An address given by Caroline Stead after being elected and inducted as Vice-President of the Methodist Conference 2026-27
Conference, esteemed visitors, let us pray.
Gracious God,
for this opportunity to share, to listen and to think, we give you thanks,
and ask that your Spirit will move in this place and your love be shared.
God is good – all the time
All the time – God is good!
Firstly, thank you, to all those members of last year’s Conference for designating me as Vice President and secondly to all the members of this year’s Conference for standing up and affirming that.
When that phone call came from Jonathan on the Tuesday evening of last year’s Conference, I was overcome with joy but there was a rather daunting aspect to the designation, was I going to be able to live up to the high standards of those who had gone before and to what lay ahead?
So here I am, despite several occasions in the past year when imposter syndrome has set in, and I truly believe that God has called me to this role and I know that God will equip me because
God is good – all the time
All the time – God is good!
I also want to thank my family for their support.
My children, now adults, Rachael and Jonathan and his partner Lauren, all of whom are here today. Rachael will be with me all week and will come on some visits with me. You will find her this week sat at the back near the door, intent on her diamond art whilst listening to the debates – that is where she feels comfortable. Please do chat to her, she will love that.
I also want to pay tribute to my parents, no longer on this earth, who brought me up in the Methodist Church, for the first seven years of my life in Rookery Road, Handsworth where dad was choir master, mum had been their teenage organist through the second world war, and grandad had laid the foundation stone for the Methodist School in 1932.
I suppose that I was literally a cradle Methodist and that upbringing continued after our move to Yorkshire.
Thank you to those who have been key on my faith journey. Our minister whilst at Durham University Revd Sir Ralph Waller, and if I say ‘it’s in the bag’, I’m sure some of you will recall the children’s addresses that emerged from the bag or on one occasion flew in from the church balcony. Revd Elly who nurtured me through her Methsoc group, fellow Methsoc members who have become lifelong friends, several of whom are now Methodist ministers, and the faithful welcoming folk of Elvet Methodist church.
Finally, thank you to my home church in Hipperholme, for your support over the years and specifically this last year of preparation and in the coming year, not the least of which is the prayer group you have set up to pray for me. And I must thank our one time minister Revd Ruth Gee who inspired through Bible Studies and following my comment to her as steward on her arrival at the church that “I will do anything you need doing but just don’t ask me to preach”, gently encouraged and supported me on that journey to becoming one of Mr Wesley’s preachers and then onwards to this moment.
Through all these people I have seen and continue to see that
God is good – all the time
All the time – God is good!
Mark and I have chosen two words to work with next year, Joy and Sorrow. The passage we heard read by my daughter Rachael, from John 16:16-24 offers an insight into the interplay of joy and sorrow in both our own lives and the life of the church. The Christian journey is a tapestry woven with threads of both joy and sorrow. This is beautifully illustrated in the art work by Mary Fleeson of Lindisfarne Scriptorium and especially in the way that Jesus speaks to his disciples in the shadow of his imminent departure and eventual return, a message of both pain and promise.
Jesus explained to his disciples,
“Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.” John 16:20
Sorrow is an inescapable part of the Christian life. Together as the body of Christ, we share the pain of others through illness and loss, disappointment, suffering and persecution. Jesus acknowledges this. He knows that his followers will face times of sadness, grief and confusion just as those first disciples did at his arrest and crucifixion.
Do you remember covid, when we couldn’t worship physically together? For the church I attend, that was a time of great learning and the accompanying stress, on the technology front! Out of the trials of that, grew an online weekly prayer group that held us together and as a result our faith deepened, and we were drawn closer together and closer to God. We knew we were not alone at that difficult time and through the sorrow of all the deaths and the difficulties, we experienced joy. The joy that is grounded in the hope of Christ with the assurance that God’s love endures all things and that assurance of God’s presence always with us. We knew then and we know now that we are not alone because
God is good – all the time
All the time – God is good!
Joy and sorrow are companions on the journey of faith.
If we turn to the Old Testament and the story of that most arduous of journeys that the Israelites took in the Exodus. A long journey with wrong turnings, wrong actions and lots of complaining, there were moments of realisation throughout that God was with them. When the waters had parted for them to cross the sea of reeds and then the pursuing army was drowned, we read that Miriam the prophet, Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing, dancing in the joy of God’s presence.
Throughout my journey to this moment, which is clearly somewhat longer than the 40 years of the Exodus, there have been two key foci that have formed, both have degrees of sadness and of joy, and they are linked.
The first of these is inclusivity.
I remember a quote from Revd Helen Cameron which embraces both:
“Diversity is a gift of God, difference is a strength of the church”.
We live in an amazing world brought into being by our Creator God, and just as there is not just one type of cat, or dog, or bird, there is not just one type of human.
