ORGANISATION OF THE METHODIST CHURCH: PART 2
Structure of the Methodist Church nationally
Individual people who are Methodists normally regard themselves as being associated with a local church. This is the church where they regularly attend worship and possibly are also involved in other activities run by that church.
Church membership
Everyone is welcome to come to church services and take part in other actvities of the church. Some people wish to make a further commitment and so they become members of the church. They are members of the entire Methodist Church (and indeed the world-wide Christian Church). They are also registered as members with their local church and receive a membership card each year. The process for becoming is member is normally straightforward. Local churches often organise membership classes for those who are interested. These try to explain what the Christian faith is about and what the committment to membership means. For those wishing to become members, a special service of Confirmation and Reception into Membership is held in which they publicly declare their faith and are received into membership.
Local churches and cicuits
In our case, the local church is Solihull Methodist Church.
For convenience, local churches are formed into groups which are called circuits
. The churches in each circuit lie in the same geographical area and are reasonably close together. Solihull Methodist Church is part of the Birmingham Methodist Circuit. This consists of 30 churches (including Solihull). As our circuit is large it is subdivided into a number of teams
named after the colours: purple, red, green, blue. Solihull is in the Green Team.
Normally one of the ministers within a circuit acts as the superintendent minister. He or she is responsible for decisions and actions which affect the whole circuit. Currently, the Birmingham Methodist Circuit has two co-superintendents who act together and share the workload between them.
Circuits and districts
The circuits are themselves formed into groups which are called districts
. There are 37 districts in Britain (that is England, Scotland and Wales). The Birmingham Methodist Circuit is part of the West Midlands district. Each district has a minister who is in charge: he or she is called the chair of the district.
Districts and the Connexion
The districts together form the Methodist Church in Britain and this is called the Connexion
in order to indicate that all parts of the church are connected. (The word connexion
is the same as connection
but spelled in an old-fashioned way for traditional reasons.) The Connexion has offices and staff which provide central administration for the whole church (dealing with publicity, salaries, insurance, and so on).
Methodist Conference
Alongside the Connexion is the Methodist Conference. This meets once a year in the summer and the location changes from year to year. Delegates, both ordained and lay people, from all over the country attend. The Conference is the main decision-making body of the national church. Each year a President and a Vice-President for the Conference are elected. The President is normally an ordained minister, the Vice-President is normally a lay person.
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