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Open in new tab Issue 20 • Autumn 2020
HOPE
Inspiring stories from the life of your Methodist Church
Issue 20 • Autumn 2020
Published by the Methodist Church in Britain
© Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes
(TMCP) 2020. Registered charity no. 1132208
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except for articles and photographs downloaded
for local church use that are fully acknowledged.
All rights reserved.
The Revd Dr Paul
Nzacahayo
at the Queen’s
Foundation
Photo credits
All photographs copyright the contributors unless
otherwise stated. Front cover © Mark Kensett;
Pages 4-5 © Mark Kensett and Josh Davies;
Page 6 © Robin Prime; Pages 8-9 © Mark Kensett;
Pages 10-11 © Robin Prime; Page 12 © Robin Prime;
Pages 14-15 © Mark Kensett; Pages 16-17
© Robin Prime; Pages 18-19 © Kim Gouldson
@senaraphotography; Pages 20-22 © Ian Ledgard;
Page 23 © Getty Images and TMCP; Page 24
© Getty Images; Page 26 © Getty Images
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations
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David Perry
Editor
What is the Connexion?
Methodists belong to local
churches and also value
being part of a larger
community. In calling the
Methodist Church in Britain
‘the Connexion’, Methodism
reflects its historical and
spiritual roots.
In the 18th century a
‘connexion’ simply meant
those connected to a person
or a group – for instance,
a politician’s network of
supporters. So when people
spoke of “Mr Wesley’s
Connexion” they meant
followers of the movement
led by John Wesley.
Wesley believed that
belonging and mutual
responsibility were
fundamental Christian
qualities. The language
of connexion allowed
him to express this
interdependence, developing
its spiritual and practical
significance in the
organisation and ethos of his
movement. Both language
and practice are important
for Methodists today.
Go to www.methodist.
org.uk/theconnexion
to order more copies of
the connexion, and for
downloading the pdf to
reuse articles in your
own church magazine.
Images are available at
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methodistmedia
What do you think
about this issue?
Email theconnexioneditor@
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2
May the God of hope fill you with all
joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13 (NIV)
his edition of the connexion
magazine explores contexts
and issues that are difficult,
challenging, hurtful and vexed. What do we
do when life puts a ‘No Entry’ sign in our
way? How should we respond when racism,
the Covid-19 pandemic, civil war, the
climate emergency, ill-health, deprivation
and church decline seem insurmountable
and overwhelming?
The photograph above shows a simple
heart of love placed against a familiar ‘No
Entry’ sign. The image depicts a radical act
which subverts the sign’s given meaning,
that of an absolute prohibition in red
and white intended to terminate, block,
frustrate, impede and obstruct the journey
ahead. In this picture a simple heart of
love offers an alternative reality, a different
way of seeing and framing what happens
next. A simple heart of love questions
the assumptions and fears posed by the
seemingly absolute denial represented by
‘No Entry’.
Our simple hearts of love are capable
of astonishing acts of hope. I placed the
simple wooden heart, made of olive wood
crafted by Palestinian Christians, onto the
sign to depict this truth. The stories in this
edition show what happens when we take
St Paul’s words to heart, and trust in the
God of hope.
Love and peace,
David
the connexion • Autumn 2020 www.methodist.org.uk • Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram | Flickr Highlights
6
Coming together
in hope to fight racism
10
Where is hope in the
middle of a pandemic?
12
Hope for God’s
creation post-Covid-19
16
Bringing hope
and wonder
18
Boxes of hope
20
Apart but together:
new ways to worship
offer a path of hope
Year of Prayer weekly online service for the whole Church
he Conference has declared 2020/2021 a year
of prayer so that our Church’s commitments
to evangelism, church growth, church at the
margins, and pioneering and church planting will flow from
a deep, contemplative orientation to God’s grace and
love.
As part of this movement of prayer, a weekly online
service offers the opportunity for all of us to ask for
the Holy Spirit’s help to be a growing, evangelistic,
inclusive, justice-seeking Church.
The service is live on Zoom and Facebook each
Tuesday at 12.45pm and then available on Facebook.
Designed to fit into a busy working day, it is just 15
minutes and is led by a different person from
across the Connexion each week. Sign up here:
www.methodist.org.uk/yearofprayer/
Reset the Debt
campaign calling for debt
cancellation for people forced
into unavoidable debt during
lockdown is launched by the Joint
Public Issues Team and ecumenical
charity Church Action on Poverty.
It calls for the Government to create
a Jubilee Fund providing grants
to pay off and cancel unavoidable debt
accrued by the poorest households.
Around six million people have fallen
behind on rent, council tax and other
household bills because of coronavirus
and almost one in five have borrowed
money to pay for everyday essentials.
The Revd Richard Teal, President of
the Methodist Conference, said:
“During lockdown churches saw people
feed their families – but bills, even
rent, went unpaid. They are now facing
a crisis – demanding a compassionate
and just response.”
