(This is my response to the question implied by ‘Why I am still a ...’ – if you read this please consider leaving your response to the same implied question as a comment.)
I’ve always believed if you’re going to be Christian you have to be something. Christianity is an incarnational faith embodied in the meeting of believers.
I was brought up in a family which if it was anything was Unitarian. Once I became a Christian I drifted into Methodism, although at one time I chose between Methodism and the Society of Friends. I can’t remember why I chose Methodism; perhaps because it was the more difficult option.
When I trained as a local preacher in the early eighties I remember being told Methodism is a part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church and whilst it has certain doctrinal emphases there are no major differences between Methodism and the rest.
It is interesting in recent years, as I have been drawn into the ecumenical scene, I have started to identify, understand and value these emphases.
From its earliest days Methodism was a society where ordinary people supported each other in their spiritual journey. This is how John Wesley saw his movement. There has always been a strand of self-help, not just spiritual, but co-operative ventures supporting the whole person, particularly in the old northern chapel culture.
Maybe these values are thin on the ground today. Certainly, they are less understood; the spectre of the sanctimonious teetotal authoritarian Methodist still haunts folk memory alongside the genuine self-help and caring. I hope there is a future for Methodism as a practical movement who care about each other’s relationships with God as well as the practicalities of faith.
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