Unexpected guests at two Methodist churches

I was busy shuttling across the West Midlands today. I preached in one church and then had to rush back to my own church for a general meeting and a communal lunch. At both churches just as we were leaving we had unexpected guests.

Let me start with the pleasant side of this hospitality. The unexpected guest at our my own church was a local Christian who was putting himself forward as a Conservative local council candidate. He hadn't seen our church door open before (mainly because he would be worshiping elsewhere) so called in as he was passing.

He belongs to a different political party to myself but we still admired his enthusiasm and his keenness to meet us. We prayed for him and others seeking office and it felt  right.

The encounter at the church where I preached was less pleasant but sadly a fact of church life. I suspect many readers know the scenario. Just before the last hymn a couple arrived. The church stewards welcomed them in and they clearly had difficulty catching up with the hymn book and proceedings.

After I had said the blessing and dismissal one of the stewards approached me. The  couple would like to have a private word with me. My heart sank. I knew full well what this was about.

I then got what sounded like a very long story that didn't hold water. They had no money for petrol to get them home nor for food. They claimed to have been visiting  relatives in the area but were hazy about where they lived.

They asked me for a "blessing", and I said a prayer that didn't feel right. I've been through this before and I couldn't help feeling, so too had they.

I consulted with the stewards who confirmed that they had a policy of not giving money. This is a wise policy and one that many churches in our area now follow.

We used to give at our church and often found several regular people turning up as our services ended. They always knew the exact moment to arrive. In fact there was one man who turned up at a church where I was leading the 9.30 service and then came to our church just as someone else was closing the 11.00 service. I arrived to find him telling the exact same story knowing that the saints at the 9.30 had already given him the £10 he so desperately needed for his electricity meter.

This morning we decided that as they were hungry we would offer food. Two tins were found and I offered it to them. This angered them. They clearly expected us to give them a "loan" - which of course they would pay back - large enough to get them back to their home which they claimed was on the South Coast.

I must admit I felt intimidated and could see that a scene would ensue as the rest of the congregation were about to enjoy the fellowship of a cup of tea.

In the end the request was reduced dramatically. Would we lend them enough for a  gallon of diesel? Myself and the steward dipped into our own pockets and sorted out a fiver. They wanted me to give them my address so they could repay the money. "Not on your life" I thought and explained it was a gift.

On my part this was no act of Christian charity. I just wanted to get rid of two thoroughly unpleasant people who clearly saw churches as a soft touch.

On this occasion they got a fiver. The tins were left in the church, clearly they weren't that hungry. I wonder how often they persuade a gullible clergy or steward to hand them the £50 or so that was their original request? And I wondered what they did were anyone foolish enough to give an address?

I came away feeling thoroughly fed up. That's one of the reasons it was so pleasant to meet the candidate, even if we was from a different party!

There are times that I feel totally inadequate for the role to which the Lord has called me.

Blogger Beware! A response to the consultation

British Methodists have until lunchtime on Monday to respond to a recent paper seeking to suppress Methodist involvement in the new kinds of social media, though mainly blogging. This is my response:

Dear Toby,

This is something of a hurried response to the consultation on the use of social media in the Methodist Church of Great Britain.

I am sorry that I have been unable to take part in the online discussion. I am working flat out on a big contract in my secular employment and have little time for involvement in other matters.

Firstly can I welcome the Methodist Council's decision to open this discussion to more people than just a handful of approved Methodist bloggers as previously - all of whom I suspect were Ministers.

My initial reaction on seeing the paper prepared for Methodist Council was one of profound disappointment.

You will be aware that a couple of years ago the Faith and Order Committee had issues with the "tone and content" of my blog. This was just about six months after I had started the blog.

I looked through the material and noticed that there had been one or two robust discussions. In particular I had taken up the Methodist sell out on gambling.

The problem for the Faith and Order Committee was not the "tone and content", it was the realisation that the connexional machinery was in the process of losing control of discussion and debate within the church.

That is why the first draft of the paper was so much about "discipline", "dismissal", "disrepute" and even at one point "criminal". I don't believe that the leadership of the Church understands that we now have the potential to develop a lively micro-media around Methodism that will inevitably challenge the status quo.

Just one example: during the last few months the BBC have been airing "An Island Parish". What happened on the Isles of Scilly happens across the connexion on an annual basis.

After the  broadcast of each programme  my blog received a massive surge of "visits" as people "googled" on the internet. On average I had about 2000 hits each week, specifically on that one issue.

From the comments and emails I received I know that many were Methodists keen to know the fuller story, prepared to discuss the issues raised. They were looking for information about Methodism that is no longer available in the mainstream media (we are rarely newsworthy) and is clearly suppressed (I think in your paper on social media you used the term "moderated") by the Methodist Recorder.

If part of the intention of those who promoted the original paper in the Methodist Council is to put the clock back they are onto a loser. For example I have already registered the url www.methodistpreacher.tv. With changing technology it is conceivable that within just a few years there will be a host of micro-media channels around every possible subject, including Methodism.
 

Therefore we will see an expectation for greater transparency and open debate within the Church. Unless those in leadership understand this, then we will see an almighty and unpleasant collision.

I remember in the early days of my blog, when I could count my regular readers on one hand, asking some pointed questions of you about the position of a member of our staff at Church House who had seemingly misused her role in Methodism to acquire a  well paid quango job. My inquiries were treated with contempt. You were the person who treated that inquiry with contempt.

Since then I have seen no evidence that attitudes towards the social media  in Church House have changed (though two of your staff answer my questions promptly and fully)  The paper currently under discussion tells me that the intention is suppressing and managing ideas, not encouraging them.

