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A few years ago, I attended a lecture about the history of Cliff College. Cliff is a Methodist college of evangelism and is about 15 miles from where I live, in the Peak District. The lecturer was a baptist scholar and the content of his story was quite surprising.
Cliff was founded just after the turn of the last century (indeed this was a centenary lecture). At the time, Methodist evangelism was Arminian in contrast with other evangelical traditions, which were Calvinist. The new college reflected the traditional Methodist emphasis on sanctification, in contrast to the Calvinist evangelical traditions. No Principle of Cliff was ever invited to attend the Keswick Convention (annual gathering of Calvinist evangelicals).
That is until the mid-seventies, when there was a subtle change. I became a Christian around that time and remember when I joined Newcastle Methsoc in about 1975. The new Chair of Methsoc, introduced sitting in a circle and singing hymns from sources other than the Methodist Hymn Book! This really was an issue at the time; today worship songs are the norm.
I think the then Principle of Cliff and these changes in the Methsocs were not unconnected and marked not only a movement towards a more Calvinist evangelicalism but also a move of evangelicals away from the mainstream life of the Methodist Church (which has always seen itself as an evangelical tradition). It seems from this time forward evangelicals and mainstream Methodists became estranged.
Conservative Evangelicals in Methodism, which later became Headway, represented a movement similar to the evangelical wing of the Church of England. However, something happened in Methodism in the mid-nineties. At the Derby Conference in, I think, 1994, the current statement about sexuality was adopted and Headway didn't like it one bit. Their opposition to what was and still is a rather safe compromise, was absolute. At the Blackpool Conference in 1996, they attempted to overturn the statement. Something happened at that Conference. They put everything into their case and were roundly knocked back. The then President made a firm request for a moratorium on the debate.
At the same time, the Decade of Evangelism (1990 - 2000) was also proving to be a disappointment and I can only surmise there was a lot of soul searching. In the last decade, there has been a move to build bridges with the mainstream church and the evangelicals have come in from the cold.
I remember a few years ago I sat in on a meeting of leading connexional evangelists. Amongst them was the late Rob Frost, a leading evangelical. He said when he heard young people saying they cannot belong to a church that condemns homosexuals, he had to listen to what they were saying. Everyone present agreed with what he said.
I think these changes within my own tradition are encouraging because they have shown evangelicals and others with different callings can work together in a constructive way. Indeed, the local evangelists I have met over the last 10 years have reminded me of the plight of many community development workers I have known during previous decades, undervalued and underpaid. Ten or fifteen years ago, I don't think I would have been able to write that I am honoured to work alongside evangelicals, today I can and that is because Methodist evangelicals have made a crucial decision to enter into conversation with their own church.
However, as I indicated in my last post, and will develop further in my next, there are still some outstanding issues.
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