Methodist Minister in Charge of a Church of England / Methodist LEP

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This post is a question and its answer.  The question was asked by an ecumenical officer and the answer comes from the Church of England.  Note this applies where the LEP is the only Church in the Parish.  Where there is another church, the incumbent there can carry out those duties the Church of England is legally obliged to provide.  I thought there was a lot of useful information in this exchange.  I have made sure it is anonymous and tidied up some of the grammar.

Question:

Is there standard guidance about what a Methodist minister cannot do in terms of Canon law and how those functions are then provided, where a Methodist Minister has sole pastoral charge of a Church of England / Methodist Local Ecumenical Partnership? It would be helpful to know if there are some questions it's best not to ask.  Issues that came to mind when we met were around sacramental matters such as Anglican parishioners not members of the LEP wanting an Anglican wedding, who leads worship if the church wants an occasional Anglican rite such as Book of Common Prayer Communion etc.

Answer:

A Methodist Minister can be authorised by the bishop under Canon B 44 (4) as follows:

4.  (1) A bishop who has given his agreement to participation in a local ecu­menical project under the foregoing provisions of this Canon may by an instrument in writing made after consultation with the parochial church council of each parish or part of a parish in the area of the project,

(a)  make special provision as to the ministry in that area of clerks in Holy Orders, deaconesses, lay workers and readers beneficed in or licensed to any parish wholly or partly in that area;

(b) exercise in relation to that area his powers under Canon B 14A, Canon B 40 and Canon B 43;

(This means among other things authorise ministers of Churches other than the Church of England to preach, lead worship etc)

(c)  authorise ministers of any other participating Church with the good­will of the persons concerned to baptise in a place of worship of the Church of England in that area in accordance with a rite authorised by any participating Church;

(d) authorise a priest of the Church of England to preside in that area at a service of Holy Communion in accordance with a rite authorised by any other participating Church;

(e)  make provision for the holding in that area of joint services with any other participating  Church, including services of baptism and confir­mation;

(f)   authorise the holding, in a place of worship of the Church of England in that area, of services of Holy Communion presided over by a minis­ter of any other participating Church.

Therefore, a Methodist Minister can preside at the Eucharist, baptise, preach and generally lead worship, and so can exercise a pastoral, teaching and sacramental ministry in the area of the LEP. However, the authorisation does not extend to conducting weddings according to the rites of the Church of England (this is due to legal considerations in the Marriage Act).

The Methodist Minister will be the principal minister of the LEP - and the sole stipendiary minister. However, the rules of the Church of England are such that a Church of England Priest will also need to be licensed to the CofE parish which participates in the LEP. This can be done in a number of ways: a neighbouring incumbent, for example, the Area Dean, or a self supporting minister may be licensed to the parish as the incumbent. The role of such a person would be to offer Church of England Ministry (eg Weddings) to those who request it, and to perform such other functions required by the Canons and Regulations of the Church of England in the parish.

The leaflet, Authorisation, sets out the various arrangements possible for the provision of ministry in an LEP, from the CofE's point of view, and the leaflet, Things you wish they'd told you, gives information for a minister who is appointed to be sole minister in an LEP.  These two papers are a bit out of date but it seems they are being revised and new versions should be available soon.  If you're going to use them, I suggest you contact the Council for Christian Unity and ask for up to date copies.

Related articles

• The Parochial Church Council and LEPs (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Ecumenical Report at Methodist Conference 2011 (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)

The Parochial Church Council and LEPs

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The need to register some Local Ecumenical Partnerships (LEPs) as charities continues to raise new issues about how churches relate to one another.  A couple of years ago Churches Together in England introduced a new model constitution and it is now the only permitted constitution for single congregation LEPs, whether or not they need to register as a charity.  This has, as a side effect, led to a radical simplification of the approval of LEPs.

Unfortunately, some new issues have emerged around the possibility of conflict of interest between ecumenical church councils (ECCs) (set up by the new style constitutions) and Church of England Parochial Church Councils (PCCs).  This is not a problem where the LEP is one church in a parish with more than one church.  The reason is that in such a parish the PCC cannot be the same body as the ECC.

Here is a note from the recent CCU Bulletin, which explains a but more about what is happening.  I'll make one further comment at the end which is very important if you are not an Anglican and trying to understand what this means!

