There
is a book called the Constitutional Practice and Discipline of the Methodist
Church. This book will be explained in a little more depth later in the course,
but for now it will be sufficient to know that it will generally be referred to
as 'CPD', and it basically contains the rules of Methodism. The preface to CPD
volume 1 contains this handy little statement about the structure of Methodism;
"Each
local church is a member of a larger body, subject to a common discipline and
pattern of government, sharing in a wider life. The authority of Conference,
legally given by Act of Parliament, has its theological basis in this understanding
of the church as a ‘connexion’ of local churches, circuits and districts,
expressing their fellowship in the Body of Christ by their constitutional ties."[2]
It
carries on to say; "The fact that most aspects of constitutional practice
and discipline can be amended, and that such amendments occur so frequently is
also significant. Changes reflect not only the need for administrative
adjustment, but the conviction that the church must not stand still, but must
move forward as the Spirit leads, and is always in need of reform." The
ability to change is written into our constitution, and that is something to
bear in mind as we carry on. So let's look at the parts of the Methodist
structure beginning with the connexion;
Connexion &
Conference
Connexional
thinking is one of the key features of Methodism. We are not isolated
congregations just doing our own thing, nor are we subject to some overarching
hierarchy of leaders that tell us what to do, rather we attempt govern
ourselves collectively and share our ideas and experiences, our hopes and
fears, our troubles and our lessons learnt with the whole connexion so that we
might do better at being Church together.
The Methodist Church website has this to say on the
subject;
Methodists belong to local churches or ecumenical
partnerships, but also feel part of a larger connected community, the
Connexion.
This sense of being
connected makes a difference to how the Methodist Church as a whole is structured.
At its heart is an understanding of the Christian community as the 'body of
Christ '. Just as a human body contains different limbs and organs that depend
on each other, so we should be close and caring enough to feel each other's
pain and delight. We should put the good of the whole body before our own
individual needs.
The promise of mutual
support is a strength of Methodism. If you become a member of the Methodist
Church, a pastoral visitor is responsible for visiting you and offering spiritual
support, encouragement and challenge.
In the Methodist Church
decisions are made as openly as possible, giving opportunities for all to
contribute. It is important for all views to be heard and taken seriously,
especially where Christians disagree."[3]
The Connexion web page on
the Methodist Church website includes this quote from John Wesley 'Do not allow
yourself one thought of separating from your brothers and sisters, whether
their opinions agree with yours or not.'[4]
But this collective governance
needs a mechanism by which to work. A primary part of that mechanism is
Conference, the annual meeting which makes decisions about how we do things and
what things ought to change. The conference is made up of 306 people two of
whom are the President and Vice President who change each year. There are
representatives from various committees that sort stuff out for us, some world
church representatives, and the chair persons from each of the districts. The
rest is made up of lay and clergy representatives sent from the District Synods.
This collection of 306 people changes significantly each year, and that is an
important part of what makes Methodism different.
This meeting, which is
made up primarily from people sent by the Districts, makes decisions on
questions and suggestions put to it mainly from the District Synods. This is
how Methodism remains united as one Church but constantly in a state of reform.
It is not a perfect system, there are times when it seems to some people that we
have moved too quickly on a particular issues, there are times when it seems to
some that we are moving too slowly and there are times when some feel that the
wrong decisions have been made.
But this system has kept
us at the forefront of social justice and ethical issues; it has helped ensure
that the voices of local church members could be heard at the national level
since the beginning of the Methodist movement in the 18th century. It has
helped us to move relatively quickly with minimal divisions on several key
issues over the years; on subjects like racial justice, women's rights,
ordination of women, the environment and human sexuality. These issues are for
the most part brought to the conference from the District so let's look briefly
at the Districts now;
District &
Synod
The District serves the Local
Churches and Circuits and the Conference by acting as a kind of bridge between
the local and the national concerns. Its primary purpose is to advance the mission
of the Methodist Church in a region by providing opportunities for Circuits to
work together and support each other, offering them resources of finance,
personnel, expertise and training opportunities which may not be available
locally.
One
of the particular ways in which we see the importance of the District is in the
Synod which happens twice a year with the addition of a Ministerial Synod. The two normal (representative) Synod meetings
are made up primarily of the ministers from the District and lay representatives
from each circuit. The synod elects the representatives that will go to
conference and chooses the bulk of the questions that go to conference.
