The Methodist Conference

 The Methodist Conference has been meeting this week in Telford this week. The agenda this year included marking the first five years of the Church’s Strategy for Justice, Dignity and Solidarity, updates on progress made towards becoming a Net Zero Church and on work around Reparative Justice as well as on ecumenical work, and reports on liturgical style and language, Artificial Intelligence and predominantly online church.

The President and Vice-President of the Methodist Conference were elected and inducted during the afternoon of Saturday 27 June. The incoming President, the Revd Mark Slaney, was handed the Presidential Cross and John Wesley’s Bible and the Vice-President Designate, Mrs Caroline Stead, was presented with the Vice-Presidential Cross and a first-edition copy of John and Charles Wesley’s Hymns and Sacred Songs.

This year, 13 presbyters and two deacons were received into Full Connexion during the Conference’s Sunday worship, and ordinations took place later in the day at Shrewsbury Abbey, All Saints in Wellington and St John’s, Bloxwich. When they are received into Full Connexion, ministers (both presbyters and deacons) enter a covenant relationship with the Conference.

The Conference received an update on the Methodist Church’s Action for Hope work and aspiration to become net zero by 2030. Representatives heard that, although progress has been made across the Connexion, many parts of the Church have struggled to develop a robust strategy to meet the target.

The Conference was asked to receive a report highlighting areas of common ground with the United Reformed Church and welcomed a planned meeting of District Chairs and Moderators. The Conference was asked to direct the formulation of proposals for further collaboration.

The Conference received an update on the Church’s position on Assisted Dying, which was requested by last year’s Conference. The Methodist Statement on Euthanasia was adopted by the Conference in 1974, expressing its opposition to any steps which would intentionally end a patient’s life.

The report stated that the 1974 statement is flawed because of the dated language and terms, and the Conference was offered ways forward to develop a considered position, including further consultation across the Connexion.

The Conference received a report on how it should make provision for predominantly online churches within the Methodist Church. The report focuses on those communities who wish to become a church and, like any other church, will need to belong to a circuit and to have a presbyter in pastoral charge. A predominantly online community seeking to be recognised as a Methodist church should be expected, as far as possible, to meet equivalent criteria to an onsite community, with adaptations made only when absolutely necessary.