Anglican-Methodist Covenant
District and Diocese of Sheffield
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ANGLICAN-METHODIST
COVENANT
Click here for the Joint Implementation Commission of the Anglican-Methodist Covenant: Second Interim Report
Everything you wanted to know about sharing
in worship but were afraid to ask
A Guide and Encouragement
from the Ecumenical Officers
The vision of Father Paul Couturier who created the international
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in the 1930s was for a massive
solidarity in prayer by Christians of all denominations, seeking
the mind of Christ. He believed that this committed and regular
prayer, which he came to think of like an ecumenical monastery,
would, if it were continued faithfully, eventually be rewarded
by the gift of unity - as Christ willed it.
Common prayer and
worship do not, of course, absolve the churches from the
need for sensible decisions about working
in partnership
in mission, but they will always be the foundation for
any valid (= Christlike) structure.
This means that if the Anglican-Methodist Covenant, entered
into nationally in 2003, is to have any hope of moving
towards the unity which Christ wills for our two churches
(and that
will may not match anything currently in the mind of human
beings) it must be founded upon the common prayer and worship
of Methodists and Anglicans - not of course forgetting
other Christians - in every local place. And, at least
for Anglicans
and Methodists, that will mean moving beyond those fleeting
annual ecumenical events that we have all done for years.
It will mean breaking our pattern and doing something quite
new
and quite often with our Christian friends down the road.
'But the rules don't allow it.'
'We're not in a Local Ecumenical Partnership.'
'The members like their own service.'
'We have enough clergy and laypeople to cover
our own worship, thank you.'
'A Methodist minister is not fully recognised by the Church
of England and so can't preside at Holy Communion in a parish
church.'
In fact, you will be surprised how much sharing of
worship is allowed by the rules of the Methodist Church and
the Church
of England. Here are some examples:
- Suppose a particular Anglican parish has a couple of (Lay)
Readers in it and the local Methodist church no active
Local Preachers attached to it. Those Readers could be invited
to take part in or lead services in the Methodist church,
going on the Methodist Plan. They couldn't, of course,
preside
at Communion services, but they could do all the things
they were licensed to do in the Church of England. They could
even be authorised as Local Preachers by the Methodist
Circuit.
- But
the situation might be the other way round, with plenty
of Local Preachers available in a community, but no Anglican
Readers. Again, it is perfectly possible for Local
Preachers
to conduct worship in parish churches. If, for example,
there were many funerals in a given community, it could
be a tremendous
help to the incumbent if he or she could ask a Local
Preacher to take a funeral now and again, in appropriate
circumstances
and with the approval of the family concerned. In fact
a Local Preacher with local knowledge of families could
be a better person to take a particular funeral than, say,
a new vicar.
- 3 Suppose a Parochial Church Council and the local
Methodist Church Council agree that it would be good
to have a united
Eucharist (Holy Communion) once a quarter - is it possible?
Yes! The Methodist Conference can authorise an Anglican
priest to minister in its churches; forms of application
for 'authorised
to minister' status in the Methodist Church can be
obtained from the District Office. Well, of course the Church
of
England can't officially recognize the full validity of
Methodist orders (but the Covenant Joint Implementation Commission
are working on it!), but as long as it says in rather
small
print somewhere that the occasion at which the Methodist
minister presides at the Eucharist in the parish church
is,
properly speaking, a Methodist or an Ecumenical occasion
(not an Anglican one), how many people are going to worry?
- Suppose
that in your immediate area there is a Methodist chapel
but not an Anglican place of worship, or - the other
way
round - a parish church but no Methodist church nearby;
and suppose you know that there are in the area significant
numbers
of members of the denomination that does not have a
local church; what can you do? The denomination that does
have
a local church building can make a Declaration of Ecumenical
Welcome, which means that they commit themselves to
welcome members of the other church denomination, to incorporate
styles of worship that those members will find familiar
(perhaps inviting a local minister or lay leader to take
a
service
occasionally) into their own service plan, and to invite
members of the other denomination to play a role in
the organisation of church life (perhaps on the church council).
- And
suppose you don't just want to make savings in church
heating and ministerial resources, but you really want to
pray
and
worship regularly together, for the sake of increasing
trust and friendship, with a real determination to find
the mind
of Christ for the future, and with a common concern
for effective Christian outreach, are you going to let the
few
official
permissions and authorisations required get in the
way of your progress? The local leaders of both denominations
are
positively longing to give these permissions and authorisations,
and to see local unity in prayer leading to the unknown
future
shape of the church and its mission.
'It is because the disciples are together
that Christ is in the midst of them. In the face of the ugliness
of their separations,
this simultaneity will allow Christians at last to present
to their non-Christian brothers and sisters, and to all waiting
creation, the moving and visible beauty of the unity of their
spiritual efforts, the prelude and measure of Christian unity,
transcending any purely human strivings for concord.'
Paul Couturier
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