The month of November is the time when Irish Methodists traditionally think of the mission of the church in this country, and offerings are received for the Home Mission Fund. It has been customary for ministers to exchange pulpits so that accounts of enterprise here may encourage something similar there, or at least stimulate the giving of adequate funds for development of work.
Increasingly in recent years there has been a shift of emphasis from the giving of money, still important, to the mobilisation of manpower and skills.
This year in many circuits the Home Mission meeting will take a very different form. Instead of hearing a visitor speaker, members will be invited to discuss the booklet recently issued by the Conference, Dreaming Dreams.
This challenges each circuit to discover its own mission, and to begin the steps which could make this a reality. It is a call to imaginative planning for the future involving the whole church family.
In fact Methodism has always prided itself on the way in which it has acknowledged and used the gifts of its lay people.
Certainly, in the early years when what we would now call ministers were few, the growth of the Methodist societies depended very largely on the loyalty and activity of the members. That idea was never quite lost, but the 19th century saw an increasing dominance of the work by ministers. That is again changing.
There are now more than 40 lay people in full- or part-time service in the circuits, doing work that a few years ago would have been seen as the exclusive prerogative of the minister. They are also participating in chaplaincy work in universities and hospitals.
Responsibility for administration and pastoral work is being increasingly shared by ministers and lay people, who see themselves as members of a team.
Related to this is the rediscovery of the principles of Christian Stewardship. First presented to the church in the 1950s, these were largely forgotten or ignored in the intervening decades. Christian Stewardship is now being seen freshly as a means of releasing the church's resources of skill, care and enthusiasm, as well as finance.
A recent visit to Belfast by Mr William Swires, a Stewardship facilitator with the British Methodist Church, provoked such interest that a second visit is planned.
The family of the late Rev Dr William McAllister, who was Chaplain and Vice-Principal of Methodist College, Belfast, is staging a concert in aid of motor neurone research. "An evening of music, mince pies and merriment" will be held in the Elmwood Hall, Belfast, on the evenings of Friday and Saturday, December 3rd and 4th. Further information about these performances may be had from (01846) 674660.
The president of the church, the Rev Dr Kenneth Wilson, will preach at Omagh Methodist Church tomorrow morning. In the evening he will visit the Dunkineely and Ardara circuit in Co Donegal.