Ecumenical Christmas Quiz - Answers

Image by Larry He's So Fine via Flickr

The Methodist Ecumenical News Christmas Quiz has kept you all guessing for weeks I am sure.  The quiz was so difficult, that no-one submitted any answers.  Here they are at last - most of them refer to significant events during 2010.

1. When is a LEP not a LEP? - Everyone has heard of a Local Ecumenical Partnerships, abbreviated to LEP from time immemorial.  Last year the British Government saw fit to introduce Local Enterprise Partnerships, also to be abbreviated.  So, take your pick. 
2. Who might be wearing their own ordinary hat from 2011?  I'm afraid this is a rather silly pun.  So, 'their own' would be 'personal' and 'ordinary hat' is of course the 'ordinariate'.  The first Anglicans were received into the Ordinariate on Saturday 1 January 2011.
3. Who is the odd one out? (Give your reason.) Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Archbishop Rowan Williams, Bishop Nathan Hovhanissian and Commissioner Elizabeth Matear.   These are the four Presidents of Churches Together in England.  Bishop Hovhanissian stood down during 2010, as reported in a post last year.
4. What do the following have in common? Be specific for extra points ... Revd Martin Atkins, Revd Roberta Rominga, Revd David Cornick, Revd Olav Fyske Tveit, Brother Stephen Smyth.   They are all General Secretaries of, in the same order, the Methodist Church of Great Britain,the United Reformed Church, Churches Together in England, the World Council of Churches and Action of Churches Together in Scotland. 
5. Join the dots ...

Edinburgh - World Missionary Conference in 1910

Lausanne - First Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation 1976

Edinburgh Cape Town - Edinburgh 2010 (Centenary of 1910) in June 2010 and the Third Lausanne Congress of World Evangelisation in October 2010.

Now pay attention through 2011 and see if you can answer the next quiz!

Related articles

• MEN Christmas Quiz 2010 (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• New CTE President Appointed (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Evangelical Congress takes Reconciliation as Key to its Mission (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)

How to Make it Work

Today, an exploration of another page on the Methodist Church website.  How to Make it Work covers a range of information supporting Methodist United Reformed Church collaboration.

How to Make it Work was first published some years ago as a folder containing a number of leaflets. Recently, the leaflets have been reviewed and the material has been republished as 'a website within a website'.  The idea is that local Methodist and URC websites can include a link.

It is easy to assume the two traditions are similar.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  Granted there is a lot of common ground between the them but their ecclesiologies are quite different.  It is easy to make mistakes about the ways in which decisions are made, particularly in joint congregations.

How to Make it Work is divided into five sections and they are available as word or pdf files. 

1. The first paper, called How to Make it Work, is an introduction to such matters as membership, ministry of word and sacrament, other ministries such as the Methodist diaconal order or lay workers, the worship of the local church, property, Sharing Agreements, finance and a list of other published resources.  It is in the nature of these publications that they can quickly become out of date and the section on constitutions has been superseded.  When it is updated it will have a date later then this blog post.
2. A service for the induction and welcome of new ministers.
3. The checklist for church stewards and elders, compares the two roles and their duties.
4. Orientation for incoming ministers to Methodist and United Reformed LEPs is a paper that suggests an induction process for new ministers.  This was an addition to the original printed version and provides a much needed approach to clarifying the differences between the two traditions.
5. Baptists in LEPs with the Methodist Church and United Reformed Church.

There is always a need for new material as new issues come to light.  The Methodist URC Liaison Committee works on updates and would welcome any suggestions, which can be made as comment to this post.

Related articles

• Poverty of Ambition? Churches and a Politics of Hope (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Joint Councils Catch Up (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Methodist URC Liaison Committee, November 2010 (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Better Together (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Rural Presence (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Ecumenical Basics (2) - Contents (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Ecumenical Basics (1) - Introduction (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)

Safeguarding and Ecumenical Partnerships

This article, by Roger Paul, is reproduced with permission from the latest CCU Bulletin:

There is now a very useful checklist on the Churches Together in England website of all that an Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) needs to do in establishing a safeguarding policy: Checklist for Safeguarding in Single Congregation Local Ecumenical Partnerships and local ecumenical projects.

It is for use by those who have responsibility for any aspect of safeguarding children and/or vulnerable adults in Local Ecumenical Partnerships and in local projects run ecumenically. The Methodist and Anglican National Safeguarding Officer has worked on this document in collaboration with colleagues in the Christian Safeguarding Forum, the Churches' Group for Local Unity, Action for Churches Together in Scotland and CYTÛN (Churches Together in Wales). The Group for Local Unity has fully endorsed the document. The document will be revised as new legislation and guidelines on safeguarding come into force.

The checklist itself is not meant to take the place of a safeguarding policy, but to serve as an aid to ensure that nothing is passed over in this very important and sensitive area. The basic advice, contained in the check list, is for a single congregation LEP to decide to adopt the policy of one of its participating Churches, and to carry that through consistently without alteration. LEPs should not mix and match from different policies, worst of all write their own, and once they have adopted a particular policy should follow it through in practice with the procedures of the participating church whose policy has been adopted, such as obtaining CRB checks, and acting on any disclosures or suspicions of abuse. What the checklist emphasises is that all parties need to be kept informed about what has been decided; reiterated throughout is the phrase: "Has everyone who needs to know been informed?"

For your information, Pearl Luxon, the Methodist and Church of England Safeguarding Officer will shortly be leaving us. Her successor is Elizabeth Hall. Any comments about the checklist can be made at the end of this post and will be passed on.