Methodist Council

For the last two days we have both been at the Methodist Council. This is the governance body of the Methodist Church in Britain which employs the staff and approves the budgets for the Connexional Team and a range of other Connexional bodies. There were just under 400 pages of papers for this meeting with accounts to be approved, papers and presentations on a whole range of things including equalities and diversities, the proposed youth participations scheme, confidentiality in the work of the Church, ecumenical issues, MPH, Women's Network, grant making, world church relationships, review of stationing, use of designated training funds etc etc... Really meaty stuff. The amount of work that goes into preparing all of these reports is enormous and there is real commitment from all of the representatives to making appropriate decisions. Today was the last Methodist Council of this connexional year and much of what we were looking at will be on the agenda of the Methodist Conference in July. Thanks were given to those who finished their stint on the Methodist Council today for all of their work. Not least those members of the Connexional Team who had made proposals for change which leaves them without jobs and those for whom the years running up to retirement have been far from a gradual easing off. The Methodist Church owes a lot to so many people who will no longer be part of these structures. It is right to mark that here too and give thanks.