So basically I start from the position that this paper is superfluous, except for those who are desperate to control.

What was particularly telling is the anxiety about "reputational damage" to the Methodist Church.

In my 25 years membership of the church I have seen some truly exemplary and wonderful work by many God fearing people intent on proclaiming God's love

But I've also seen plenty of reputational damage. I've seen behaviour on the part of some paid employees (or "office holders" as Ministers prefer to be known) that would simply not be tolerated in secular employment.

I've known several young women leave a Methodist Church because of inappropriate behaviour by a male clergyman. I've heard with my own ears a Methodist Minister boast of making hurtful and spiteful comments to a vulnerable homosexual. I've seen a vendetta waged by a Minster against a Superintendent that led to a serious breakdown of health.

All these issues were escalated through the appropriate channels.

However these purveyors of "reputational damage" have been carefully protected,  allowed to continue poisoning the Bride of Christ.

So why the sudden concern about a handful of bloggers speaking out of turn?

And if we are going to start pursuing errant bloggers why aren't we pursuing others who have brought the church into disrepute?

 

Rachael Lampard for example, just down the corridor from you in Church House, turned up at a secular conference and ridiculed the Methodist Church. The material has appeared on my blog. It was already in the public domain. Her speech actively sought to bring the Methodist Church into disrepute. Did Rachael Lampard face disciplinary action? Did anyone even take her aside and have a quiet word with her? I doubt it.

 

Then two weeks ago the man who I believe is most keen to suppress the Methodist blogsphere, David Gamble, currently President of Conference, but also the Connexional Secretary responsible for legal matters, went to a meeting of another denomination and had a "Gerald Ratner" moment. He talked of the church going out of existence. He talked us down big time. Were we a plc our share price would have fallen through the floor. Were we a plc David Gamble would by now have picked up his P45.

 

So before we start witch hunting a few difficult bloggers let us get the affairs of Church House and the connexional leadership in order.  

 

There is just one other point I want to add. I'm sorry and surprised that the social media paper did not address the important challenges that sites like facebook, youtube and myspace can pose for churches and those within them.

 

Earlier I mentioned inappropriate contact between clergy and young women. Online this contact could be an even bigger issue. The paper nowhere seems to address how the Church should give guidance to Ministers, office holders or members on how we should behave online, who it is permissible to link to, who it is wise to avoid.

 

These are the real issues about the use of social media that need to be discussed and dealt with carefully. I fear it is only a matter of time before one of those who have done so much private damage to local congregations and individuals will do the same sort of damage online and more publicly. These people groom and the internet offers opportunities unimaginable just ten years ago. It will be no excuse for the Church to say that there was no guidance in place nor any call for such guidance.

 

The fact that these issues are not addressed speaks volumes about the motivation for this paper.

David

Methodist Future: Reading between the lines

Methodists throughout Great Britain will have the joy of receiving a pastoral letter from our leadership on Sunday.

There is some suggestion that it should be read out to the congregations. At over 1400 words, given a rate of about 30 words a minute, providing there is no pausing for breath, it will take the good part of 45 minutes. Somehow I don't think this will happen.

The letter comes as a result of the President of Methodist Conference's ill chosen words at the Anglican Synod indicating  that we Methodists were preparing to go out of existence.

It is what we in marketing (I'm actually a DipM, MCIM)  call a Gerald Ratner moment. Just one small example: I'm  about to ask our church to cough up £10,000 to repair the roof. I must admit I spent some time wondering if it was worth continuing with the fund raising drive. I guarantee that I was not alone in that hesitation. When the Connexion's top man talks us down, it really is discouraging.

And before anyone blames the press, I have read the President's comments. I don't accept for a second that there was any misunderstanding. His message is clear. It is not encouraging and it is not helpful.

Over the weekend following the speech the staff at Church House launched a damage limitation exercise. It would be flattering to think they were responding to one or two Methodist bloggers, including myself, who expressed our outrage at the President's words.

I don't think that was the case.

I suspect that many Methodists expressed their real anger at what had been said. I'm sure the torrent of letters to the Methodist Recorder have been safely "moderated".

But this pastoral letter would not have been written or circulated if the Methodist Connexion were of a settled mind behind the President's words.

That is why we are being urged to read a 1400 word document this Sunday. Calling it a "pastoral letter" is an interesting device. It is a peace treaty.

Let us put this nonsense behind us. Let us get on with building our congregations and proclaiming the gospels. Those who want to be Anglicans, should go and feel free to join the Church of England with our blessing. On a local basis, of course we will co-operate and work together where possible.

But there are more important things to be doing.

There is no early retirement scheme from prayer

When I preach to the increasingly elderly congregations in our circuit I always remind them of something that the Bible doesn't say. Nowhere from Genesis to Revelation has anyone found a verse that says "That shalt take early retirement from prayer".

In fact some of the grreatest prayer warroirs I have met have been those in their twilight years.

Last week I had a lovely note from Caroline Pennatz of a public relations firm in Philadelphia. She told me all about a scheme within a retirement complex to develope the spirtual lives of those there. They have set up a spiritual life committee with an average age of 85!

The full story can be found here and provides a great encouragement.

I know that over here we often despair of our aging congregations but I do wonder if we could work with them to build a real prayer powerhouse in every church?

The real Eastenders

I loved this story in yesterday's edition of The Observer. It tells how Fasset Square in Hackney was used as the original location for the BBC Eastenders soap opera.