We are all different and that is an expression of God’s divine, loving and creative nature. It’s a real strength of the world that we live in and it is to be celebrated, just as the apostle Paul did when he spoke about the different parts of the body and their different roles in the whole.
If we are truly an inclusive church, our acts of communal worship should be of the highest quality and inclusive, which means accessible, welcoming, safe and comfortable for all so that everyone may find a place to experience the joy that comes from worshipping God together.
That word ‘inclusive’ has so many facets to it.
Can we access the building – is the door obvious, are there steps, once inside the door is it clear where we are to go, is there a danger of sitting in someone else’s seat, what if I need a seat near the door – is that reserved for the steward? Is the toilet clearly signed in a dementia friendly way, both to get in and to get out of it again! Can everyone access the communion rail if they want to? Does it matter what I wear or what I look like?
Once inside is the worship itself inclusive? Can we hear, can we see, do we understand the words that are used, what if I need to get up and move around with or without a baby or child? What if I struggle to sit quietly? What if I need to know what comes next and what time the worship will finish?
My daughter Rachael has given me permission to share with you that she has a learning disability and autism. She can feel overwhelmed in places with lots of people – that is why she will sit at the table by the door with an activity to keep her calm.
We are all different and all have different needs.
The growth of online worship has made worship more accessible to so many people who are housebound, have transport difficulties, struggle with certain environments outside of their own and for those for whom Sunday morning is just not a good time due to work or family commitments.
When I was privileged to visit France as a guest of the United Protestant Church of France in April, with inclusivity in mind, I met with Pastor Isabelle Bousquet who works for the Foundation John Bost, a Protestant non-profit health and social care institution. It welcomes, supports and cares for people of all ages with mental disabilities, multiple disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual development disorder, as well as elderly and aging disabled people.
Isabelle listens to the spirituality of these people, and she develops ways of communicating the good news of the gospel. But, in conclusion she stressed that for anyone to be fully part of a church community or indeed any community,
- everyone needs to love somebody,
- everyone needs to be loved by somebody and
- everyone needs to know that they are needed (to have a role of some sort).
This is an act of worship that Rachael and I attend together regularly – All Together Worship, which caters specifically for those with learning disabilities. It includes all, it values and supports all and it enjoys the presence and participation of all.
People with all abilities and disabilities share in the leading. It is life giving to share in this worship – we sing, listen and share in craft activities and pray, then we eat!
One of the young ladies who attends is Katie, and when I shared with her the words Sorrow and Joy, she wrote this poem for me to share.
Poem written by Katie Matthews from All Together Worship.
When sorrow clouds your heart and mind,
And peace seems nowhere left to find,
A gentle comfort you can seek,
In Jesus' name, both mild and meek.
He understands the tears you weep,
The heavy burdens you can't keep,
The tangled paths that lie ahead,
The doubts and fears that fill your head.
So bow your head and softly pray,
Let Jesus guide you on your way,
His grace dispels the midnight's veil
And we know his love will prevail
He'll show you beauty in things small,
And help you rise above the fall,
A gentle hand to lift you high,
joy that reaches for the sky.
Though sorrow lingers for a while,
He'll plant a seed that makes you smile,
A promise whispered in the breeze,
Of hope and everlasting peace.
Katie Matthews
There is so much joy in this worship for everyone.
God is good – all the time
All the time – God is good!
The planning of worship that is truly inclusive, whether specifically for a group of people with a particular disability or not, takes much effort, prayer and time from our increasingly stretched ministers and the dedicated lay people who work alongside them. And this links into my second area of focus.
My second area of focus is that of encouraging the many lay volunteers in the church.
As a lay person, I am acutely aware of the roles that faithful folk take on voluntarily in the church, be that as a steward, local preacher, arranging flowers, making the refreshments, welcoming, technology, property, treasurer, safeguarding, GDPR, EDI officer, children & young people’s work, … the list goes on and on and I am now in danger of offending someone by missing out their role! Friends, we have fewer and fewer people to fulfil these tasks.
Tell me something new you might say!
We must find ways of working together as churches to ensure that our focus and our time is not consumed by these very necessary tasks to the exclusion of being missional. We are an evangelistic church and the minute we ignore that we are doomed and failing our great commission. Evangelism is everyone’s responsibility, but to enable that to be the reality, we need to ensure that everyone has time and space in their lives to seek out opportunities to grow in their discipleship and to be equipped to share their faith. If we are to love others as we love ourselves, then we need to love and care for ourselves first. This may be ensuring that all are able to attend church to fully participate in worship without having to deal with a list of jobs every week or it may be offering the opportunity to be able to take time out for a retreat morning. It is a real task to encourage our committed lay folk to take the time out of their busy lives to spend a morning for themselves, focussing on their journey of faith and being equipped for evangelism. The response of many is that they are too busy – If that isn’t a cause for sorrow, I’m not sure what is.