Charity registration of single congregation LEPs is an ongoing task. As dioceses have engaged with this, challenging constitutional issues have emerged, which revolve around the relationship of the Church of England bodies in the parish to the LEP constituted as a charity. Work has been done on a Memorandum of Understanding between the PCC of a parish which participates in a single congregation LEP and the Ecumenical Church Council. The memorandum essentially:

1. Recognises the need for the institutions and bodies of the Church of England in the parish to continue to exist and properly discharge their legal responsibilities.
2. Sets out the responsibilities which the PCC continues to exercise under the Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1956, the Church of England’s Representation Rules, and the Canons of the Church of England.
3. Expresses the PCC’s commitment to delegate those functions which it may lawfully delegate to the Trustees, and to consult with the Trustees before making decisions which have an impact on the SC-LEPs.
4. Clarifies procedures when members of the PCC who are also Trustees have a conflict of loyalty, arising out of conflict of interest between the PCC and the Trustees.

The memorandum has been adopted by the Churches Group for Local Unity and is currently being road tested in Oxford Diocese.
I will publish a post with the actual memorandum once it becomes available.  In the meantime it is important to understand the PCC in a LEP is itself an ecumenical body.  In a Methodist Anglican LEP, for example, it is in theory possible for the PCC to be entirely Methodist.  I don't recommend this as an effective arrangement but it helps us understand this particular issue.  This is not about a group of Anglicans telling a LEP what to do.  It is about how the LEP is organised internally, to enable it to make legal decisions.

Related articles

• Ecumenical Conference Report on the Methodist Church in Scotland (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Amending LEP Constitutions (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Documenting Local Ecumenical Partnerships (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Technical Ecumenism (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• A Glimpse into the Future (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• The Church of England and the United Reformed Church (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• A Major Development in Shared Ministry (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)

Related articles

• A Glimpse into the Future (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• The Church of England and the United Reformed Church (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• A Major Development in Shared Ministry (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)

Methodist Anglican Panel for Unity in Mission, April 2011

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Just in case you don't know what this is, here is an excerpt from the Methodist Anglican Panel for Unity in Mission's remit:

The Methodist – Anglican Panel for Unity in Mission (MAPUM) was set up in July 2009 through the merger of the Local Unity Panel of the Council for Christian Unity and the Committee for Local Ecumenical Development of the Methodist Church. The Council for Christian Unity approved the formation of the new Panel in December 2008, and the Methodist Conference gave its approval in July 2009.

The Methodist Review of Ecumenical Relationships in endorsing this proposal expressed the importance of MAPUM having due regard for ecumenism in Wales and Scotland. The CCU welcomes and encourages this dimension of MAPUM’s work, which reflects the three nations focus of the Joint Implementation Commission in its second quinquennial which includes Welsh and Scottish appointees.

The aspiration of both the CCU and the Methodist Council is that MAPUM must be wholly owned by both Churches and not become semi-detached from either.

The aims of MAPUM are to:

• Affirm and uphold the inseparability of Unity and Mission with the conviction that neither can be fully addressed in isolation.
• Promote working together in mission under the Covenant,
• Share insights, address issues, and develop resources in local unity in mission for both Churches.

So, MAPUM meets this morning through to tomorrow lunchtime and here is a summary of some of the highlights:

1. Fresh Directions in Unity in Mission, is a long long paper (now standing at 133 sides of A4!  A part of it is illustrated.) which covers all aspects of the ecumenical work of the Church of England.  This paper is to go to the College of Bishops in the autumn.  I will cover it in some detail once we have a reasonably final version.  The Panel has seen the paper before and so will focus on responses to the paper from the Methodist Church as well as the URC, Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Moravian Church.
2. Last year, Dioceses and Districts were invited to respond to the report of the first Joint Implementation Commission, Embracing the Covenant.  I will report on this tomorrow morning.
3. Bipartite relations between the URC and Church of England and the URC and Methodist Church.  MAPUM will ask discuss possibilities for triangulation, whatever that is!
4. The Panel will spend a lot of time considering Shared Ministry, especially through covenanted partnerships in extended areas.

As always I can provide more information on request.  I will get around to most of these in loads of exciting detail in due course.

Related articles

• What is a Local Ecumenical Partnership? (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Methodist URC Liaison Committee, March 2011 (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Documenting Local Ecumenical Partnerships (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Technical Ecumenism (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Episcopal, Methodist and URC Discussions (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Amending LEP Constitutions (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)

Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ

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Those of you who were following last week's meeting of the Church of England's General Synod, may have heard there was a debate about the Virgin Mary.  This was based upon a paper prepared by Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ.  The following article is from the Council for Christian Unity's (CCU) Bulletin.