Fasset Square is just round the corner from where I spent my years as a teenager. In fact for about a year I used to deliver papers in the square. Then it was a comparitively quiet area of Hackney with one side dominated by the German Hospital. Soon after it began to change and at one point seemed to be getting fairly rough.

Times have changed now and it has been "gentrified". Way back in the seventies I actually viewed a house there with a view to buying, but the Lord took me to Smethwick. I think it was on the market for about £10,000.

Fassett Square was almost demolished. In the late 1960s there was an absolutely daft idea to build a "North Cross" motorway through the area. I had just been elected chair of the local Labour Party and we called a residents meeting of those living in Fasset Square, Navarino and Greenwood Roads. It was packed. The local members of the GLC and the council turned up and we could see that they were changed immediately from supporters of the scheme to firm opponents.

I suppose that is my minor contribution to the history of British soap operas.

By the way, I never watch the programme. I hate to see people bickering all the time.

Lent reflections

We will be reflecting on Lent each Thursday at 7.30 pm at City Road Methodist Church, Birmingham. Please join us, the meetings will last about an hour.

Book Sale at Central Mission, Birmingham

There is another Secondhand Book Sale in the centre of Birmingham next week.
 
The sale is held at Methodist Central Mission, 208 Corporation Street, (opposite the Law Courts) starting at 10am on Saturday 27th February.
 
The sale will be on for two Saturdays (27 Feb & 6 March) from 10 - 5pm and Monday - Friday 1st March - 5th March from 10am to 4:30pm.
 
There will be a stock of 10,000 volumes on a wide variety of subjects at reasonable prices and admission to the sale is free.
 
The sale is organised by Englesea Brook Chapel and Museum which has little funding and relies on the book sales.
 

Lent and Ramadan: compare and contrast - a reblog

One of the most "googled" posts on this site is one that compares Lent and Ramadan. This first appeared in February 2008. I thought it worth running again. There is an interesting comment from a Muslim on the original post. I'm away most of the week so comment moderation is on:


Being a non-conformist the season of Lent has hardly touched me over the years. Yes I was aware that there was some sort of religious tradition for pancake day and I do remember seeing the occasional Catholic walk round with a black mark on their forehead on Ash Wednesday. But over and above that I suppose I am a typical Methodist.

On Tuesday I expect we will have the usual pancake races in fancy dress and some Methodists may avail themselves of the bizarre advice of the Methodist Church to carry around a "credit card" urging them to "buy less and live more", mainly to reduce their carbon footprints.

Basically we don't actually do very much to observe Lent. One or two of my Catholic friends have taken to abstaining from alcohol, something I have undertaken in recent years (by the way, it is a myth that British Methodism was strictly teetotal). Some Christians I know, don't eat chocolate and donate the money they save to famine relief or development (which may have been a sensible outcome of the "buy less" creditcard).

Irrespective of whether it is Lent or not, it is good for us to occasionally deprive our bodies of food, drink and pleasures, and Christians have long combined prayer with fasting. But the point I'm trying to make is that Lent makes very light demands on most Christians - as should be the case unless we see a very good reason for taking it more seriously.

A few years ago I had my first real experiences of Islam and the month of Ramadan. Firstly I visited Jordan, Palestine and Israel during Ramadan. Co-incidentally, a year later I had to circulate a note explaining the implications for a Birmingham hospital serving a large Moslem population.

The thing that hit me was how much commitment Ramadan demanded: prayers five times a day, and fasting from sunrise to sunset. I don't know why, but for women it is extended for several days to take account of the menstrual cycle. Now this must place a massive burden on Muslims, and we know what Jesus said about the burden's placed by religion leaders, but the fact that large numbers of Muslims observe the month should give us cause to think. What is it about Islam that it can enable its followers to observe a month long daylight fast?

But now I ask other questions. As I go round Birmingham I see individual Muslims making their way to the various Mosques for prayers throughout the day. For example the Central Mosque in Highgate always has a collection of taxis outside at 3.00 pm as the drivers call in for prayer in the middle of their working day.

Compare and contrast. How many Christians in a semi-skilled job like taxi driving would call into their local church for a mid-afternoon time of prayer, that's if they could find a church that was open?

Our Muslim neighbours pray five times a day. How many Christians pray even once a day?

Drive round Birmingham at 9.00 pm in the evening. With just some exceptions, on one or two evenings a week, the Methodist buildings are in darkness, looking empty and forgotten. Go pass a Mosque (or that matter a Sikh Temple) and the lights are on and it is clear that people are around.

Our Muslim neighbours put a great deal of effort and commitment into expressing their faith. Sadly they do not know or would not acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Saviour. However it is worth just noting their commitment, and asking why we Methodists, as a Christian denomination, now have such little enthusiasm?

Methodist Future: Post Valentine blues?

The trouble with Valentine's day is that it  can often leave  a sense of, well let's say, disappointment. Especially if the lady has given, well lets say, her all.

In the hallowed walls of the University of Durham, the Secretary of the Methodist Church Faith and Order Committee, knows what it is like to be let down after a 72 hour romance. This sad story  is not for the faint hearted.

It seems that David Gamble has been left at the altar: the Anglicans are more interested in the new librarian at Lambeth Palace.

Meanwhile Karen Burke (haven't I come across that name somewhere before ?) seems to be softening the line from Church House in an item on The Guardian comment is free website. Good try Karen.

It didn't take long did it? David Gamble's  attempted coup is over: the Anglicans don't really want us, the Methodist Church itself is half hearted, and even Church House is rowing backwards. If the Methodist Church were a banana republic there'd be a firing squad at 6.00 am tomorrow morning.

Lets get back to building the Methodist Church as a distinctive expression of the Christian witness that this country so desperately needs.

Methodist Future media coverage

For those who are interested I'm posting as many of the media links I can find following David Gamble's disastrous speech to the Church of England synod on Friday. Roy Hattersley writes in this morning Times and Sophie Morris in the Independent. They take radically different views. I may add some more links later in the day.


Sophie Morris: Methodists are giving up the fight
Independent
For Methodism itself, though, big changes are afoot. At a powwow with the Church of England last week, the head of the Method-ists said he would be happy ...

Leader signals end of MethodismIndependent Traditionalists, Anglo-Catholics and some evangelicals within the Church of England are vehemently opposed to Methodism because of the leadership roles that ...

Methodism offers to die, to rise again.Times Online (blog) But the Methodists might be prepared to accept bishops if women are allowed to join their ranks in the Church of England, as Methodism is fully inclusive of ...

A match made in heaven will end an unholy riftTimes Online Methodism's merger with the Anglicans is inevitable and would have John Wesley's blessing. He sought reform, not schism A union of Methodism and the Church ...

Telegraph.co.uk General Synod: Methodists likely to merge with Church of EnglandTelegraph.co.uk Methodism developed in the 18th century through the radical and ... There are no bishops in Methodism, while both men and women can be Chair of a District. ...

Daily Mail Methodist church 'prepared to go out of of existence'Daily Mail Methodism began as a revivalist movement inside the Church of England among followers of the great preacher John Wesley, who spoke in the open air and ...

Times Online Wesley's path to schismTimes Online Methodism became a separate church after Wesley died in 1795, forming part of evangelical revival that transformed the the Christian landscape in 19th ... See all stories on this topic

#synod Thursday morning: Methodists, Buildings and the state of ...Everything Christian ... and Order Committee, posed the provocative question, Did the Methodist President just signal the end of Methodism?.You can read the full address here. ...

Methodists declare 'we're ready to merge' with CoETimes Online ... and possibly other Anglican denominations in Britain would not impact on the church structures of the US Episcopal Church or Methodism in the US. ...

The end of British Methodism? « John Meunier's blogBy John Meunier The end of British Methodism? 2010 February 12. by John Meunier. The Guardian newspaper reports that the head of British Methodism has expressed a willingness to merge back into the mother church. The leader of Britain's Methodists made ... John Meunier's blog - http://johnmeunier.wordpress.com/

Wounded Bird: "METHODISM OFFERS TO DIE, TO RISE AGAIN"By Grandmère Mimi "METHODISM OFFERS TO DIE, TO RISE AGAIN". From Ruth Gledhill: No-one ever expects much from presentations with titles such as 'An Address by the President and Vice-President of the Methodist Conference'. ... Wounded Bird - http://thewoundedbird.blogspot.com/

News | The Independent UK - Leader signals end of MethodismBy The Independent Traditionalists, Anglo-Catholics and some evangelicals within the Church of England are vehemently opposed to Methodism because of the leadership roles that women hold in the latter. Reconciliation talks between the two faiths began in ... News | The Independent UK - http://news.independentminds.livejournal.com/

postmodernbible: And Methodism's leadership says...? #synodBy Pete Phillips I was copied into a brief email conversation late last night between the senior leadership of the Methodist Church who are currently engaged in dealing with some heightened media attention...and, I think, enjoying the opportunity to ... postmodernbible - http://postmodernbible.blogs.com/postmodernbible/

Methodist Future

It looks as though we are about to witness an attempted sell out.

I must admit I did wonder why there was such a rush to get through the disastorous paper on "social media" .

Clearly some in leadership in our church want to silence the newer forms of communication that by-pass the house newspaper, the Methodist Recorder, which can be relied upon to censor grass roots views.

David Gamble's ill advised comments that "we are prepared to go out of existence" were purely personal. The "we" don't agree, "we" haven't really been consulted. One or two "house bloggers" (no names, no pack drill) have hailed the speech but the rest of the Methodist blogsphere has been overwhelmingly underwhelmed.

"Furious" was how the membership of the church where I preached this morning described their reaction. At a church in the South West,  the Minister told the congregation not to worry as it will come to nothing.

I can't make a comment about David Gamble. I have never met him.  I know people who work with him, who assure me that he is a gracious man, so this is not a comment about him: I do however  know some of those most keen for the Methodist Church to be taken over by the Church of England.

Their problem seems to stem from having a fairly tenuous grasp of Christianity, they are therefore unable to understand the distinctive  life, mission and purpose of the Methodist Church as part of the universal Body of Christ. Many committed Anglicans do understand, respect, and honour this difference. It is sad that some in Methodist leadership can't.

However disbanding the Methodist Church will not be easy. It will not be a matter of a simple majority at Annual Conference.

The legal entity of the present  Methodist Church was established by a private Act of Parliament in 1932. There will have to be enabling legislation. Those opposed to the merger may be able to get the matter onto the floor of both Houses of Parliament. At the very least they would propose amendments that would enable individual congregations to remain independent of the Methodist Church.

For example the former Wesleyan Connexion paid not a penny towards our church, it was all locally funded. We could make a powerful case for it not being transferred to the Church of England without our agreement. The Connexion has 5000 churches and chapels. We could have 5000 complex legal cases. Only the lawyers will win and not one person will have been won for Christ.

Obviously we need to ensure that any Methodist Ministers wishing to remain serving as a Methodist minister outside of the merged church should have their pension rights retained. That alone would make a series of very interesting legal cases.

And if the powers that be get their way? We don't have to be a member of the present Methodist Connexion and its successor body in a merged church to be a "Methodist". There is no question of Methodism going "out of existence" and it is an overweening arrogance to believe that this power rests exclusively with the major Methodist Connexion.

Firstly those churches that stay out of the merger could form a "continuing Connexion". It may be as that as Churches work out what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be a Methodist, new spiritual life will flow into our body. In other words the trauma of merger and seperation may be good for those of us who stay.

The other alternative is that churches, or new congregations if we are dispossessed of our buildings, could link up with other existing Methodist connexions: The Wesleyan Reform Union, the Independent Methodists, the Free Methodists, the Wesleyan Holiness Church or the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion - and wouldn't that be a turn up for the book!?

So I suspect that my friend in the South West has got it just about right - it will come to nothing.

Let's forget David Gamble's comments as quickly as the media apparently have and get on with the job of saving souls. Those who want to leave the Methodist Church for the Anglicans, especially those Ministers prepared to accept the "conditional ordination" on offer, may do so. Go with our blessing. Leave us to continue the distinctive work for the Gospel of the Methodist Church.

Meanwhile those privaledged to be called into leadership of our Connexion should focus on supporting those of us who believe we are on a mission to proclaim the Good News. Please don't waste anymore time in talking the Methodists down.

Tales from Tat Bank (6)

Mrs Pickles the Senior-Steward-for-life at Tat Bank Road Methodist Church, the one church circuit originally created to solve a "stationing problem" and shared between two districts on a Penguin Island basis, has just been on the phone. She sounded like a dog anxious to share a big helping of Winnalot.

"Mrs Smedley's nephew, he's into computers, has had a read of your blog about the President of Conference's idea we should all join the Church of England," she said breathlessly.

"Can you put a stop to it?" she asked pointedly.


I tried to explain to her that I had absolutely no influence in the Methodist Church, in fact some of the big wigs want me to stop blogging altogether. But she would have none of it.


"Well you know that you are banned from our church?" she responded. I didn't know this and wondered why she hadn't been in touch to invite me to fill in on "local arrangements". I must say that when I saw Mrs Spittle in the car park at Sainsbury last week she seemed a bit coy.


"Haven't you heard? We've become a "local ecumenical partnership". It means the Anglicans have taken over. We now share a vicar with St Jezebels-at -Rood End, except they've sold for it demolition so that Rhodia can turn it into a staff car park!"


I asked her to stop. I explained that churches in that particular area were having a hard time. The Tat Bank Road cause barely got more than ten each week. Last I heard the Anglicans were down to six. Even the Titford Canalside Christian Fellowship was down to less than 1800. It was obvious that churches had to work together on a local basis.


"I heard all that" she replied, "but its been really difficult. Vi Marchmont said it reminded her of when the Wesleyans from Dog Kennel Lane moved in. They tried to disband the Band of Hope and there was a terrible row."


Now that is all in the past, I explained. Many Anglicans have views that are no different from ours and it must be so encouraging to be "on mission" with other Christians just as David Gamble proposed.


"Well its not like that at all. Firstly only three from St Jezebels actually came over to us. The other four have joined the Catholic church just by the Public.


"The vicar insists we call him The Most Reverend  Father Doctor Martinez Windsor-Smythe, although we can call him Father Doctor on informal occasions.

"He's bought six big candlesticks and a load of models from St Jezebels......."

I could hear no more. I explained to Mrs Pickles that we were going to have to make these new arrangements work. There will have to be some accomodation and we can't let our non-conformist  bigotry get in the way.

"But he doesn't like women. He sacked Mrs Spittle as communion steward, purely because she was a woman, and made Arthur Collinson altar boy. Altar boy! Arthur is 82 but he's the only man left.  Its embarrassing seeing him out at the front with the robes getting tangled in the wheels on his walking frame


"And we've got a "flying bishop" who comes up from Fulham dressed in a red frock and tells us that he will never accept women bishops or  women clergy. If David Gamble goes round with the begging bowl to these Anglicans we'll have to sack all the women Methodist Ministers.


"And there's another thing. He says communion in Latin. At first I thought he was speaking in tongues like they do at the Canalside Fellowship but Arthur did Latin at King Edwards and he says its in Latin. What's wrong with English?


"And there's another thing. He is making us all talk to him privately  for "confession". Mrs Smedley told him she couldn't stand the sight of Arthur's sister and he made her read the Sermon on the Mount backwards, at least I thinks thats what she said.


"And there's another thing. Mrs Naylor has got a nasty case of astma and everytime he swings the incense she starts coughing. A couple of weeks ago she had a nasty turn and hasn't been back since....", she continued.


I could stand no more. I promised that I would make her feelings felt. This seemed to placate her.


"Terr ra a bit", she said in the easy to understand local vernacular, and put the phone down. 


Somehow I don't feel that the Methodist-Anglican Covenant has got quite the support at the grass roots that some of our leaders imagine.

Shag tag in Brum

I found this story  from today's Sunday Mercury really depressing. This week's Methodist Recorder headlines a story that talks of helping young people make a choice about their sexuality. Is this what we now have in mind?

Methodism is not for sale!

I too saw the story in today's papers announcing that British Methodism will soon be dead.

Certain people are running around trading the Methodist Church property portfolio to fund their pension scheme, because this is what it all about. The secular New Statesman blog reminds us what Methodism has achieved in the past.

I want those people to know that Methodism is not for sale. There is a reason why I am a Methodist. I didn't leave the Church of England to rejoin it forty years later as some desperate act of survival.

Wherever two or three are prepared to gather in His name there is every possibility that Methodism as a movement will continue.

