Methodists encouraged to fast for Fiji

Methodists encouraged to fast for Fiji

February 25 will mark solidarity with oppressed Church

Methodists across Great Britain and Ireland are being urged to participate in a day of prayer and fasting, in solidarity with the Methodist Church in Fiji.

People are being asked to abstain from food and to consider donating the money they would have spent on food to the World Mission Fund, which will be offering long term support to the Church in Fiji. The Fijian Church has nominated February as a month for prayer and fasting. The Methodist Prayer Handbook remembers Fiji on February 25 and Methodists in Britain and Ireland are invited to join in the prayer and fasting on that date. Methodists are asked to pray for the people, churches and government in Fiji, and a special prayer is available here: http://www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=opentogod.content&cmid=3016.

The Fijian Methodist Church is under increasing pressure from the country’s government, led by Commodore Bainimarama, which has forced the Church to cancel its annual Conference and choir festivals until 2014. Local districts and circuits are also having their activities restricted, with administrative meetings banned.

Revd Stephen Poxon, ex-president of the British Methodist Conference and Secretary of the Methodist Missionary Society, said; “In the UK, it’s easy to take our religious freedoms for granted. The Methodist Church in Fiji simply desires to worship God and serve the people of Fiji with their ministry, but the government’s unreasonable restrictions are making the Church’s daily life almost impossible. Through fasting and prayer, we want to show our solidarity with our Fijian brothers and sisters.”

All members of the Fiji Methodist Church Standing Committee have been charged with attending an unauthorized meeting (held last April), and have been held for questioning by police. A number of church ministers have also been accused of spying on the government, although the allegations have yet to be substantiated.

The Fijian Church has requested a meeting with the government to discuss the ban and explore alternatives. ‘We are a people who believe in knocking,’ said one minister, ‘even ’til midnight!’ However one superintendent was overheard saying he would hold meetings anyway, and was reported to the military, who took him in for questioning.

Despite the pressures, the Fijian Church’s chaplains continue to serve the police and the military, leading devotions frequently in churches and barracks.

Under new legislation, speaking out against the government is deemed treason, and sending criticisms of the regime to or from abroad will be regarded as sedition. As any such criticism (whether made in Fiji or abroad) is now being treated as a criminal act.

People can donate to the World Mission Fund online at http://www.justgiving.co.uk/fast-for-fiji, or by sending a cheque payable to “The World Mission Fund” to Fast for Fiji c/o Dave Bennett, Fundraising Coordinator, at Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5JR.


Source: Methodist News Service 12/02/2010

Churches urged to take action ahead of European Elections

On 4 June 2009 every adult in the UK will have the opportunity to vote in the European Parliament elections. There will also be some English County Council elections.

Methodist President The Revd Stephen Poxon said, “Voting isn’t just a right - it is a privilege that carries great responsibility. A high turnout at the ballot box is good for democracy and society and will make it harder for extremist parties to succeed.”

Source: Methodist E News 04/05/09

Appeal for Sri Lankan Churches struggling with refugee crisis

The Methodist Church’s Fund for World Mission is working with local churches in Sri Lanka to deliver immediate aid and relief.

The Church is appealing for people to help alleviate the suffering caused by the conflict by donating to the Fund.

A £15,000 grant from the Fund for World Mission will be sent to Sri Lankan Church leaders to help assist victims affected by the Sri Lankan humanitarian crisis and to take initiatives to build peace. The gift follows an earlier £20,000 Fund for World Mission grant made in October after around 200,000 residents in the Wanni region in the north of the country became trapped by heavy shelling and aerial bombing.

Revd Ebenezer Joseph, President of the Methodist Church in Sri Lanka, said: “The willingness of the Methodist people in the UK really strengthens us. The demands are increasing as the number of refugees rises. Our needs for the next six months may be something around Rs 20 million (£113,000) at least.

“Please continue to pray specially for the people who are caught in between. It’s God grace alone that enables us to continue with what could be done without just giving up.”

Stephen Poxon, President of Methodist Conference in Britain, wrote to Church leaders in Sri Lanka last week.

“As I travel around Britain you and your nation are mentioned and upheld in prayer in almost every church and fellowship meeting I attend,” he said.

