|PIC1|The Methodist Church Conference 2006/2007 opened Saturday in Edinburgh, Scotland, with the inductions of the new President, the Rev Graham Carter, and Vice President, Dudley Coates, who will hold the offices throughout the coming year.

Thousands of Methodists from across the UK and around the world, including representatives from the US, Europe, Africa and Hong Kong, gathered at the Edinburgh Conference Centre for the start of the weeklong event.

Rev Carter was welcomed to his new role as President for the year 2006/2007 by Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches.

Kobia warned that, “We are experiencing a serious decline in Christianity,” but added that, “There are many ways in which we can work together on this”.

“I hope for your participation as a British Methodist Church for how we approach mission in the 21st century,” he said.

Rev Carter said at the opening ceremony, that “if the Church in these islands and Europe is to be renewed we need a global vision and to recognise that we are part of a global church”.

|QUOTE|In his first address as the new President of the Methodist Church Conference for 2006/2007, Rev Carter challenged representatives to become true disciples in all aspects of their lives.

“I want to challenge all of us in the Methodist Church to take seriously what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ,” said Rev Carter.

He added: “I want to challenge congregations to take seriously their responsibility to support one another in their discipleship.”

Meanwhile, new Vice President, Dudley Coates, appealed to representatives in his address Sunday morning to move beyond the “refuge understanding” of Church and move out into the “messy, complex” world.

“It is no wonder we seem irrelevant to people if we are irrelevant,” Coates warned.

“We must learn to reconnect with the world God loves,” he added.

The core of Coates’ address, however, centred on the need for the Methodist Church to “become more visible, literally and metaphysically”.

|AD|“Outside our buildings we need to be seen as Christians,” he said.

Coates warned that the Methodist Church needed “to take more risks”, adding that it had become unable to “see beyond to new models of mission”.

Referring to the drop in young people in the Church, he added, “We need to make space for the missing generations” and become a church that “doesn’t keep the message in but takes it out”.

The new Moderator of the General Assembly of the Scotland, the Rev Alan McDonald, also expressed his delight that the Conference had come north of the border – for the first time in 200 years.

He challenged the new President to follow the example of the Church of Scotland and unite with the head of the Catholic Church in England to make it clear to the government the extent of the opposition to Trident.

Representative of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Bishop of Edinburgh Brian Smith, and the Bishop of Paisley on behalf of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference were also present at the opening ceremony of the Conference which ends this Thursday.