The Methodist Church

Issue 7: March 2018
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Research Matters
The Methodist Church


      

Welcome to the seventh edition of Research Matters. You’ll find details of research projects being undertaken by Methodism and for Methodism, conferences, study trips, publications and other ways for Methodists to learn from and contribute to research. We hope you find this helpful. Please forward this on to others who might be interested in this.

                                                                                                                                                            Images 'Freeimages.co.uk'

Living Christianity in Bethlehem with the Rev'd John Howard


The first “Living Christianity in the Holy Land” study tour has now been completed. We hope that the small group that benefitted from this experience will be a creative pilot for other groups in the future. They left - somewhat exhausted - but encouraged and inspired by what they had seen.

    

    


The group visited many of the Biblical Christian sites here in the Holy Land, but also spent much of the time with Palestinian Christians, understanding more about their experiences living out their faith in the context of the occupation. The largest Christian community lives around Bethlehem and so the group spent much of its time staying at Bethlehem Bible College and seeing something of the life and work of Christians there. In addition three nights were spent in Jerusalem and two in Ib’alin (near Nazareth). The group was able to volunteer at two schools - doing diverse tasks from administration to English conversation. While we had hoped to do some tree planting at the “Tent of Nations” - in the event the weather prevented this. However the visit to the farm was one of the most inspirational experiences of the visit as we heard, from Daoud Nassar himself, the principals of non-violent resistance at the heart of this Christian project.



The dates for “Living Christianity in the Holy Land” next year are 14th - 25th February, and enquiries can be made to myself By then I will have returned to England and my colleague Deacon Angleena Brown, who by then will be the Mission Partner here in Israel Palestine, will join me in the leading of the group. During the autumn we hope to hold two information evenings in the north and south of England - at which I will be present.

    

John Howard

Conferences: Dates for your Diary

Methodist Studies Seminars:

The next seminars will be at the Wesley Study Centre, St John's College, Durham University on Friday 8 December 2017 and at John Rylands Library in Manchester (organised by the Manchester Wesley Research Centre and Cliff College) on Friday 20 April 2018.  

See HERE for further details.  







19 April 2018

3rd Annual Methodist Research Conference

Rylands Library - University of Manchester


Join with Methodists engaged in research in a wide variety of areas and those interested in Methodist related research for a day of sharing papers, insights and conversation. See flyer HERE.


There is no cost. Tea/coffee and a light lunch will be provided.


To register for the Conference, please click HERE and complete the registration form


22 June, 2018

Methodism and Politics Conference: Wesley House, Cambridge

        

This is a one-day conference considering themes related to Methodism and politics.  It is being held in conjunction with the triennial residential conference of the Wesley Historical Society on 22-23 June, which ends with the WHS Annual Lecture on the afternoon of 23 June. Participants can attend the Friday 22 June and/or Saturday 23 June sessions (at no cost) or pay to attend the full residential conference (to include dinner and overnight accommodation).

        

To book into the one-day conference on Friday 22 June please log on toEventbrite.

   

To book into the WHS events on Saturday 23 June, or the full residential WHS conference over both days, please email


  

To offer a paper for the Friday conference, please send an abstract of 250 words to David Harmer on the theme of 'Methodism and Politics', broadly interpreted.


12-19 August, 2018

        

14th Oxford Institute for Methodist Theological Scholarship: Pembroke College, Oxford

        

Plans are progressing well for the 14th OIMTS with participants currently being selected.  This will be the largest institute for some time, with approx 170 scholars from across the world participating.  There will be several sessions that are open to the public and these will be advertised well in advance.      


8-10 April 2019

Atlanta

Answering the Call: Hearing God’s Voice in Methodist Mission, Past, Present and Future.

 

Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church and Candler School of Theology of Emory University will co-sponsor this conference.

 

call for papers is available.


 

Upcoming Study Tours


   

9-13 April 2018

   

Reconciliation: Corrymeela, Northern Ireland

   

Led by former President of Conference Rev’d Dr Inderjit Bhogal a small group will be visiting Corrymeela in April 2018 to explore issues around reconciliation.  Please contact Inderjit Bhogal for fuller details.

   


25-29 April 2018

   

Evangelism Study Tour: Killarney, Ireland

   


A small study group will visit Killarney, Ireland to look at evangelism and church planting, based on a number of newly established Methodist churches in that area.  The group is led by Rev’d Dr Stephen Skuce and Ian White (Cliff College).  The approx cost is £450 with the group gathering at Cork airport.  Please contact David Harmer for further details.

