Letter from General Secretary

The Methodist Church

September 2022

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

 

Greetings at the beginning of the Connexional Year.

 

Some years back, I was privileged to be minister of a church that had a very good relationship with the local primary school. Classes would visit the church as part of their RE, which would involve them exploring the building and comparing it with other religious buildings the class had visited. One of the things that those children helped me to see was how pragmatic the approach of those who built and later refurbished the chapel had been. There was a striking lack of ornamentation; the design of the premises permitted use for purposes other than worship; there was flexibility about the use of the space.

 

 

What was true there is probably true of most of our buildings. As Methodists, we have built pragmatically. That doesn’t deny that our sacred spaces are vested with meaning for us: the stones that have echoed our forebears’ ‘praises are holy and dear is the ground where their feet have once trod’. We are not simply utilitarian; there is beauty in much of our property and architects who have served the Church have worked to enable us to sense the numinous, but our buildings were and are designed primarily to serve our mission, and when they longer serve our mission effectively or are no longer needed for mission, we remodel or close them.

 

 

As we continue to recover from the experience of lockdown and wrestle with what it means to be a smaller church, it seems likely that we are at a point where a significant number of buildings have been or are soon to be closed. The decisions that lead to that point are rarely easy; the Circuit Meeting and Synod will often exercise their responsibilities under SO 943 with a considerable degree of sadness. We have, I think, become better at recognising the importance of lament at such moments; as those who believe in God’s power to bring life out of places of defeat and death, we know the importance of weeping on Good Friday and living through Holy Saturday to be brought into the new light of Easter Day and we can never be facile about that. Leading God’s people through these processes of closure can be a costly ministry.

 

 

Along with the considerable amount of energy that goes into the pastoral care of those who are ‘losing their chapel’ in these moments, many of us in ministry will feel that too much of our time is taken up in the disposal of redundant property. Was it for this, we might ask when wrestling with questions about insurance, planning permission, or sale prices, that God called us into ordained ministry?

 

 

At one level, the answer to that is yes. It is our privilege and duty to work with others to steward for mission the resources of the church (including the redundant chapel or unused manse). The others with whom we work include members of the Connexional Team; my colleagues are working hard to try to ensure that the support that circuit ministers need is available at the point it is needed. Guidance is available on the website and for particular enquiries from the property team in person; in most cases it is probably helpful if the property team and not the legal team or TMCP is the first port of call. It’s also helpful in most cases if schemes are logged on the consents website at the earliest opportunity.

 

 

In response to the Conference, the Methodist Council next month will explore the feasibility of offering additional support to take some of the burden of dealing with closures and sales from circuits. One question that often comes up is about whether or not redundant property has to be sold at market value. The signals that are sent to the local community can be unhelpful if it appears that the Church wants only to maximize its asset and no longer cares about the people it claims to serve. Of course, we are bound by charity law but our primary duty is always to fulfil the purpose of the Church and there have been imaginative ways in which property has been used to support or enable community projects or continued mission in partnership with others. There might be options with ecumenical partners or with the ‘Methodist Family’ (eg, with Action for Children or MHA). The work of the Property Development Committee in recent years has been to try to encourage the whole Connexion to think creatively about the use of redundant property for mission, accepting that sometimes the right answer is to sell for the best price and use the money but that other options need to be explored before that conclusion is reached. Model Trusts 14 and 20 give us options to sell, licence or lease at less than best price and in recent years the Methodist Council has reviewed our policies around both those model trusts. The policies can be viewed on the website.

 

 

The context of this is the digital age and the experience of worship online. Even before March 2020, some groups were gathering in digital rather than physical spaces for worship and many continue to do so. Some are even asking if our mission requires us to own buildings at all. The Conference explored this issue of online churches and asked the Faith & Order and Law & Polity Committees to continue to work on the issues, but noted that for now a local church needs to have some physical presence. For more detail on this, the Conference report is section G
of ‘Oversight and Trusteeship’
.

 

 

As I write, a major concern of many people is the cost of heating this winter. Andy Fitchett and others have helpfully highlighted the difficulties that churches in particular are facing. It is an area where the sharing of wisdom across the connexion can be important.  Already, of course, we are committed to reducing our energy consumption as part of our plan to become Net
Zero by 2030
. In this area, as in others, my colleagues in the property team and elsewhere would value your comments and ideas. There are no easy answers, but in all these property matters it can help to have the conversation and advice is often available.

 

 

One response to the rising price of fuel has been the Warm Welcome initiative and I imagine that many churches will want to be involved in such a project in their locality, to offer free, welcoming, warm and safe spaces to any who need them. Such involvement will be costly; it will not be an easy decision for a church already struggling with its heating bills to offer hospitality for longer hours but it might be the right thing to do. Again, it would be helpful if churches were able to register via the Warm Welcome website (www. warmwelcome.uk), making it clear that they are a Methodist Church. We are looking at ways in which we might offer Connexional support to those so registered. When we have more information, we’ll post it on the Ministers’ Signpost.

 

 

In these things and in much else, I and the rest of the Connexional Team look forward to working with you throughout this connexional year.

 

With prayers,

   

Jonathan R Hustler

 

Secretary of the Conference

Beyond these walls of worship

    in the stress and joy of life,

    can we offer you our bodies

    as a living sacrifice?

    Will we keep you at the centre

    far beyond the Sunday call?

    Will we turn to you,

    be transformed by you;

    still declare you God of all?

 

Beyond these walls of worship,

    in the times of work and rest,

    will we display your love for all

    when our faith's put to the test?

    When the people that surround us

    deny that you are there,

    will we display our faith in you --

    in life, in praise, in prayer?

 

Beyond these walls of worship

    may your Spirit strengthen us

    to make the whole of life our worship

    as we witness to your love.

    From this hour in your presence

    send us out now to proclaim

    that we'll live our life as a sacrifice

    to the glory of your name.

 

(Ian Worsfold (b. 1974) and Paul Wood (b. 1967)

Reproduced from Singing the Faith Electronic Words Edition, number 547

Words and Music: (c) Ian Worsfold and Paul Wood)

Living God,

you raised Christ from the dead:

pour out your Holy Spirit upon us

As we rejoice in that which has been

grieve at that which will be lost,

and look in hope for what is yet to come,

may we know the assurance of eternal life

and the strength of the fellowship of all the saints.  

(liturgy for closing a Methodist place of worship

 

 

 

 

https://www.methodist.org.uk/media/1070/liturgy-for-closing-a-methodist-place-of-worship-0516.pdf).

The following ministers have died since the Secretary’s last letter to you:

Deceased Deacons

Stella Bullivant

Deceased Presbyters

Elizabeth A Clark

Keith J Ledson

Brian Stocks

Norman T Routledge

Peter M Stanley

R Andrew Laird

R John Withington

K Graham Hawley

Claude A Nurse

John L Trudgill

John E Clarke

Julia S Monaghan

A Michael Cannon

Brian R Jones

Carol A Chaplin

Michael P Feast

Robert Fisher

Brian H F Webb

Colin F Scarrett

Valerie F Honey

Helen D Gardner

 

 

The following ministers have resigned and are no longer in Full Connexion:

 

Alexandra C Dunstan

Paul N Dunstan

Vivien Firth

James H Grayston

F Robert Stevens

 

 

 

The Methodist Church  |   Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5JR 020 7486 5502 (Reception) www.methodist.org.uk

Registered charity no. 1132208

 

Powered by Church Edit