Please take the buildings, the accumulated cash, the shares, the long winded rules, the bloated toy town Parliament of Annual Conference, the constant discouragement, and the pension scheme

We Methodists will carry on. We don't need you. Go.

Perhaps without some of the baggage we have acquired since Wesley, we may have a chance of becoming a serious Evangelistic church again

Goodbye.

PS: don't forget to take your candles and the daft advice in the new worship book about the colour of the cloth on the Lord's Table - what on earth have we been thinking about for the last thirty years?

A challenge from Dakota

I think his name is Doug Dugdale, and I assume that is one of his grandchildren in the picture that I have purloined from his website.

Doug recently posted a challenging sermon on his blog. He specifically spoke about the Dakotas (a couple of states in the mid west of the USA) and our sister church the United Methodist Church. But his message is just as relevant to us Methodists in every town, city and rural area of the United Kingdom. These are the highlights, but the whole sermon is worth reading:

In 1974 the number of UM churches in North and South Dakota numbered 350.  Today we have 263.  The number of United Methodists has decreased from 63,000 to 40,000 in the last 35 years.  The average attendance has gone from 30,000 to 20,000.  In 1980 United Methodists comprised 4.4% of the population of the two states.  Today we comprise less than 2.7%.  The number of attending Sunday School has also decreased: children by 28%; youth by %21 and adults by 6%.

I realize there is always a margin for error in statistics.  Who knows how accurately pastors and ushers and Sunday School superintendents have recorded numbers throughout the years.  However, the trend can’t be denied.  We were challenged at the meeting. We were reminded that these statistics are us.  For most of us older pastors, at least, this continual decline has happened under our watch.

Today I relay the challenge to you as well.  Whether a part of the United Methodist Church for many years or just a short while this decline has happened under our watch.  There have been no exceptions.  The decline has happened every year since 1970.

We could make all kinds of excuses.  We know some of the problem is demographics – the decline of the rural areas, the changing of culture and so on.  We could blame it on others.  But we can’t deny it, part of problem is us.  We just aren’t taking this seriously.  For example: How many persons have you brought into the Christian faith since you first accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?  How many people have you kept away?

The sad thing about it, we have strayed so far from the track of early Methodism.  John and Charles Wesley, Francis Asbury, and many, many others would be greatly saddened by what has happened to this movement they began 250+ years ago now.  Did you notice I said “movement?”  They were not concerned about a church.  They were concerned about a movement of God’s spirit.

That is some of our problem. We define ourselves too much as a place instead of a movement.  We define the church as an organization that takes care of us instead of a movement motivated by us.  We as pastors have come to believe that we are appointed to take care of churches instead of to lead the church.

Who says we are a tolerant society?

Sometime this morning a bus will take me across London and along Great Portland Street. I have fond memories of the area having worked for a PR consultancy in the office block to the extreme right of this picture - in fact my actual office can be seen above the doorway.

Just a fortnight or so ago I was reading an item in a newspaper just as I passed  reporting a survey which claimed to  have found British people to be more tolerant .

I couldn't help noticing as I passed the synagogue next to my old office that its windows had been heavily reinforced, an entry phone installed and a surveillance camera installed. Enlarge the picture and you will see what I mean. A tolerant society?

Just like I suspected the possibility of a "tolerant Britain" was quickly put to bed. A few days later The Community and Security Trust, which does excellent work in protecting our Jewish citizens, published a report pointing out that last year there was a steep rise in the number of antisemitic incidents:

CST recorded 924 antisemitic
incidents in 2009. This is the
highest annual total since
it began recording antisemitic
incidents in 1984, and is 55
per cent higher than the previous
record of 598 incidents in 2006.

 The CST website provides chilling evidence that antisemitism is now a casual part of many children's attitudes. Ilford has a large Jewish population, I know the area fairly well and was working there on a couple of assignments in the last three years. One would have thought that it was one of those places that Jewish people could feel safe. Not so. 

Youths at a local secondary school set up a Facebook page promoting hatred against Jews. It quickly attracted 500 members. They boasted about confronting Jews in shops and on the streets and shouting obscenities at them. The page has now been taken down.

Jews are part and parcel of our community. Many of their parents died fighting alongside our parents in our wars. 

 

In a tolerant country they should not live in fear. Nor should they have to turn their places of worship into fortresses.

Blogger Beware! The virtual revolution

For those Methodist worthies who still don't understand what is actually happening to our Church I commend the BBC series The Virtual Revolution. 

The internet, including blogs, are now leading to changes that are unstoppable.

If countries like China can be changed by the fluency of communication by the web, it is inevitable that our own tiny Connexion will. All the edicts of the various Methodist Church  bodies will do little to prevent that.

Come on lads and lasses, didn't we all sing in the sixties "the times they are a changing"?

Reading your gas bill

Last September I became acting treasurer at our church.

One of the biggest problems in recent years has been our gas bills. I have had to sit on the problem and we have began to make sense of them, and reduce our gas consumption.

But I kept having to ask lots of questions and seem to spend hours on the phone with "customer services" - always followed up by a confirmatory email, we've learnt over the years.

It always is worth checking the cost and readings. British Gas, our supplier seems to be a company at war with itself, so check!

Nevertheless I've asked for more information about how our gas bill is made up and have been sent the following information:

Present reading – Previous reading = Total units used

Imperial x2.83

Total units used x 1.02264 (correction factor) = Corrected Consumption (round up to the nearest whole number)

Cubic meters x Calorific Value (CV on your bill) / 3.6 = Total number of kilowatt hours used

Total number of kWh x unit price / 100 = Total amount charged for gas consumption

This is the way to work out you actual consumption from a reading on your meter to actual charge for consumption.  The standing charge also needs to be applied along with VAT. 

