A Happy New Year to All - and a cartoon that made me chuckle!

1 September marks the start of the Methodist New Year, and Steve and I were in Manchester for a Connexional New Year celebration at Central Hall, Manchester with members of the Connexional Team who work for TMCP (The Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes).  It was lovely to be joined by members from local churches who regularly meet here for worship on a Tuesday.  

Deacon Ruth gave us a wonderful welcome, and a tour of the building, including Nexus in the basement, an Arts Café which is a joint Methodist/Anglican Fresh Expression. On Sunday afternoons, there is bilingual worship in English and Swahili, and a growing congregation of all ages with a heart for mission.  The needs of this City are immense, and we glimpsed something of the scale of the need.  Sadly, an invaluable project helping people to get back into work, which is based in Central Hall, has just had its funding cut, and we listened to the staff who are facing redundancy. For the clients too it is a deeply anxious time.

Martin Attfield showed us round the offices of TMCP, where we met the Finance Team, Legal Team and the Administration Team, who are doing an amazing job - we could see the piles of files they are dealing with.

When we visited Jean and Jo, who work on listed buildings, I was thrilled to see a cartoon on the wall by George Dolbey, who wrote The Architectural Expression of Methodism, and Jean has kindly sent me a copy to share with you!  As the Director of Englesea Brook Museum of Primitive Methodism, it made me chuckle!  It really sums up the difference between the Wesleyans and Primitives!!