“We pray for an end to violence and hatred, for healing and reconciliation to come and that lasting peace which is born out of there being justice for all. We continue to stand alongside you and seek to respond to your growing needs as we are able.”

David Bennett, Fundraising Coordinator, said: “People’s generous giving over the years has enabled the Fund for World Mission to respond immediately to the crisis in Sri Lanka with support totalling £35,000.”

“This, however, is just the start. Donations are still needed by our Partner Churches to continue this vital work and we now need to top up our reserves so that we can respond just as quickly to similar situations. Please support our work with Partner Churches by making a donation to the Fund for World Mission. You can do this by sending a cheque to the below address (quoting the reference SR59) or by making an online payment through www.justgiving.com/mcfworldmission.”

Source: Methodist News Service 22/05/09

More than half a million people to be invited ‘Back to Church’

Churchgoers around the world are set personally to invite more than half a million people to services on Back to Church Sunday. The event will be one of the largest co-ordinated ecumenical evangelism events staged across Britain.

Christians across the UK and further afield are encouraged to invite someone they know who used to attend church to come back on 27 September 2009.

Methodist President the Revd Stephen Poxon, said “This is a wonderful initiative and I encourage all of our Methodist Churches to be involved. We must also give thought and time to how we continue the warmth of welcome every Sunday of the year so those coming among us will want to stay to find friendship and deepening faith.”

Back to Church Sunday was originally an initiative of the Church of England, but this year will be supported by the Methodist Church, Churches Together in Scotland, the Church in Wales, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the United Reformed Church, Elim Pentecostal churches and Anglican churches in Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Canada.

Celia Lawton-Livingstone was invited to St Luke’s, Colchester, on Back to Church Sunday in 2008 by her friend Carole. Now Celia attends church regularly, has joined the worship team and hopes to be confirmed later this year. She comments: “I was surprised when I got to the church that morning. It was different to what I’d imagined, and the people were very friendly. I didn’t feel like they were trying to shove religion down my throat, they let me make up my own mind. It was a very relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, just like one big family. I would recommend it to others: you never know where it could lead you. My whole life has changed completely in the last year.”

The initiative is supported by a website (www.backtochurch.co.uk ) and resources such as special welcome T-shirts and subsidised party packs of fairly-traded drinks and snacks, produced in partnership with Traidcraft.

Source; Methodist News Service 12/05/09

Methodism is Moving!

Methodism is a Movement! Methodism is moving! That was the exciting message brought to Caversham Heights Methodist Church by this year’s President of the Methodist Church of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Revd Stephen Poxon, when the Methodists from all over Greater Reading and North Hampshire met for worship there on Sunday 15th March.

He had the packed congregation on the edge of their seats as he told of a Circuit (group of Methodist churches) that had no churches, having sold all its churches to free them from the financial burden of upkeep so that they could serve Christ better within their community. Elsewhere, a group of the members in a large church in the West Midlands had bought a dilapidated secondary school from the Council and refurbished it for outreach purposes, to such an effect that the Council now hires it back from them for conferences! He had many similar stories!

The President’s visit to Caversham Heights was to celebrate the centenary of its Methodist church, so his main message was that this was an occasion for looking forward rather than for looking back! He told of his recent visit to preach at the 200th Anniversary of a Methodist chapel in East Anglia where he was humbled to learn that its first preacher had been ‘the Father of Methodist Missions’, the Revd Thomas Coke, who became the first Methodist Bishop (in America).

So, looking towards the next 100 years in Caversham and Reading, Stephen Poxon said that the Methodist Movement could not be confined within church walls. But it needs firm foundations, unlike all the buildings he had seen completely destroyed by a tsunami in the Solomon Islands. It also needs flexible walls, to allow for growth, and even more flexible stones (people) so that when people fall down they do not hurt themselves but bounce back again with new life. The collection taken during the service amounted to just over £300 for the Methodist Relief and Development Fund that gives emergency aid to the poorest of the poor in the world, in places like Bangladesh, whose relief work the President had described in his address.

Put A Little Grace and Hope In Your Pocket

With economic recession looming large and severe weather conditions causing chaos, some may feel that 2009 has got off to a rather gloomy start. But the Methodist Church is offering a little bit of hope and grace with their hugely popular ‘In Your Pocket’ booklet series.