To work out your VAT you need to take the total amount of kWh’s and divide those by the number of days in the billing period.

You are allowed to use 145 kWh’s before you are charged 15% VAT (now 17.5%) and Climate Change Levy.  Climate Change Levy is charged at 0.15 pence per kWh.  If you use less that 145 kWh you will only be charged 5% VAT and no Climate Change Levy.

Hope that helps.

An Island Parish: why does he have to leave?

Quite by accident this site has become the focus of a massive surge of hits immediately  each edition of An Island Parish is broadcast. There have been 200 in the last hour or so.

The saga of why the Rev David Easton was not "extended" in the Isles of Scilly is a constant question that lead people to this blog. Just a sample from the google searches in the last hour:

rev david easton why leave scilly islands is

scilly vicar problem

island parish methodist minister

island parish why did minister had to leave?

why was "david easton" sacked from scilly

why did the methodist minister have to leave the isles of scilly

Sadly the Methodist Church hasn't got over  the message  that this is part and parcel of being a Methodist Minister - few stay longer than six or  seven years.

The denomination is in denial. Despite valient efforts locally this series has had a detrimental impact on the image of Methodism. 

A few months ago there was a spate of letters in the Methodist Recorder from several people saying there were lessons to be learnt. I popped a letter in suggesting that there was a need for the denomination to to undertake a "lessons learn t" exercise.

My letter wasn't published and the near weekly letters suddenly ceased. I think in some quarters they call this "moderation". I call it censorship. Why are we so afraid of open discussion in today's church?

To those who know little about Methodism but have found themselves on this site, let me say that it is one of the most wonderful expressions of the Christian faith that has ever been created - even if us Methodists are not up to it on occasions.

In you wish to know more about this story click on the "An Island Parish" label below.

Blogger Beware! At last we can all have a say

Gradually we are washing the windows in the Methodist Church and moving to greater transparency.

The posts on this blog and one or two others in recent day's have had an impact. We persuaded the Methodist Council that it would be wise to have  more transparency in the way in which we compile papers on a contentious issues such as social media.

The Council accepted the ill fated paper but with several important amendments which included a  second, wider consultation.

Possibly we have now become the first UK mainstream denomination to have an online consultation within its governance structures. If we can do it on social media we can do it on every single other issue that goes before Methodist Council.

This is a fantastic precedent. It is time that we were allowed online consultations on the issues of the day - climate change, abortion, gambling for example.

At the last Methodist Conference I had a conversation with a Church House official who said how sad it was that so few people ever responded to requests for views during consultations. That is because until recently they have had to cascade requests for views down through a massive committee structure.

Social media has set the precedent, social media can provide the platform for a greater participation.

The official statement reads:

"Following the Council’s response to the social media paper we have a brief opportunity to consult widely. To this end, a revised version of the paper is now online at

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaIGTYFx5M8dZGRzcWc2NXNfNGdjdjc0NWdk&hl=en

There will be a link on the Connexional website. Responses should go to ScottT@methodistchurch.org.uk.

The final time for comments is 5pm on Monday March 1, 2010

This is a great day for British Methodism!

Blogger Beware! Of posting from an internet cafe

I'm  in London working from an internet cafe. For reasons too complex to relate here I am unable to access blogger functionality during the day. That's one of the reasons I'm having to apply automatic comment moderation.

In any case I've been in meetings wall to wall, missed my lunch and only had two cups of tea.

I'm aware that the Methodist Council has made a decision on the paper on blogging that has exercised many Methodist bloggers in the last week or so.

The spin on the official position is here. It tries to be positive.

Peter Phillips was present at the meeting and he comments here.

Dave Warnock who was also present gives an extensive post here .

David Faulkner puts his views, including giving me a little ticking off.

Richard Hall tries to sum it all up

I shall give my views at the weekend when I have had time to digest the material.

Meanwhile I'm off for a very late lunch.

Today's post in the Social Media Examiner gives pause for thought.  By the way, this is an invaluable source of information and I'd advise every Methodist interested in the social media to subscribe to it.

Footprints in the snow

It was an early start this morning, leaving the house just after six.

There'd been a fall of snow at about four or five and a thin layer spread over the pavement.

For the first time for many, many years - not since I was a paper boy in the 1960s - I had the satisfaction of being the first to walk down to the bus stop across the virgin snow.

 At one point I stopped and looked at my footprints stretching back for a hundred yards.

I don't think I had felt so happy after getting up so early for many a year.

On top of that I heard the first strains  of the dawn chorus from the birds in the nearby woods, a reminder that spring is near despite the snow and frost.

Long distance commuting has its drawbacks, but sometimes the early mornings bring unexpected pleasures that you can enjoy just for yourself.

Back later in the week.

Blogger Beware! You may change British Methodism forever

I suppose Jabez Bunting set the scene.  British Methodism had a difficult time adjusting to life after John Welsey. It was Jabez who stitched the whole thing together. They used to say of Jabez that he had the whole of Methodist Conference buttoned up in one pair of breeches.

And so it continued for nearly two centuries. Methodist Conference would  meet every year. To get to Methodist Conference you had to attend a whole pyramid of meetings - Church Council, Circuit, District Synod and finally  Conference itself. Unless the individual, grass roots Methodist, was a fanatical meeting goer they had little opportunity to express thier views on the great Methodist issues of the day.

The result was that each year the same faces appeared at conference. They said the same things, shaked the same hands, accepted the same reports and debated the same "memorials". All very cosy without a challenge in sight.