Jubilee is an ancient Biblical concept
ensuring a just society where no one is
trapped in poverty because of debts:
On a regular basis land was returned
to people, resources shared, slaves
freed, land rested, and debts forgiven.
Write to your MP
and support the
campaign online
and in your church
community:
www.resetthedebt.uk
#Godiswithus
he Methodist
Church-wide 2020
Christmas campaign
shares people’s stories about
their walk with God in this
extraordinary year. It encourages
Methodists to reflect, tell their
stories, and reach out to others
outside the Church, encouraging
them to do the same.
Get involved at
www.findingourhope.co.uk
This Christmas, take part in
#Godiswithus
3
www.methodist.org.uk • Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram | Flickr the connexion • Autumn 2020 need a campaign to ensure ‘Black Lives
Matter’. The concept of slavery has left an
indelible mark on our psyche. The ideology
that caused western nations to traverse the
globe taking over lands and people has left
both white and black people believing one
group of people’s lives are less worthy. We
pass on these beliefs and prejudices to our
children who, unless something changes,
will pass them on to their own children.
I agree with Professor Reddie that our
Church’s record in eradicating this disease
is not encouraging.
I am writing these words from a place of
despair and anger. But I am also hopeful.
My hope is not naïve optimism, but rather
the kind of hope capable of standing in the
middle of despair and imagining a different
future. This hope enables me to resist
racism in whatever form it takes. What gives
me hope is that human beings have also
proved that they can treat each other with
godly love and care.
Racism and reasons for hope
Years ago I arrived in a new circuit to find a
white colleague had taken over the manse
designated for me. He believed that the
manse my predecessor had vacated was
too good for someone who had been living
in an African hut and even had the audacity
to say this to me. The circuit steward, a
white woman, was enraged and asked
my colleague to apologise. She stood her
ground and refused to give up until I got
that apology. This circuit steward gives
me hope.
As a black tutor, when a group of white
students made my teaching experience the
worst they could make it, another white
student, on seeing that I was being treated
less respectfully than my white colleagues,
decided to confront her fellow students.
She called out their racism for what it
was. They denied it, protested, and failed
to recognise their racism. The student
stood her ground until the whole situation
The Revd Dr Paul Nzacahayo finds hope
in Christians actively resisting racism
rofessor Anthony Reddie concluded
his contribution in the last issue of
the connexion with the words:
To live
hopefully, we
need to be
proactive
“I have lost patience with a Church that has
treated black people with benign neglect for
far too long.”
I share his anger and despair. It is
shocking and shameful that in 2020 we
4
the connexion • Autumn 2020 www.methodist.org.uk • Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram | Flickr God in a Culture of Fear, “To live hopefully,
we need to be proactive, participatory,
prophetic.”
So, there you have it: the pandemic
of racism that is driving some of us to
despair because it comes from fellow
Christians, needs to be faced with honesty
and integrity. We also need to honour and
celebrate the glimmers of hope visible in
the powerful witness of justice movements
such as Black Lives Matter and in the
generosity of fellow Christians.
The Revd Dr Paul Nzacahayo is part-time
circuit minister in the Wolverhampton
Methodist Circuit and part-time tutor at
the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical
Theological Education
She stood her
ground and
demanded an
apology
HOPE
How might you
become more
proactive,
participatory and
prophetic in
eliminating
racism?
was openly discussed. Her action gives
me hope.
The white South Africans who spoke
out against the apartheid policies of their
government, risking their lives, give me
hope. Those Christians who, in the clamour
of shouts of “Send them back home!” offer
migrants and strangers generous hospitality,
also give me hope. The increasing number
of white people who have taken up the
cause of Black Lives Matter gives me hope.
We have failed to honour and celebrate the
act of these Christians who do not sit down
and hope for the best, but are living models
of hopeful resistance.
My hope is also rooted in the kind of
God we believe in. It is the God who saw
that Pharaoh and the Egyptians needed to
be freed from whatever evil had corrupted
their minds before they started to enslave
and mistreat the Hebrews. God also saw
that the Hebrews needed to be freed from
the misery slavery had inflicted on them.
The reading of the first chapters of Exodus
presents us with an image of a God who is
relentless in seeking the freedom of both
the enslaver and the slave.
Action to root out racism
This hopeful resistance always leads to
action and a change of behaviour. As Jürgen
Moltmann says on page 84 of his book, The
Theology of Hope, the point is not simply to
interpret the world differently but to change
the interpretation into a new reality of life.
This call moves us beyond ‘well-crafted
words and Conference resolutions’ to a
Church in which racism is acknowledged
and acted upon. To borrow the language of
my colleague Jo Cox-Darling’s book Finding
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www.methodist.org.uk • Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram | Flickr the connexion • Autumn 2020