Election and Induction of the President and Vice-President of the Conference

The Methodist Conference elected and inducted the Revd Mark Slaney to serve as President and Caroline Stead to serve as Vice-President on Saturday 27 June at the Methodist Conference in Telford. The induction marks the start of their year of office.

The Revd Mark Slaney currently serves as Chair of the Scotland District and the Shetland District. His work has included formative mission, study partnerships and placements with the Church of South India and the Methodist Church and Sierra Leone and Interfaith Forum support.

He preached his first sermon at the age of 15 and prior to his ordination 24 years ago, Mark served ten years in youth work plus jobs as a builder’s mate, cleaner and van driver.

In his address to the Conference, Mark said: “I am endlessly grateful to God for our salvation and life in Christ Jesus, for that divine call on our lives that accepts us just as we are and offers us a vision of who we could become together, giving purpose and reason and making us better people and the world a better place, in partnership with the Holy Spirit.

“Thanks to my parents to whom I owe the beginnings of faith and a place in the Methodist Church. I reflect that I inherit both your Christian convictions and your experiential and discerning questions."

“There are many more folk to whom I owe a debt of gratitude and for whom I hold deep affection for the ways in which you have supported, accompanied, challenged and borne with me.”

The Revd Mark Slaney said: “Throughout the designate year I have experienced a growing sense of the weight, honour and privilege that comes with the role of President. That the Church has discerned this call at this time is affirming and humbling. Be assured of my commitment in serving the Methodist people and our ecumenical, interfaith and mission partners throughout the year to come.”

Caroline Stead is passionate about inclusivity and ensuring that people are welcomed and safe within the Methodist Church, and about supporting volunteers within the Church.

A local preacher in the Yorkshire West District, where she is also the Synod Secretary, Caroline is an accompanist to a minister in training and serves on the Discerning Ordained Vocation (DOV1) Committee and on Chairs’ nomination panels.

A former maths teacher, Caroline was also a Lay Stationing Representative for 11 years. She has been a representative to the Conference since 2008, including six years on the Business Committee.

In her address to the Conference, Caroline said: “I suppose that I was literally a cradle Methodist and that upbringing continued after our move, at age 7, to Yorkshire.

“Thank you to those who have been key on my faith journey.

“Mark and I have chosen two words to work with next year: Joy and Sorrow. The Christian journey is a tapestry woven with threads of both joy and sorrow.”

Caroline Stead said: “I am humbled that I have been called by God into the role of Vice-President. In the year ahead I am looking forward greatly to living out this calling in service to the Church that is growing, inclusive, evangelistic and justice-seeking, a Church that has given me so much up to this point in my life.

“In particular, I am excited at the prospect of being able to visit many people and places, to share my lived experience of inclusivity and to support the many volunteers who give so much to the life and mission of the Church.”

The role of President of the Methodist Conference is reserved for presbyters and that of Vice-President for lay people or deacons. John Wesley chaired the Methodist Conference during his lifetime, but after his death, the Conference was determined to elect a President annually.

The collection taken on Sunday 28 June at this year’s Conference was in aid of partner charity Action for Children and All We Can’s Middle East Justice Appeal.