Further Connexional Reflections

Permission was kindly granted to Rosemary Wass and I, in response to the request for a September Circuit Newsletter article, that we write one each: mine neatly follows on from Rosemary’s excellent reflection on being Vice-President of Conference in a Connexional context.

For the record, I served as VP in 2005-06, but I turn the clock back to 1947 when my father was stationed as a probationer minister in the Consett Circuit in County Durham. He helped establish a youth group in Consett and encouraged a bright 17-year-old lad called Donald English on his faith journey. Yes, the very same who shared the Presidency with Rosemary in 1990-91, and whom I was privileged to know. Fast forward to 1973, and, living in Durham, I preached at Consett: a gentleman introduced himself to me after the service, ‘We’ve never met, but I’m Donald English’s father, and I remember yours very well.’ Space precludes a poignant sequel from being recounted, but does this personal reminiscence not illustrate what being Connexional is all about?

A leader of another denomination, at a property conference I once attended at Swanwick (where I first met Sylvia Price, then from Bromborough) said, ‘the genius of Methodism is its Connexionalism.’ Not an accolade easily forgotten. Speaking of Swanwick, in 1962, I played in an impromptu cricket match there under the captaincy of Eric Spencer from Chester, Angela Macquiban’s father, and later the Revd Tim’s father-in-law. Oh, and I conducted the one-to-one interview with Tim at Connexional Candidates Committee in 1984.

Really, I’m not making this up: Methodists are connected.

What is this genius? Churches are connected in Circuits, Circuits in Districts and Districts in the Connexion: when we say, ‘the Connexion’, we mean the Methodist Church of Britain, which also embraces the Channel Islands (churches in Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark), the Isle of Man, Gibraltar and Malta (an LEP in Valetta with the Church of Scotland).

The 2nd verse of Richard Gillard’s hymn (Singing the Faith 611) reads:

‘We are pilgrims on a journey, and companions on the road;

We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.’

This is very essence of being Connexional. To give but a few examples. We station presbyters and deacons through Connexional processes to ensure, as far as possible, that ministers are deployed where they are most needed: it’s not a free-for-all of advertising vacancies. We have strict Connexional policies for stipends and allowances (to ensure that richer circuits can’t bribe, er, attract, ministers!), the provision of manses (not least to ensure that ministers can afford to live in London) and Connexion-wide pensions and housing arrangements when ministers retire, or ‘sit down’ as we quaintly say. We have several Connexional financial provisions such as the Property Fund to assist with building schemes, and the Fund for the Support of Presbyters and Deacons (FSPD) to offer assistance to ministers and their dependants, active and retired, in acute financial need.

Rosemary commented that we are all part of the Connexion: indeed, we are, ordained and lay, and all those who are members of the Methodist Church are eligible to attend its governing body, the Methodist Conference. (Just get yourself nominated and elected at District Synod.) Conference, comprised equally of ordained and lay, meets annually at the end of June but, as the strains of ‘Captain of Israel’s Host, and Guide’ (StF 459) die away and people prepare for their homeward journeys, it simply adjourns. Conference never ceases to be and its membership stands until its next meeting, lest sudden, urgent matters arise. The authority of the Connexion-wide Methodist Church is invested in the Conference, not in individuals: those in key roles may exercise inspirational leadership, but they do not have power, as their responsibilities and freedoms of action are defined in ……CPD.

Conference is the guardian of ‘The Constitutional Practice and Discipline of the Methodist Church’ (aka CPD), that slim 900-page volume beloved of chairs of meetings with its hundreds of Standing Orders to cover any imaginable Methodist circumstance, however rare its occurrence. But it’s part of being Connexional – we are governed by the same processes in all corners of Mr Wesley’s parish. As the 18th century nickname, Methodist, aptly indicated, we are methodical in all we do, nothing left to chance – think of the quarterly Circuit Preaching Plan!

Let us therefore rejoice in the genius we call Connexionalism, as together, formally and informally, we ‘help each other walk the mile and bear the load’ on the pilgrimage to which God calls us.

John Bell

Local Preacher