    

   

24-29 May 2018

   

Photography and Spirituality Study Tour: Rome

   

Led by the Rev’d Dr Philip Richter and based at The Wesley, Rome, this group will experience and explore issues to do with photography and spirituality.  Full details are found HERE.

    

   

5-16 July 2018

   

Contextual Theology Study Tour: Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth

   

For the 6th year Rev’d Dr Stephen Skuce and Ian White (Cliff College) will bring a group to Israel/Palestine to consider issues of contextual theology.  As we consider this context we learn better to reflect on our own contexts.  The study tour includes some nights in Jerusalem and Nazareth, and a night spent with Palestinian families in Bethlehem.  This tour is very different to the standard pilgrimage experiences and is largely on foot or using public transport.  Participants will need to be able to walk about 7 miles in a day, noting its usually in hot weather on cobbled streets.


For full details please see HERE.


Ongoing Research Projects

Evangelism Research:


Thank you to everybody who engaged with the research into Evangelism in the Methodist Church. This research emerged from broader research into Regrouping for Mission, but further qualitative and quantitative work was conducted looking at places and groups within the Church where more followers of Jesus Christ were being made.

 

The data has now been analysed and the findings have begun to be disseminated. Work is currently ongoing to turn these findings into a resource to encourage discussion and thought within churches, circuits and districts.

 

If you would like to know more about the research, its findings or forthcoming resources,please contact Dr. Hamish Leese

                              

                              

Researching Fresh Expressions


The past year has seen a major research project conducted into Fresh Expressions within the Methodist Church. Data was gathered from a stratified sample of circuits accounting for just over one third of the Connexion, and this data has now been analysed.

 

By extrapolating from this sample we will be able to provide a good estimate for the number of Methodist Fresh Expressions found within the Connexion as well as how many people attend those Fresh Expressions. Alongside this, we have data relating to the activities of Fresh Expressions in the fields of evangelism and discipleship and the number of new and renewed faith commitments made within the groups.

 

Findings of the research will be published to coincide with Methodist Conference, and there will be a fringe event jointly hosted by the Connexional Fresh Expressions Missioner and the Strategic Research Team. If you have any questions about the research or would like more information about this please contact Dr. Hamish Leese

Methodist Church in Great Britain Web Map


The new version of the advanced Methodist Church web map became live to coincide with The Methodist Conference.


We would very much value feedback on the web map, as it is a resource which is continually evolving, and we are happy to answer any questions about how it can be used or the ways in which it is being used to resource churches, circuits and districts. For further information please contact us.


Illustrated below are just some of the functions of the interactive map. Shown below are the positions of Methodist Churches, with the total Christian population shown graphically over the map (as reported in the last census – darker colours indicate more Christians). Also shown are the statistical approximations of circuit boundaries which can be helpful in circuit and church decision making.

 

Finally, the tab on the right shows the data which is available in graphical form. Shown is the trend of church membership over the last 15 years, but clicking on any of the other tabs will display the described information graphically. It is also possible to aggregate the data to circuit or district level with the click of a button.

  

For more information on the functions of the web map or for questions regarding its use, please contact us

Regional Research Groups:

Sheffield:


The Sheffield group continues to meet twice per year.  Please contact the Urban Theology Unit for details.


Southampton area: Sarum College, Salisbury:

                             

The Southampton Regional Theology Forum met on Thursday February 8 at Sarum College, Salisbury. Judy Davies movingly discussed her experience as a hospice chaplain, emphasising the importance of being a good guest. Chris Evans, gave a presentation based on his PhD thesis on "Selfhood and Biblical Narrative” showing how we can see scripture as a face-to-face conversation with the writers.  The next meeting is on Thursday, June 14: speakers Howard Mellor and Mike Wood. Please contact John Evans for further details.

Methodist Honorary Research Fellows:

With nine HE institutions involved in the Methodist Honorary Research Fellow scheme, this programme enables Methodists, lay and ordained, to engage in peer review level research, have access to a university library and a peer group to encourage their work.

  

Full details are found on the Methodist Church Website.


  Methodist Researchers – Rev. Dr. Jonathan Dean

      

Born in the Black Country but raised in the Cambridgeshire Fens, in Ely, Jonathan was fascinated by the past and its legacy to the present from an early age. The shrine of Saint Etheldreda in Ely Cathedral was a particular source of fascination and imaginative wondering, as he contemplated this extraordinary woman, her courage, her tenacity, and her witness of faith and of faithfulness which brought pilgrims to this remote but beautiful place for centuries. Later on, through the influence of some brilliant and inspiring teachers, he became increasingly drawn to the ancient world and to its vibrant and varied cultures and its critical influences on subsequent generations.

