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Greater unity: British Methodists seeking cooperation with Anglicans Barbara Dunlap-Berg, Mar 1, 2010
David Gamble
By Barbara Dunlap-Berg United Methodist News Service
Methodism’s founder John Wesley was an Anglican priest who never left the Church of England.
More than two centuries later, the British Methodist Church and the Church of England say they are willing to seek greater unity and cooperate in many ways while continuing to co-exist.
Contrary to British tabloid reports, a formal merger is not necessarily the goal.
The Rev. David Gamble, president of the British Methodist Church, and the Rev. Richard Vautrey, vice president, addressed the Church of England’s General Synod Feb. 11, expressing the Methodist Church’s continued commitment to a 2003 covenant relationship with the Church of England.
The covenant recognizes the baptisms and ordinations of each church and encourages the sharing of the Eucharist.
The covenant, they said, was “not an irrelevant extra but something at the heart of how we understand our present and future life as a church.”
“When I entered theological college in 1971,” Mr. Gamble recalled, “I really expected to spend my ministry as a minister in a united Anglican/Methodist church. I still remember our great disappointment in 1972 [when a merger proposal was rejected]. I really hope and pray that we can take this covenant seriously and enable it to bear fruit as we worship, pray and work together wherever and whenever we possibly can.”
Formal talks between the two churches began in the 1960s, but a 1972 attempt at full unity failed because Anglicans were opposed. Issues included Methodist acceptance of female clergy. Today’s British Methodist Church has 265,000 members compared with 960,000 in the Church of England.
“Throughout the history of churches working together, as I have experienced it,” Mr. Gamble said, “one of the major and oft-repeated texts has been John 17:21, where Christ prays for the unity of his followers not because it’s a nice idea, not because it’s financially a better use of scarce resources, but that the world might believe. It’s mission led.
“We are prepared to go out of existence,” he added, “not because we are declining or failing in mission, but for the sake of mission.”
While British tabloid reports declared the churches were planning to merge, Anna Drew, lead media officer for the Methodist Church, said, “We’re not talking about a takeover of the Methodist Church by the Church of England, but a bigger vision of a unified Christian church, transformed to best serve God’s mission in the world. We are committed primarily to that mission and to God’s call on our lives as Christians.
“When our institutions no longer serve that aim, it’s time for them to change. We are serious about seeking greater unity with our brothers and sisters in the Church of England, in the spirit of the covenant signed by both churches in 2003.”
“In some places,” Mr. Gamble noted, “there are very close working relationships and exciting new initiatives. In others, you could spend quite a long time trying to find any sign of the covenant in practice. Some churches, clergy and communities are very enthusiastic. Others have theological, ecclesiological or other differences and/or reservations.”
“We can and do work together on issues of social justice,” Dr. Vautrey said, “on issues that we both know God calls on us to challenge our society and our world. There is, though, more that we could and should be doing together.”
“Both of our churches are part of world communions where we have influence and history,” Mr. Gamble said, “but where churches in other parts of the world are growing rapidly in size and importance and sometimes see things very differently. As churches and communions, we’re both struggling with how we can cohere in a postmodern world, with learning how to live with contradictory convictions. At such times, it is hard to pay attention to those beyond us. But it is precisely at those times that we have things to offer each other.
“We are prepared to be changed and even to cease having a separate existence as a church if that will serve the needs of the kingdom. Are we willing to take our covenant that seriously? It’s quite a challenge—for both of our churches.”
David Gamble
“When I entered theological college in 1971,” Mr. Gamble recalled, “I really expected to spend my ministry as a minister in a united Anglican/Methodist church. I still remember our great disappointment in 1972 [when a merger proposal was rejected]. I really hope and pray that we can take this covenant seriously and enable it to bear fruit as we worship, pray and work together wherever and whenever we possibly can.” 