In February 2008, General Synod requested that the ARCIC II Reports not already considered by Synod should be debated. Church as Communion came before Synod in February 2009 and Life in Christ was the subject of group work in July 2009. The debate on the remaining report, Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ, took place at last week’s General Synod.

Part of the motion passed by the Synod ‘encourage(s) Anglicans to study the report with ecumenical colleagues and in particular, wherever possible, with their Roman Catholic neighbours’. Dioceses and Parishes are therefore being urged to follow up this part of the motion.

The full motion moved by The Chair of the Council for Christian Unity (The Bishop of Guildford (The Rt Revd Christopher Hill)), was as follows:
‘That this Synod, affirming the aim of Anglican – Roman Catholic theological dialogue “to discover each other’s faith as it is today and to appeal to history only for enlightenment, not as a way of perpetuating past controversy” (Preface to The Final Report, 1982), and in the light of recent steps towards setting up ARCIC III:

1. note the theological assessment of the ARCIC report Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ in the FOAG briefing paper GS 1818 as a contribution to further dialogue;
2. welcome exploration of how far Anglicans and Roman Catholics share a common faith and spirituality, based on the Scriptures and the early Ecumenical Councils, with regard to the Blessed Virgin Mary;
3. request that, in the context of the quest for closer unity between our two communions, further joint study of the issues identified in GS 1818 be undertaken – in particular, the question of the authority and status of the Roman Catholic dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary for Anglicans; and
4. encourage Anglicans to study the report with ecumenical colleagues and in particular, wherever possible, with their Roman Catholic neighbours.’

You can download the order paper, giving full details of the motion and amendments tabled (all of which were rejected). The motion was passed decisively, following a good quality debate, by a show of hands. The papers supporting the debate, including the text of the report, can be downloaded by clicking on these links:

GS 1818 Briefing paper by FOAG on ARCIC II - Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ
GS Misc 872 FOAG Essays on ARCIC II - Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ
ARCIC II - Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ (original text)

These papers should be used as resources for studying the report, and the Church of England’s response to it, at Diocesan and Parish level. The Briefing Paper (GS 1818) gives a very succinct and useful summary of the report, as well as setting out both its positive aspects and those areas where further work is needed. The FOAG Essays (GS Misc 872) provide an in depth discussion of major themes in the report. The essays come from the full range of perspectives from within the Church of England, and are constructively critical.

In addition, the debate itself could be used as resource. In due course a transcript will be published on the Church of England website, but the audio file of the debate (Wednesday 9th February 2011, item 18) can be downloaded.

Prior to the debate, the Right Revd Christopher Hill introduced the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Westminster, the Right Revd George Stack, who presented a perspective form the Roman Catholic Church, in which he emphasised Pope John Paul II’s call for further study and discernment on the Blessed Virgin Mary. The audio file of Bishop George Stack’s address and Bishop Christopher Hill’s response can be downloaded.

Here are some suggestions for following up the motion in the Dioceses:

• Make the General Synod Motion known to the senior staff of the diocese (a copy of the motion will also be sent to Diocesan Secretaries) for them to consider how to follow it up;
• Approach your counterparts in partner Churches (especially the Roman Catholic Diocesan Ecumenical Officer) to discuss how the report may be studied ecumenically at intermediate and parish level.
• Encourage parishes and deaneries, in which you are aware of a good relationship with Roman Catholic parishes, to study the report together. Remember that our other ecumenical partners may be keen also to participate.
• A number of dioceses have successfully held study days with Roman Catholic colleagues. If you are interested in finding out more how they have approached this, please contact me.
• At parish level, where relationships are developing well, considering issues where there are significant differences between churches, requires careful handling. The principles of Receptive Ecumenism are important here. Where there is respect, generosity and the willingness to listen and learn, such conversations can be very rewarding. If any of you have had particular experience of facilitating such conversation at parish level, it would be good to hear from you, in order to flag up examples of good practice.

Finally, here are details about ARCIC III, the areas it will cover, and details of its Anglican and Roman Catholic members.

It would be interesting to hear from Methodists who are involved in these or similar conversations.  If you are interested in participating, the place to start would be to contact your Diocesan Ecumenical Officer.

A Foretaste of the Banquet of the Kingdom

Image by digital cat  via FlickrAnother report from this year's Ecumenical Kirchentag, copied from the Church of England, Council for Christian Unity's European Bulletin – No 65, September 2010.  Two other reports have been featured on this blog here and here.  This third report is by Tony Dickinson.

