Posted on 02/16/2010 9:33:48 AM PST by NYer
The Methodist Church is prepared to be absorbed by the Church of England if that is the price of unity, Britain’s most senior Methodist said yesterday.
The Rev David Gamble, president of the Methodist Conference, told the General Synod of the Church of England, meeting at Church House, Westminster: “We are prepared to go out of existence, not because we are declining or failing in mission, but for the sake of mission.” Methodists were “prepared to be changed and even to cease having a separate existence as a Church” if that served the needs of the Kingdom of God.
The Church of England and Methodists have been flirting with reconciliation ever since their divorce two centuries ago. Formal talks between the two churches began in the 1960s, but an attempt in 1972 at full unity failed at the last hurdle because Anglo-Catholics were opposed. It took a generation for the Methodists to recover from the humiliation of being rejected after voting for a reunion.
Now, with only 265,000 members and heading towards extinction within a few generations, they are willing to try again. Yet the Church of England is also facing steady decline, having barely 960,000 monthly worshippers, and the Methodists have a strong hand. The Methodist Church owns prime real estate such as Westminster Central Hall.
A condition of unity will be keeping the name Methodist in some form. “It is more of a coming together rather than any suggestion that it would be the Methodist Church being swallowed up or losing its name,” a spokesman for the Methodist Church said. It would not be an Anglican takeover.
Mr Gamble’s address to the synod was the first since 1993 — and first time the Methodist Church has voiced a willingness to cease to exist.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
FYI ping!
Of possible interest to your lists.
Why is it that every time I hear about splits in these denominations, or merger negotiations among these declinining denominations, the next sentence involves the property they own?
As such, I suspect these churches are already dead. Anyone remaining seems to be residents of the buildings simply negotiating their “squatter’s rights” on the property.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15
when 2 nearly extinct dinosaurs mate...
The headlines that come out of the UK these days...
Of course, Chuck and Jack would both be extremely annoyed at the state both their accidental denomination and the parent church have gotten themselves into.
The key is that the Anglo-Catholics are leaving. That changes the whole game.
Of course, Chuck and Jack would both be extremely annoyed at the state both their accidental denomination and the parent church have gotten themselves into.
The key is that the Anglo-Catholics are leaving. That changes the whole game.
Rats jumping ON a sinking ship?
Churches merge out of weakness, not strength. Every liberal denomination is dying. The more liberal it is, the faster the decline in membership. The Methodist and Anglican church bodies are dead men walking. Since these church bodies abandoned traditional Christianity decades ago, the only way that they can defend their existence is through membership and property. They merge in an attempt to increase the membership numbers. You see this in the ELCA. You merge with several dying churches to make your numbers look bigger. Money and property are the new marks of the church.
Reading that, I realized you could exchange the word "churches" with "religious orders" and end up with another statement of fact. (see the thread on dissident nun Sr. Joan Chittister)
I wonder what Lady Thatcher would think. She was a Methodist lay preacher as a young woman.
The sad thing is that they have reached a mutual degree of heresy and are ready to join. Another thing that is sad is that both entities feel morally superior for accepting blatant, active, no apology sin.
My grandfather-in-law was a Methodist minister and a good, holy man. He'll probably be asking St. Peter the time just in order to say, "By the way, this is one of my grandsons coming in . . . . "
He would be horrified by what has happened to the church he worked so hard for all his adult life.
I'm glad he didn't live to see it.
Unfortunately the poor dear is senile now. God bless good ole’ Maggie.
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