council being duly fulfilled.

Synod expressed its thanks to Mr Allan for his work over the previous three years. Mrs Hannah Roberts was appointed to succeed him in the role.

11. Synod received a report on the London Mission Fund.

12. Synod approved a list of appointments, and authorised the District Council to make other appointments as it was able, and to report them to the Autumn Synod.

13. Synod passed the following resolution, without dissent, though implementation would take cognisance of the debate at the Methodist Conference of 2009.

That this Synod recognises the important contribution of low paid workers such as cleaners to the life of our communities; supports London Citizens’ ‘Living Wage’ campaign as a means of tackling poverty; and encourages all Methodist churches and Methodist employers to review their wages policy with a view to becoming Living Wage employers within the next two years.

Synod also passed the following resolution, without dissent.

The London District of the Methodist Church:
1. Supports the principle of creating a grassroots network of Cities of Sanctuary, working with local people to create a culture of hospitality and welcome for refugees and asylum seekers.
2. Congratulates the Methodists in Sheffield for their key role in creating the first UK City of Sanctuary and commends those Cities working towards designating themselves in this way.
3. Directs the Social Responsibility Commission: to make contact with the City of Sanctuary Group and explore the terms and implications of membership of the London Methodist District; to bring recommendations to the Autumn Synod about how Methodists can support the movement to make London a City of Sanctuary;
to write to the Connexional Team to commend Methodist involvement in the City of
Sanctuary movement.

14. Synod approved a Memorial to Conference 2009: 176 in favour; 1 against; 2 abstentions.

The London District of the Methodist Church:
1. Supports the principle of creating a grassroots network of Cities of Sanctuary, working with local people to create a culture of hospitality and welcome for refugees and asylum seekers.
2. Congratulates the Methodists in Sheffield for their key role in creating the first UK City of Sanctuary and commends those Cities working towards designating themselves in this way.

It therefore requests that Conference takes appropriate steps nationally to inform, support and encourage all Districts, where they have not already done so, to support their relevant cities in the process towards becoming Cities of Sanctuary.

Synod declined to support a proposed Memorial on the subject of Membership of Extremist Parties.

15. Ministry Reports
Synod endorsed the resolutions of the Ministerial Session of Synod on ADR.
Synod confirmed the approvals for Sabbaticals given by the Advisory Group, and thanked Revd Lena Ali for her contribution whilst the secretary of the group was on Sabbatical.

Synod received information regarding candidates recommended to the Connexional Candidates’ Committee, and probationers, with the announcement of the District Testimony Service for ordinands Revd Patrick Kandeh, Revd Juliet Ushewokunze and Deacon Claire Gill.

Synod noted the names of Ministers who have requested permission to become Supernumerary at Conference 2009, Revd Gordon Harris, Revd David James and Revd Bob Richards; and Ministers leaving the District at the end of the year.
Synod noted the names of Ministers who have died, Revd Ebun Bright, Revd John Dakin, Revd Beryl Lucas, Revd Leonard Oliver and Revd Clive Thexton.  The names of deceased Local Preachers notified to the District were also presented; Alistair Barwick (1989), William Cox (1967), George Hypolite (1983), Peter Ingram (1998), Bill Judges (1989), Reg Lincoln (1949), Ronald Malone (1961), Neville Mynett (1966), Neville Payne (1959), Pat Spilsbury (1978) and Alan Summerbell (1965).

16. Synod received the annual District Report.

17. Revd Peter Powers led closing worship which incorporated intercessory prayers originating in the morning workshops.

 

It’s Advent

Evenings that draw in with unseemly haste...chilly winds that come in unexpected gusts... rain that falls, first, intermittently then, with devastating effect, almost incessantly ... frost that begins to nip at fingers and tips of nose and ears: the descent into winter is relentless, unstoppable. Then, with impeccable timing, it’s Advent.

Just when body and mind are combining to tell us that things will only get worse, the spirit receives a reminder of the presence that brings hope; the downward slide slows and stops, and the ascent begins again.  Advent, then, is an ambiguous time, a cross-over time: it is a time of waiting, but not of passive waiting, it is an expectant waiting. 

In the District there are many places where this expectant waiting can be seen:

• Among the fourteen people who have registered as Candidates for the ministry and who are due to come before the Candidates Committee in February;
• Among the 90 people who have sensed a call to preach, some of whom are testing that call through different processes of training and discernment and others who wait in hope for tutors to guide them;
• Among the young people who have identified the steps they would like to take to help them develop intellectually, physically, socially and spiritually and who wait for the appointment of the Officer who will be able to offer support to their Circuit and local leaders;
• In the Circuits that are taking seriously the challenge of ‘Mapping a Way Forward: Regrouping for Mission’ and now look for the resources that will help them realise their vision.

With the expectancy, there is also preparation. Those who wait in hope, use the time to put in place the things that will enable them to benefit more fully from the anticipated outcomes – and that, too, can be seen around the District.

May this be a blessed Advent for all of us.

 

The District Chairs