Grace In Your Pocket and Hope In Your Pocket are just the latest editions to hit the press following the success of earlier publications on the themes of peace, prayer and joy. Since the series began in 2006, more than 150,000 booklets have been distributed.

Series Editor, Joy Fisher, said: “In a world facing financial meltdown, grace and hope may seem to be in short supply, but the booklets remind us that these values can transform our everyday lives.

“Prayer In Your Pocket and Joy In Your Pocket were hugely popular and we’ve found that churches are frequently using them for visiting neighbours and friends and for prayer groups. It goes to show that people really do want this kind of resource.”

Grace In Your Pocket was inspired by a sermon given by the President of the Methodist Conference, the Revd Stephen Poxon at the 2008 Methodist Conference. He described grace as being, “loved completely...and there are no conditions... only this overwhelming sense of being loved."

The booklets are ideal for mission-related activities and public events. Some of the contributions have been specially written, while others have been drawn from well-known authors such as Martin Luther King, Jane Austen and Superman star Christopher Reeve.

Eighty thousand Grace and Hope booklets have been produced and a copy of each will be sent out to Methodist Ministers.

“Hope is like the wing of an angel, soaring up to the heaven, and bearing our prayers to the throne of God,” 17th century clergyman, Jeremy Taylor, is quoted as saying in Hope in Your Pocket; designed to offer hope in the midst of a busy life.

ENDS

Notes
Grace in your Pocket and Hope in your Pocket are available from Methodist Publishing House (MPH) in packs of 50 at £5.00 per pack incl. p&p. The booklets are available in PDF or PowerPoint form on the Methodist website.
NOTE: Link from MPH to: https://secure2.cyberware.co.uk/%7Ecb537/acatalog/index.html

Link from Methodist website to: www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=churchlife.content&cmid=5

Source: Methodist News Service 06/02/09

New President's Inaugural Address

You will have gathered that my aim to blog while away at the Methodist Conference didn't work so, now that I have returned, I have much to catch up on.

Very important, and first on the list, is our new President's inaugural address, even if I am a little late in posting it:-

NEWS RELEASE

5 July 2008

Inaugural address by Revd Stephen Poxon, new President of the Methodist Conference

The new President of the Methodist Conference, the Revd Stephen Poxon, has called on the Church to celebrate God’s grace and transform the world. Speaking on the opening day of the 2008 Methodist Conference in Scarborough, Stephen invited the Church to “begin to grapple with how this wonderful grace of God might transform the world.”

Stephen also spoke passionately on the situation in Zimbabwe: “We look in horror and sorrow at what has been happening in Zimbabwe. How slow as a nation we have been to condemn Mugabe and his regime, and only now are people waking up to the violence and genocide? We must continue to find ways to express our solidarity with all those who struggle for justice, freedom and peace."

Stephen also offered his “thoughts and prayers to our friends in the Anglican communion” on the eve of the Lambeth Conference. The five-year-old Anglican-Methodist Covenant will be discussed by both the Methodist Conference and the Church of England’s General Synod.

In his address, which marks the start of his year of office, Stephen recalled how he and his wife Myrtle arrived as a young couple in Jamaica to work with a church there. He said that the love showed by the people there did much to shape both of them, and gave examples of other acts of extraordinary kindness shown by people who had little or nothing for themselves.

Following the 2007 decision by Sheffield to become the UK’s first “city of sanctuary,” Stephen called for more places to follow that example by recognising “the contribution of asylum seekers and refugees to the city of Sheffield, and committing ‘to offering hospitality to people who come here in need of safety from persecution.’”

Stephen spoke about hospitality as a key example of grace, and expressed regret that the Church has not been more hospitable in the past towards people who moved to Britain. But he celebrated the modern examples of church work with asylum seekers and how Methodist churches are being hospitable to their communities, to children and young people and to other faiths. As Chair of the Methodist North Lancashire District, Stephen has seen many examples of churches working with the large Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities there.

Stephen is married with four children. His wife, Deacon Myrtle Poxon, was Vice President of the Methodist Conference in 2004-5, and they are the first married couple to have held both posts.