The grass roots Methodist could  theoretically express their views through the pages of the Methodist Recorder the denomination's weekly newspaper. There was however a problem: the Recorder were never going to publish anything that they felt rocked the cosy little boat. The Editor of the Recorder could be relied upon to "moderate".

Should an individual be concerned about an aspect of Methodist theory, theology, policy or practice, they faced an up hill battle to get the matter heard. They'd have to form a "fellowship" or "association", get themselves onto lots of committees, write pamphlets, run fringe meetings at Conference, get others to support "memorials", or even hope that the editor of the Methodist Recorder would do them the great honour of  printing their letter.

Inflexiblity

Gradually British Methodism paid for this inflexibility. Methodists voted with their feet. A couple of years ago the present General Secretary when President of Conference, remarked how often he found former Methodists serving God in other denominations.

Sheer frustration with the cosy cliques, the lack of transparency, the top down approach, the permanent "Parliament" of the annual conference took their toll. Only last week a member of the Methodist Council who should know better was complaining that  recent technological changes no longer  allowed "for private conferring as has been done for a long time in our tradition". Methodism, an absolutely world class channel for promoting the Gospel in its day, was being strangled by cliques, censorship and an authoritarian top down approach.

Then came the internet. The first Methodist bloggers were Ministers who posted their sermons online. Then one or two began to comment on news items and the issues of the day. It was all fairly matey. Many of the early blogs expressed a disdain, verging on hatred, for evangelical traditions of Christianity. Some came close to promoting New Age theology.  They were not inspiring, didn't ask questions about the increasingly difficult problems that Methodism faced, and to an outsider gave an impression of Methodism that would surprise many Methodists. There were some exceptions: the Turbulent Cleric was always a good read.

Potential

In Lent 2007 I began this blog. Professionally I understood the potential influence and transparency that came with what we now call "social media". In 2000 I took responsibility for one of the country's first intranets  complete with message boards and micro-sites. Within a year I was addressing conferences on how to manage internal communications in the digital age. By 2005 I was writing a report for a major FTSE 100 plc on the potential of blogging and social networking sites. I understood that the new technology would change relationships and perceptions. It also dispersed ownership of information and communication. These could not easily be concentrated in a few hands. Nor the power that came with that ownership

During Lent 2007 I wasn't really certain just how my blog would develop. I checked my sitemeter  and rarely had more than ten visitors a day. I tried to make my blog avowedly tabloid in approach, using lots of illustrations and short sharp articles.

Then I stumbled on the issue of gambling. I had been unhappy the previous year to find that a church official had apparently used her position within the church as a springboard to a very well paid quango post that was promoting gambling.

I had wrote to the Methodist Recorder when the appointment had been announced but my letter like many others had been "moderated" into the waste paper bin. Cosy cliques have a tendency to look after one another. They call it "moderation", I know it as censorship.

When I decided to raise the issue on my blog I contacted the press office as Church House. I wanted to hear the Connexion's side of the story. Well who cares about bloggers? No one reads them. My perfectly legitimate inquiries were met with silence and then contempt. The official I tried to deal with now writes papers for the Methodist Council on social media, especially blogs.

Sensational

I started to dig around. Then I had a quite sensational tip off. If I looked hard enough on the web I would find something of great interest. And I did.

During the passage of the Gambling Bill that same official from Church House who had got the quango job  had attended a conference. She prepared  a speech. It was aimed at a secular, non-Methodist audience. It wasn't meant for internal Methodist consumption. It ridiculed Methodism, it took the micky out of us and our heritage with a few very weak, rather silly "jokes".This was no slip of the tongue. It wasn't sent anywhere near the Methodist Recorder. One could argue, that coming from the mouth of a Methodist employee, it actually "brought the Church into disrepute".

Just a few years before the speech would have been forgotten. It would take a great deal of effort to find a copy or a recording. However it had been written in advance and an electronic copy supplied to the hosts who posted it on their website. In the Spring  of 2007 it was still posted on the internet. The new technology had made this speech available to anyone who knew where to look- something which the author never expected nor intended.

On Wednesday 25 April 2007 I ran the story on this blog . What had been said in private by a Connexional official was out in the public domain. There was no laborious committee procedure. No need to ask the Editor of the Methodist Recorder for permission to publish. No need to get elected to Conference. No need to be part of the cosy clique. A badly connected local preacher in one of Britain's poorest borough, serving a difficult circuit, was able to publish and express a view  about a very serious issue upon which the Connexion had clearly failed.

Offensive

The Faith and Order Committee wrote to tell me they did not like the "tone and content" of this blog. Whether they commented on the "tone and content" of the offensive speech I do not know. Perhaps they did. They probably didn't. The Church House official was an "in". The Methodist Preacher was merely an "out". This was a clear cut demonstration of the distortion Methodism had come during its recent journey.

I got quite a lot of stick from various quarters. It wasn't pleasant but sometimes innovators have to live with these things. Others have suffered far, far worse in the battle for transparency and truthfulness.

Today the Methodist Council will debate a rather silly and ill thought out paper on social media.It is a desperate attempt to turn back time and technology. They are even proposing to waste the time of Methodist Conference. This will make us a laughing stock. No other denomination is expending resources time on such nonsense. What should be a nothing more than a simple A4 guidance note to staff from the General Secretary  has been blown out of all proportion.

The Methodist Council needs to understand  the lessons of  the manner in which that speech came  to light and the ease with which it was republished within a new framework.

On Wednesday 25 April 2007 this blog changed British Methodism forever.