Circuit
In the early
days of Methodism preachers would travel from town to town, to preach the
Gospel in the street or to preach to the Methodist societies that were
springing up all around the country. Local class leaders, who were not ordained
clergy, would have pastoral care of the societies and lay people would be
trained to be local preachers. The Clergy were appointed to travel around these
towns in a 'circuit' and they were appointed each year by the conference to a
particular circuit. Now on the surface many things have changed since those
early days, but the same basic mechanisms underpin the circuit system. There
are a number of things to point out about this system;
Circuits are
primarily about furthering the mission of God, and offering support to the
local societies or churches.
Ministers
are appointed by conference to circuits not to individual churches; that was
true then and is still true now.
The pastoral
responsibility, the responsibility for the spiritual welfare of the members is
shared by both lay people and clergy.
Local lay
preachers have been a vital part of the circuit system since these early days
and are still just as important today. Methodism neither restricts preaching to
ordained clergy, nor does it simply allow anyone to preach without training and
assessment. This is a really important.
There is no
circuit without the local churches and there is no local church without the
circuit.
Congregation
There are many variations in what Methodist worship looks
like around the country. There are an increasing number of congregations that
are experimenting with new forms of worship and fresh expressions of Church,
but underneath all of these is the same Methodist engine; of pastoral care
through lay and ordained people, of church councils who make decisions about
the running of the Church and stewards who, with the minister look after the
leadership of the church. In the next session we will cover in greater detail a
number of the key features and roles within the Local Church, but let us dwell
just for a moment with the flavour of Methodism
Many people will recognise
the regular pattern of Sunday worship in a lot of Methodist churches with hymns
and prayers, with readings and sermons. Often the hymns are accompanied by an
organ and occasionally with a choir; though in many churches nowadays the organ
and choir have been replaced by a band with guitars and drums. What we now
think of as a traditional Methodist congregation looks fairly similar to many
denominations on the surface, but the origins were somewhat different.
We grew out of small home
groups that were dedicated to discipleship, to mutual accountability and
holiness, to sharing the gospel and reforming the church in this country. We
grew from groups that had been inspired by street preachers to see that being a
Christian was not something that happens simply by behaving within the
acceptable norms of society, it was not about the outward image of
respectability but rather the seeking inner holiness that transforms your whole
being.
There is an increasing
call in these changing times for us to return to some of those early
principles. Not to simply go back to the past, to copy and paste the activities
of the early Methodist Church on to the present day landscape. Rather to take
the intentions of those early days and reinterpret them for our current
situation. Martyn Atkins, the General Secretary of the Methodist Church, has
framed this desire in his aspirational description of the Methodist Church as a
"discipleship movement shaped for mission.[5] We will explore later in the
course what that phrase means in a little more depth, but it the idea of the
Methodist Church as a whole as a movement brings us neatly back from the local
church to the big picture.
Structure recap
a.
From a meetings structure viewpoint
b.
Church Council bound together by the Circuit meeting,
Circuit meetings bound together by synod and synod bound together by conference
c.
Organic/fractal pattern of growth (Like a plant... 'I
am the vine you are the branches')
d.
There is no top level or bottom level
e.
Begins with church and moves to conference - but could
be done in the other direction
Connexional Diagram
a.
From a Connexional view point
b.
The parts do not occupy any separate spaces from the
whole - each level is made up entirely of it parts.
c.
It is an organic/fractal pattern of growth (like cell
divisions or the breaking of bread; 'remain in me as I remain in you', 'we are
all part of the one body')
d.
There is no top level or bottom level
e.
Begins with Connexion and moves to church - but could
be done in the other direction
[1]
Based on data from http://www.methodist.org.uk/mission/statistics-for-mission
[2]
The Constitutional Practice and Discipline of the Methodist Church, Volume 1 (Werrington:
MPH, 2005) iii
[5]
Martyn Atkins, Contemporary Methodism: A discipleship movement shaped for
mission (A summary of the General Secretary’s Report to the Methodist
Conference, 2011) http://www.methodist.org.uk/downloads/intra-contemporary-methodism-280611.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment