Interview: New President & Vice President Methodist Church Conference

|PIC1|Thousands are in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, this week for the Methodist Conference which has headed north of the border for the first time in 200 years.

It began Saturday with the inductions of the new President and Vice President of the Methodist Church Conference 2006/2007, Rev Graham Carter and Dudley Coates respectively.

They were able to take some time out of their busy schedule to speak with Christian Today about some of the issues facing the Methodist Church that will be discussed at the Conference over the coming week.


CT: There are many contentious issues facing the Church in general at this time, but the Methodist Church always seems very together. Is there anything that worries you at all?

RC: There are plenty of things that worry me but I think in that respect one of the things we have managed to do is to recognise that within the Church there is a real breadth of both theological understanding and approach to practical issues, and beyond that difference in each other we have managed to travel together.

One of the major issues and it will be one of the debates this week is over the question of homosexual relations and particularly the advice that is being requested about the possible blessing of civil partnerships.

That is being looked at in the context of what we call the Pilgrimage of Faith which is a journey we believe we are on together to discover and discern the mind of God, recognising that both ends of the spectrum where there is major disagreement are actually seeking agreement as followers of Christ and focus on what God wants us to do. And we have managed to do that so far and I hope we will still be able to continue doing that this week.

CT: Is that one of the highlights, if you can call it that, of the Conference for you both?

|TOP|DC: That debate will be a significant one we expect but there are other issues. We have a significant debate on Monday about a report written jointly with the United Reformed Church about peacemaking. That might be quite likely because again that is one of the areas where there is diversity appearing among Christians as to the practical outworking of the Gospel in every day life and quite what we should do. And what the report is trying to do is move us on beyond the sort of classic peace and war categorising and moving into the much more complex and subtle issues surrounding globalisation and terrorism and so on. But there is likely to be a lively debate on that.

And there will also be a quite lively debate on theological education because that is inevitably an issue that arouses passions because it is important in the life of the Church.

And for Christians in the world we have a civil partnerships issue which is partly about how we relate with the world and partly how the Church responds to developments in the world and the theological policy position of the Church.

RC: I think one of the exciting things for me is that it is quite clear to me that we are in a crucial, critical time in the life of the Church, not in a negative sense but in a positive sense. There is an awful lot of change going on and change is always a difficult experience for people. In terms of personal life, moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do in life and that is in essence what we are doing in the Church – moving house – because there are new opportunities. And of course leaving behind a third of things is a painful experience. So there is a painful side to it. But there is also an exciting side to it that leaves things out and finds new ways of doing things

And in all of this Tom Stuckey, the president who is just retiring, has certainly opened our eyes to the way the Holy Spirit is working with the Church and that is excellent.

CT: What long term plan or strategy do you have for taking these issues forward from the Conference over the year?

|AD|RC: Well unfortunately, yes I think unfortunately, a lot still has to be done through the existing church structures. But in a discussion that we had in a ministerial session, the point was made that some of these issues have to be in the lifeblood of the Church and not just in the structural decision making process within the Church. And part of our roles during the year is going around and visiting all the districts and meeting people and we have a crucial role to play in getting these issues into the lifeblood of people’s thinking and working in the day to day life of the Church.

In terms of strategy there need to be long-term programmes and we are already going through a particular three year period working on a strategy for new structures in the life of the Church but it’s important that the issues and the real life of being the Church and God’s people is actually in the lifeblood of the people.

CT: Is there anything you feel Methodists have not tapped into yet? In the Baptist Church there has been highlighted a potential crisis over young attendance. Is there anything like this in the Methodist Church that you are looking to overcome this year?

DC: Well I think all the mainstream denominations have issues about what I tend to call the ‘missing generation’. I think there are all sorts of reasons for that and I wouldn’t pretend to know all of them and have all the answers.

But certainly one of the things that I will be arguing in my address tomorrow is that we need to learn to be more visibly welcoming and actually take a look at outside the doors of the church. We need to be much more visible in the life of the world and not tuck ourselves away if you like in the buildings and in the ways we have always done things.

In that sense I resonate very strongly with what Graham is saying. Some of this is uncomfortable but we have to get out beyond that comfort zone and recognise that if the Church is to exceed that image to people in general who are currently not relating to the Methodist Church but particularly to the generations who are missing in many of our congregations, then we have to learn to think in new ways and think what comes in all sorts of things and ways we do things.

RC: That resonates very much with what I will be saying in my address this afternoon which is that we need to develop a proper means to discipleship in the Church where individuals’ commitments in following Christ, which we have often viewed as primarily belonging to the Church, is actually about following Christ in the world. We talk about a church that has been outwardly declining in years but we still have loads and loads of people and if these people were really committed in their discipleship in the world we would change the world overnight and all these things about peacemaking that we will be discussing in the week would actually be effective.

And what we’ve not done in the Church for a long time is actually enable people to fulfil that discipleship. We’ve said, ‘You’re called to be disciples, go on and get on with it’. But we haven’t actually helped them with the day to day struggle.

And I think the peacemaking report is one that will be very, very useful because it talks about peace not just in terms of war and terrorism but about peacemaking in daily lives. In the world, in their relationships with people and that’s where it starts. And if we could begin to get that into the lifeblood of the Church there is a tremendous future for God’s people in Christ.




[Editor's Note: Interview conducted by Maria Mackay in Edinburgh, Scotland]