“In a main square in Munich there was a foretaste of the Banquet with a thousand tables and ten places on each set with water, apples, oil and bread. At a podium at one end of the square choirs from Orthodox congregations of Munich sang the praises of God in Russian, Greek, Romanian and German, and Orthodox clergy celebrated evening prayer with age-old chants and clouds of incense. Those at the tables shared their bread with those waiting on the margins of the square. A wonderful parable of the Kingdom.

Wonderful, too, was the number and range of people who visited the Diocese of Oxford stand in the Agora, the huge market-place where over a thousand organisations set up their stall to entice and enlighten passers-by.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Kirchentag forest, Bishop Colin Fletcher joined the sociologist Grace Davie and Catherine Pepinster of “TheTablet” at the first ever wholly English-language event to explore what Christians in Germany might learn from British experience of being “Church” in a secular society, while Bishop Alan was busy combining his daily blog from Munich with the occasional comment piece for the online section of a national newspaper.

Large crowds flocked to the discussion between the veteran theologians Hans Küng and Jürgen Moltmann (standing in at the last minute for his fellow-veteran Eberhard Jüngel), to Chancellor Merkel’s lecture on “Social Cohesion” (where the “house full” signs went up half an hour before the scheduled start).

Talks by Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the Sant’ Egidio Community, and Laurence Freeman of the World Community for Christian Meditation attracted those for whom contemplation and action are the two sides of the Christian coin. There was also much to ponder for those who are concerned about inter-faith relations. A woman rabbi from Jerusalem commended the way in which Christians had taken the lead on all to do with interfaith discussions and warned those of other faiths not to take this for granted. A Bible study on Matthew 25:31-45 in the form of a dialogue between the British Muslim scholar Ataullah Siddiqui and the newly appointed General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Olav Fykse Tveit, brought out the commonalities between the two faiths and emphasised the need to develop respectful and hospitable theologies. Dr Siddiqui, in his very sensitive handling of the text, noted that the key division was between those who serve Christ without knowing him and those who know Christ without serving him.

The closing service, despite the rain which made numbers smaller than they might have been, was a great success. An extended meditation on Luke 1:46-55, it used traditional and modern hymns, Taizé chants and sign language to expound the meaning of Mary’s song of praise, book-ending the celebration with the first and last movement of J.S. Bach’s great setting of the Magnificat. Four short, but powerful, reflections by representatives of the Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Methodist traditions punctuated the liturgy, which concluded with a final message from the two Presidents. Reflecting on the events of the week their repeated message was that the Churches in Germany “need a new departure” on the ecumenical journey.”

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• Second Ecumenical Kirchentag 2 (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
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Towards Unity in Mission

The following is news of a consultation to take place during October, based upon the Edinburgh 2010 conference, earlier this year.  The consultation is in two parts and the part that is open to the public is now fully booked.  However, there are still a few spaces left for ecumenical officers.  If you are interested, details of how to enrol are below. 

Ecumenical Officers’ Consultation 2010, 11th to 13th October 2010 and incorporating a Public Conference, from lunch on 11th to lunch on 12th October

Edinburgh 1910-2010

Towards Unity in Mission

This Conference marks the centenary of the Edinburgh Missionary Conference, often understood as the beginning of the modern Ecumenical Movement.  It was a singular moment in the history and theology of mission and world Christianity.

The Ecumenical Officers of the five Churches will continue the consultation from tea on 12th to lunch on 13th October, to reflect on the themes of the conference in relation to our work.

Speakers:

 The Revd Dr Jeremy Morris:  Dean of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and a church historian who has written widely about twentieth century church history

Dr Kirsteen Kim:  Associate Senior Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University College, and a missiologist who has published a number of works about mission and world Christianity

Fr James Hanvey SJ:  Lecturer in Systematic Theology, Heythrop College, London, and a systematic theologian with particular interests in the Trinity and ecclesiology

The Revd Dr Stephen Finamore (Principal of Bristol Baptist College) will give two Bible readings, one during the public conference and one during the Ecumenical Officers' meeting and join in as an interlocutor throughout.

The total cost of the Consultation is £127

If you are an ecumenical officer and would like to attend, there are still a few places.  Contact Elspeth Coke, Council for Christian Unity, Church House, Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3NZ.  Email: elspeth.coke@c-of-e.org.uk  Telephone 020 7898 1473