 

Thus, despite having felt a call to ordained ministry in his mid-teens, Jonathan studied Classics as an undergraduate, indulging a deep love for the Greek and Roman worlds. He chose specialisms in the history and literature of those places, and much enjoyed opportunities later in his degree to undertake a special subject in Roman Architecture. Apart from giving him a good grounding for reading New Testament Greek and medieval Latin when the time came, these were formative years in many ways, laying the groundwork for later research and writing, as well as shaping his interests and orientations more generally.

 

After two years in bookselling, during which he candidated for the Methodist ministry, Jonathan began study at Wesley House, Cambridge in 1998 and, through the excellent offices of Fitzwilliam College, relished the privilege of being given a second chance at a degree, this time in Theology and Religious Studies. In this, many former interests were rekindled, such as the examination of Tudor and Stuart England, and several new passions were fostered in him, including both practical and scholarly commitments to furthering Jewish-Christian relations after the Shoah.

 

Jonathan undertook doctoral research under the supervision of Professor Eamon Duffy on Catholicism in England during the Reformation. In particular, he examined the life and work of Archdeacon Nicholas Harpsfield, who served as Archdeacon of Canterbury under Mary Tudor, 1553-1558. Harpsfield’s visitations in the archdiocese were historically significant themselves in demonstrating the vigour of a period whose religious life has often been assumed or judged moribund and ineffective by historians. So too was his literary output at this time, as the first biographer of Sir Thomas More. Harpsfield’s work, combined with the publication of Rastell’s Works of More in 1557, was a key element in a broad official strategy to demonstrate the continuity of Marian Catholicism with its pre-Reformation counterpart. After the death of Mary in 1558, and writing from imprisonment under Elizabeth I, Harpsfield continued to labour to offer to English Catholics, and their Protestant opponents, a sense of their connection to the past. Jonathan’s thesis thus sought to offer a corrective to many views of post-Reformation English Catholicism, which have tended to see it as an entirely new, missionary, creation, rather than in continuity to the pre-Reformation era.

 

After ministerial posts in the Cambridge and Milton Keynes circuits, which included some work teaching student ministers, Jonathan moved to Chicago. There, he served the United Methodist Church as a pastor in a large suburban church, and also became a frequent contributor to lay academies and theological training in the Northern Illinois Conference, teaching Methodist history, identity and theology. Between 2010 and 2015 he was Assistant Professor of Religion at Aurora University, and in this role continued to deepen his own work in Church History but also in Jewish-Christian relations and Interfaith theology and practice. As University Chaplain too, he sought to express those commitments in practical ways, forming a faiths group for the university and making connections to the work of the Illinois Holocaust Museum, where he offered a talk in their series of scholars’ seminars.

 

At the Queen’s Foundation in Birmingham, Jonathan is responsible for the programme of continuing formation of Methodist probationers and Anglican curates, and is MA programme leader. He maintains research interests in the English Reformation, and his fourth book, To Gain at Harvest: English Reformation Portraits, will be published by SCM Press in March, an affectionate homage to the late Rev. Professor Gordon Rupp (who supervised Jonathan’s supervisor!). He is a member of the Faith and Order Committee and the Co-Secretary of the British Methodist-Roman Catholic dialogue, in which roles he cherishes the privilege of seeking both to remember and to be enriched and informed by the past amid contemporary challenges and complexities.

      

  

Scholarship, Research and Innovation (SRI) Team


Along with others in the Methodist Church, the SRI Team is seeking to promote scholarship, research and innovation to assist the church as we live our lives as disciples and engage missionally with the world around us.  By learning with and from each other we will seek to understand better what it means to be a Methodist in the present age, and live out Our Calling.


The Team includes:

Dr Hamish Leese – Senior Research Officer

Rev’d Dr Alan Piggot – Senior Research Officer (Statistics & Mapping)

David Harmer - Administrator

  

  

  

  

  

  

  






Contact Us:

Methodist Church House

25 Marleybone Road

London NW1 5JR

                   

EmailDavid Harmer 

Telephone: 020 7467 5184   

  

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Future Issues:


What would you like to see in future issues of this Newsletter?

Ideas, suggestions and/or contributions please to David Harmer.