Singing a new song at Conference

Worship and music are a hugely significant element of any Methodist Conference. It frames business and places debate within a context of prayer and reflection. This year will see a change of worship leadership as the Revd Ian Worsfold steps down as precentor after 12 years in the role. In partnership with the Revd Paul Wood, Ian has made a notable contribution to Conference life over this period.

Before 2007, the majority of the singing at Conference was unaccompanied, with singing led by the precentor. It’s not a word we hear very often and its literal meaning is: “the one who sings before”. It was the way things were done right back to the earliest Methodist Conferences.  In 2007, however, a worship band made an appearance for the first time. This was in Blackpool, the year in which the Revd Dr Martyn Atkins became President, and Mrs Ruby Beech Vice-President

Then, in 2010, Deacon Eunice Attwood was elected to be Vice-President, alongside Revd Alison Tomlin as President.  Eunice had some clear ideas about how she wanted to shape the worship, not least of all to include some of the new material being proposed for the new hymn book, Singing the Faith (StF), due to be published the following year. Eunice approached Ian and the Revd Paul Wood (pictured, Ian conducting) to help shape the worship, as they had both been involved in the production of StF.

“We drew in some of our contacts, mostly from Jazz Community Church based in the Midlands, and shaped Conference worship in a very different way with a full-on worship band,” Ian says. “We kept some unaccompanied singing to honour the tradition, but we also acknowledged the breadth of Methodist worship experienced throughout the Connexion, and offered something (we hope) for everyone.”

This has been the pattern Ian and Paul have offered ever since; Paul curating the worship with the Presidency, liaising with the Conference office, AV Team and other partners, and stage managing the worship at Conference. Ian says that “it’s been very much a partnership between us, as I then brought the band together and arranged the rehearsal schedule”.

He adds: “Paul and I have had the privilege of working with each presidency to shape their theme through creative worship for the last 12 years, and have worked with some very talented musicians in the process. I want to acknowledge their contribution here and offer a huge ‘thank you’ for their commitment in offering their time in the service of God and the Conference.”

Now, he says, it’s time to “hand the baton over (pun very much intended!)” to others who will shape the role and Conference worship for another generation.

Filling the Ian-and-Paul shaped hole will be the Revd Nathan Falla and Matt Beckingham.

Nathan (right) is Superintendent of the Newark & Southwell Circuit in the Nottingham and Derby District. A pianist and tenor horn player, as a teenager he joined the National Methodist Youth Brass Band (NMYBB), through which he also met his wife, Hannah. He says the NMYBB played a critical part in helping him to see God’s call to become a presbyter, and he remains associated with the group both as a playing member and as part of the chaplaincy team. Nathan will act as precentor for the presbyteral session and help Matt in the representative session. 

 
Matt himself (left) is known to many through his YouTube channel and his direction of the National Methodist Choir of Great Britain, created online during the pandemic. He is widely experienced as a worship leader and conductor – including at major Christian events such as Greenbelt Festival and 3Generate. As a Chorus Master he has worked with the London Philharmonic Choir, London Symphony Chorus, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Proms Youth Choir, and Opera North, amongst others; and he has conducted some of the world’s finest orchestras. Matt is artistic director of OneSound, formerly the MAYC Orchestra and Singers.

We say huge thanks to Ian and Paul for their many years of service at Methodist Conference, delivered with huge commitment and imagination, and look forward to being guided forward in worship by Nathan and Matt.