Address at the Welcome Service for

 The Rev’d Tim Macquiban, new minister at the Wesley Church, and Angela his wife,

and

Mr Iain Dover, new Circuit Youth Worker

 at

Wesley Methodist Church

31st August 2008, 6.30pm

Preacher: The Rev’d Dr Michael P Wilson – Circuit Superintendent

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 Is 61: 1 – 3 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me

 2 Cor 4: 1 – 6 ‘Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry,
we do not lose heart.’ .... ‘For we do not proclaim ourselves – We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord.’

 John 21: 15 – 19 Feed my sheep.

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 In John 21, Jesus issues a very simple instruction to his disciple, Peter: Feed my sheep.

 Surely those three words encapsulate what the Christian people have been about for the last 2000 years? Feed my sheep.

 Surely those three words encapsulate what we, the Methodist people of the Cambridge Circuit, seek to be about? Feed my sheep.

 It’s tough. It’s difficult. Being the church in 21 st century Britain is not easy. But tonight we have heard St Paul’s ringing words:

‘Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry,

we do not lose heart.’ .... ‘For we do not proclaim ourselves – We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord.’

 We do not lose heart. Indeed – we are in good heart.

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 Tim, it is good that you are here.

Angela, it is good that you are here.

Iain, it is good that you are here.

Those of us who have been deeply involved in the nerve-wracking searches that have eventually led to you all being here are also profoundly relieved that you are here.

And we thank God this evening.

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If I may, I want to look ahead:

In twelve months from now we will stand again to receive new ministers.

Then, Ian Smart will leave us to go we know not where, and another Methodist presbyter will come to the southern section.

Also in twelve months from now, our virtually-permanently-resident-minister-in-Cambridge, Robert Dolman, will retire, to become our virtually-permanently-resident-active-supernumerary in Toft. The plan (provided the circuit meeting agree it in a few days time) is that when this happens, he will retain oversight of Toft and Dry Drayton, but that oversight of Castle Hill will move to Hilary Cheng, along with oversight of Papworth.

(I feel the need to apologise to our guests for this exercise in Methodist geography, but I assure you, we are nearly at the end.)

Why all this change? Because the world around us is changing, and we must change with it.

Her Majesty’s government has seen fit to plan a brand new town to the north of our circuit, namely Northstowe. It is not at all clear at this stage exactly when serious construction will start at Northstowe, but we plan to recruit a minister to begin preparatory work for ministry on this green-field site from September 2009. The task, alongside our ecumenical friends and colleagues, is to establish a brand-new Christian presence on Northstowe, much as we have with such success in Cambourne. Only Northstowe, as a town, will be much bigger than Cambourne.

We have had to ask ourselves, ‘What are we looking for? What is the character of the work that we feel ourselves called to do as the Methodists of the Cambridge Circuit?’ We have come up with some key words that together seem to sum up what we are about. They apply to Northstowe, to Ian Dover’s work, and to the entire circuit. The words are:

Biblical, liberal, unapologetic, non-judgmental , open, inclusive, and non-sectarian

Biblical : we Methodists are bible-based Christians. We root everything we know in what we understand to be the character and the nature of Jesus of Nazareth. We judge everything by the standard of his revelation of the love of God. We live by the Spirit of God, which is shot through with his character.

Unapologetic: We do not in any way apologise for being Methodist. We do not understand our ecumenical calling to work in partnership with all our Christian sister denominations in any way to undermine our determination to be Methodist. Indeed, part of being Methodist is our determination to work where possible with our sister denominations.

Even more importantly, we do not apologise for being Christian. Whether we are working in schools or youth clubs or in hospitals or universities or shops or cafes or planning committees or whatever, we are not there primarily to be nice, or to oil the wheels of civic society. We are there to promote the love of God in Christ Jesus. And we are there because we believe that our world and our civic society needs nothing more urgently than the justice and the peace, the reconciliation and the joy, that flows from the love of God, and we find that love of God in the Spirit of Christ Jesus.

Liberal and non-judgmental : One of the most astonishing things about the account of Jesus in the gospel stories is his ability to be absolutely clear about where he stands, and yet, at the same time, to be receptive, compassionate and non-judgmental about the people who stand before him, no matter who they are. It is an incredibly potent mixture. It doesn’t say in the slightest, ‘Everything is ok.’ But it does say, ‘That’s who you are, and that’s where you are. We won’t reject you, or turn you away because of that. But you must understand – that is not where we are, and we’re not budging from where we are. Further, we think that we have something to offer you.’

Open and inclusive: We want to be open about who we are and where we stand. We want to recognise and dismantle the barriers and obstacles that we have erected that make it difficult for people to reach us, and for us to reach them.

Non-sectarian: We want to be Methodists, but we do not want to be Methodists in our own little ghetto. We want to be Methodists open to and working with our Christian brothers and sisters, and alongside and with every secular agency that can be a partner in our mission to society. We want to live out John Wesley’s biblical dictum: If your heart is as my heart, give me your hand.

We have built these principles into our new appointments because we know that they work. We can see them working wonderfully well in key parts of our circuit.

Which begs the question: How can we do better?

We Methodists carry an incredible amount of junk about with us in our Methodist boat, and at times it threatens to sink us completely. The trouble is that we are so ludicrously fond of our junk. Every time my wife Margaret and I move house we throw out tons of junk. We usually quarrel over it. But every time we get to the new house, we stare in amazement at the mountain of stuff we have carted with us. But if the Wilsons are bad as a family, the Methodist church, as an institution, is just terrible. Our junk is like a massive street barricade erected all round us like a defensive rampart. We do so much better without the junk.

Two things that have taken me by surprise in the last two years: I have sat listening to community development officers praising the work of the Christian church in the development of Cambourne and saying ‘Please, we want to help the church do the same again in Northstowe’

To hear that is music – utter music.

Secondly, I wrote on your behalf to the head teachers of the schools in which we work through our youth worker scheme to assure them that we planned to make a new appointment. These were not church schools. Their tribute to our work in their schools was remarkable.

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Biblical, liberal, unapologetic, non-judgmental , open, inclusive, and non-sectarian.

It works!

Jesus says ‘Feed my sheep.’

It’s not easy. But St Paul encourages us: ‘‘Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.’

Tim and Iain, you join a circuit-wide team who have in no way lost heart.

As dear old Michael Skinner, former principal of Wesley House, who died so recently, used to say, it is good to feel the wind of the spirit lifting the sails.

You join us at an exciting time in the life of our circuit. We look forward to discovering all the gifts that you bring with you. We look forward to being your partners in the mission of this Methodist circuit.

We look forward to your partnership with all those represented here this evening from the wider community.

And it is our confident prayer that our work together will be richly blessed.