05/11/2024
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the President of the Methodist Conference, the Rev Helen Cameron, urged the two churches to go beyond the progress made over the last 21 years towards greater unity.
They were speaking at a service at Methodist Central Hall followed by evensong at Westminster Abbey opposite, to mark the anniversary of the Anglican-Methodist Covenant, which was signed there in front of Queen Elizabeth II on November 1, 2003.
The Covenant recognises how much the two churches – which separated in the 1790s – have in common and commits them to removing obstacles towards unity.
The service heard how the Covenant had opened the way for close partnerships on the ground where, in many places, Methodist and Anglican congregations worship under the same roof, operate shared community projects and even share staff.
Speaking from the passage in John 17 in which Jesus prayed before his arrest and crucifixion that his followers would be “one”, Archbishop Justin urged people to treat the anniversary of the Covenant as like the renewal of baptismal vows.
He highlighted the progress seen through “21 years of growing closer together” but said there is much more to do.
“All this has gone some way – some very little way – to fulfilling our Lord’s hope in John 17 that we may become completely one,” he said.
“What the Lord prayed we must consider a command.
“We have hopes of further growth together to come. We continue to work away at the painfully few remaining differences between us.
“I say ‘painfully few’, because the fewer differences there are, the more painful the remaining ones seem to be.
“So let’s not forget that we’re here and I hope deep in our hearts we long for unity.”
He continued: “We owe it to generations of Methodists and Anglicans, not only in the past but in the future, to take this opportunity not to rest on our laurels – if we can even call them that, I would say thistles – to renew our mutual commitment to the great unity of the Church of Christ, and to do what our churches can do to achieve that end.”
Rev Cameron said the divisions of the past had been “a scandal which has sapped our mission and denied the gospel we preach of the love of God”.
She said work over the last 21 years, locally and nationally, had “broken barriers down” but warned that, because of that progress, there was a danger that renewed efforts towards unity could “take the back seat”.
“There is much to be encouraged about and yet I wonder whether the gains made have the potential to be a kind of vaccination,” she said.
“Over 21 years we have had just enough reconciliation, just enough co-operation between us, to be immunised against desiring or working for more, for closer unity.
“Since we do not hate each other, and we don’t; since we do not treat each other with derision any more; since we no longer ban each other from our pulpits; since we appear happily to coexist, our lack of unity is no longer such a scandal that we feel impelled to change.
“It is hard to summon much energy or urgency for unity when loud voices dominate on other issues and unity again and again takes the back seat and ends in the background.
“Jesus prayed that we are to be one with him, where he is. But where is that? Today we want to affirm that to be with Jesus is to be with him on or at his cross.”