If we are serious about being a growing, inclusive, evangelistic and justice seeking church, the laity of our church are the people who live in the areas where our churches are situated, they are the ones who know their local community and now that ordained ministry is so thinly spread, they are the evangelists in these places.
They are key to enabling the church to grow and be truly inclusive.
They are the ones who see the injustices in their neighbourhood and beyond and are inspired to challenge them.
They are the ones who run the food banks and pray with the people who attend.
Let me tell you about a project that I visited in France back in April, called the Foyer de Grenelle.
Foyer in France means a place of welcome and reception, and this place was founded in 1887 and the work and ministry has changed little over those 139 years.
Here, people arrive with nothing, nowhere to stay and they are welcomed.
Here, help is given in learning the French language, in the completion of documentation, in the navigation of the legal system and in the whole process of finding accommodation and even work.
Here there is repair café, regular second hand sales, tutors to help the children, free breakfast every day and free dinner every Wednesday evening.
In this place they have a P.O. Box number for 1500 people, so that all have a correspondence address. I saw a room where the walls were lined with files, one for each person who needed help complete, with the number that they are identified by in all official documents. But here, each file also has a name – the people are not just a number, they are individual people and they are known not just by a number but by name.
The Foyer has some staff but there are many volunteers (approximately 380 with a turnover of 80 volunteers every year so recruitment is an ongoing process) and often, those who it has helped in the past, return and volunteer, like Noah who served us coffee.
Here people are welcomed, respected, listened to and heard, but above all, as one lady told us, “Everywhere I am a number, but here they know me by name”.
Back at home, like many of your churches, the church I belong to runs lots of community activities, exercise classes, Good as New sale, community choir, friendship morning and warm space coffee morning. A small group of church members run or attend all of these activities so that there is always a church presence and several have a dedicated time of prayer or reflection in which those attending participate.
This commitment can be hard work but there is much joy in seeing the way that those who attend are appreciative of the time of prayer. There is one young disabled lady who attends the coffee morning with her carer – she does not have many words, but she always wants to stand and help to read the prayer when we pray. One icy morning it was too dangerous for them to attend as her mobility isn’t great, but they told us afterwards that, at the time when we were praying, they shared the same prayer as best as they could remember it. How wonderful is that?
These moments of joy, are perhaps similar to what C.S.Lewis wrote about in his Spiritual autobiography in which he claimed to be Surprised by Joy. He felt that his encounter with God was punctuated with what he called ‘stabs of joy’, even in times of pain and suffering.
It’s easy to confuse joy with happiness. We associate both emotions with good times and hope for the future. But happiness is a temporary emotion that will come and go depending on our circumstances whereas joy isn't a simple emotion — it's eternal and remains no matter what you go through.
Happiness is our response to the good things that happen to us.
Joy is the choice to see goodness in spite of what happens to us.
In the book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, The Horse and the Storm by Charlie Mackesy, the boy becomes separated from the mole, fox and horse in a storm, but when the boy and the horse are reunited and reflecting on the blackness of the storm and what got them through it, we read the words “The blue sky above never leaves”. No matter how dark the clouds, there is always blue sky above them.
Joy a gift from God, it’s a fruit of the Spirit and it emerges from that hope, that assurance of things to come, that arises from our trusting that God is at work even when life is busy or we are tired or worried or sad. Joy is the gift that grows out of the promise that, whatever we have to deal with, God is with us because
God is good – all the time
All the time – God is good!
I have spent nearly 47 years of my life teaching Mathematics to children in secondary schools. I love Mathematics but I am acutely aware that many people don’t and their dread of the subject usually emanates from a negative experience as a young child. This doesn’t just apply to the study of Mathematics, the experiences of life that children are subjected to are formative and shape their future. I think of the Manchester Arena bombing, the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and then there are the many children brought up in poverty or abused. How are they ever going to be enabled to find some joy in their lives? This is why one of the charities that the President and I have chosen for this coming year is Action for Children and we will hear from them later in the Conference, telling something of the wonderful work they do.
I want to conclude with some thoughts of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who viewed joy as an invincible, habitual act of gratitude rooted in God's love, not dependent on circumstances. He saw sorrow as a temporary, earthly experience transformed by faith.
He believed true joy is found through the cross and is often forged through hardship. From prison, he gained a new perspective, looking at life from the viewpoint of the oppressed. He found that suffering can lead to a clearer, less corruptible, and truer perception of life's joys and sorrows than a life of ease. In his final years at Tegel prison, he developed what he called a profound, "irrefutable" joy that was a "habit of the heart" that persists despite loneliness and hardship, finding its strength in Christ's own suffering.
Joy and sorrow are not opposites in life; they are companions on the journey of faith.
When we choose to find joy, to develop that “habit of the heart”, then our hearts are filled with God’s perfect love and as a result even when things might be difficult, we are given the peace of knowing that we are not alone and are held by God.
God is good – all the time
All the time – God is good!
To God be the glory.