07 February 2008
February meeting of the Methodist Council
The Methodist Council met at High Leigh Conference Centre
on 6-7 February. Although the Council had a full agenda, it had
fewer papers to consider compared with recent meetings, and so had
more time to spend on each.
A major piece of work currently underway is looking at Equalities
and Diversity. A working group has been exploring this issue and
developing an equal opportunities policy for the Church. A parallel
paper looking at diversity and Methodist identity pointed out that
widely varying national and cultural backgrounds are found in the
Church today, from long-established Chinese Methodist congregations
in Epsom, London and Birmingham to Urdu-, Punjabi- and
Parsee-language Methodist groups elsewhere. The reports call for
equality and diversity to be seen as core Methodist identities, and
more than just the concern of special-interest groups.
The Fresh Expressions joint initiative between the Church of
England and the Methodist Church will come to the end of its
initial five-year period in 2009, and proposals are being formed
for its second phase. The Council heard plans for the next phase,
which will include the aim of integrating Fresh Expressions into
the ongoing life of the churches.
The Revd Ken Howcroft, Coordinating Secretary for Conference and
Communication, says "Fresh Expressions has been a great success and
we are pleased with the plans for its next phase. It represents a
great challenge to the churches, but also wonderful opportunities
to meet people in different ways, and to share our faith with
them."
The Council also approved spending plans for new ways of meeting
the training needs of the Church. A new training framework, called
Extending Discipleship and Exploring Vocation (EDEV), aims to
support the training and development needs of all Methodists,
including lay staff and volunteers. Also, the new Regional Training
Forums will be supported in their early years by the release of
funds originally raised by circuits and districts to support
ministerial training. Due to an under spend of those funds in
recent years, Council heard that there is now the money available
to thoroughly set up the new training schemes and to cover the
transitional costs from the current schemes.
The Council will meet again in April, which will be its final
meeting before the annual Methodist Conference meets in Scarborough
on 5-10 July.
All of the Council papers (apart from those marked confidential)
can be read at
www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=opentogod.content&cmid=1943.