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The Methodist Church does much to help the needy — but can it save itself?

from Cathy (cathvpreece@aol.com)

Times

June 28, 2003

The Methodist Church does much to help the needy — but can it save itself?

By Ruth Gledhill

A MEETING of Alcoholics Anonymous in the basement of the church had just finished. On the steps outside was a young, long-haired, unwashed man, shouting at ghosts. He had been deemed too disturbed for admission to a mental hospital and this Methodist church just off Oxford Street was his last refuge. “So, whither Methodism?” I asked the Rev Geoff Cornell, Superintendent Minister at the West London Mission. He laughed. “Whither Methodism? You mean wither Methodism without the ‘h’.”

The annual Methodist Conference begins today in Llandudno, North Wales. The agenda includes a debate on Tuesday about a scheme for a unity “covenant” between the Methodists and the Church of England, assuming of course there is still just one Church of England after the ordination of the gay bishop Jeffrey John in October. The General Synod is also due to debate the covenant at its meeting in York in July.

The last unity talks in 1972 ended in humiliation. The Methodist Church effectively voted itself out of existence in agreeing to union with the established Church, only to be left standing at the altar by her affianced after the Anglo-Catholics refused to entertain her. The new covenant is not intended to effect full unity. The two churches will pledge “full agreement in the apostolic faith” and work towards shared ministry and services.

Both churches have almost insurmountable problems. The Church of England is like the Universe, beginning with the Big Bang of the Reformation and expanding its doctrine at such a rate that the word “broad” will soon become ecclesiologically synonymous with “fragmented”. That’s not even to mention the monstrous black hole that will be left in its budget if the evangelicals are true to their threats to withhold cash over the gay debate.

The Methodists, meanwhile, are literally dying out. Failure to attract enough new members means that between 1950 and 1997, congregations nearly halved from 744,000 to 380,000. Six years later and they are down to 320,000. Some have predicted that the Church will cease to exist in 30 years if this continues. “Thirty years? Is it that long?” said Mr Cornell.

The tragedy is, his church exemplifies what Methodism — indeed Christianity — does best. This year is the 300th anniversary of the birth of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He lived and died a paid-up clergyman of the Church of England. With the current row over the ordinations of gay bishops, it is worth noting that it was equally a dispute over ordinations and episcopal authority that led to the split between Methodists and the Anglicans all those centuries ago.

As Paul Thompson, the analytic psychotherapist who has been appointed the new director of social work at the mission makes clear, the real work here is done at the bottom of society, the present Hades into which increasing numbers of the homeless and mentally ill are descending. While the established Church continues to make itself appear publicly ridiculous in its scraps over homosexuality, the work done by the mission is the kind of little-noticed and desperately needed work going on to rescue society’s outcasts. It is true biblical work, and yet barely noticed or acknowledged, and inadequately funded.

Currently the mission has eight projects. The Big House in Camberwell takes people off the streets and rehouses them in independent bedsits. An arrest and reachout scheme, HART, receives some statutory support and helps people in trouble at court and police stations throughout the Westminster local authority area. The Haven is a registered care home that operates a non-abstinence-based model for chronic drinkers. Highbury Counselling Centre offers counselling to local residents in North London. Katherine Price Hughes House is a Home Office-approved bail centre. Lambeth Walk-in is a day centre for people who have been sleeping on the streets, supporting them after they have been resettled. The West London Day Centre in nearby Seymour Place helps up to 200 homeless people a day.

As well as the people suffering from alcoholism and severe personality disorders, but who do not qualify as mentally ill, the users of this service include a staggering number of accountants, lawyers and other professionals whose lives have gone badly wrong through divorce or some other disaster. St Luke’s in Kennington is another registered care home, but this one uses the AA Twelve Step programme to help clients to abstain from alcohol and drugs.

All the work done at these places is non-evangelistic in any overt sense. Most of the “clients”, as they must be called, would be unaware that there is any Methodist or even Christian connection with the projects they use. The closest thing to God that is mentioned is AA’s Higher Power at St Luke’s, and even that is too much for some. But if the Methodist Church dies out in 30 years or before, all this will be at risk.

The Methodist Church is not the sole Christian body doing this kind of work. The Salvation Army is immense in this area, and the Anglican St Martin-in-the-Fields just down beyond Regent Street does similar outreach work to homeless and alcoholic people.

In A Brand from the Burning, published last year and reprinted this year to mark the anniversary, Roy Hattersley writes of Wesley’s reputation as a womaniser and his constant battle between duty and desire. But he also writes of Wesley’s belief that it was the episcopal hierarchy which had betrayed the faith of the Ancient Fathers, and that purity could be recaptured only by a religious revival. He intended to reinvigorate the Church of England but ended by founding a new Church.

Now, while the mother Church is under threat of rupture, the Methodists are once more making overtures to reunite. If this could only be successful, and be the dominant story by which this summer is remembered, then maybe the work of churches such as the West London Mission can grow and flourish, the Christian Church can once again become a body to respect, and, most important of all, the lives and souls of thousands of the most destitute in our society can yet be saved.

(posted 7579 days ago)

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