BELONGING TOGETHER
The vision for the partnership, called Belonging Together, comes from the London District of the Methodist Church, where more than two-thirds of its 22,500-plus members have their places of family origin outside the UK. However, throughout the whole of Britain, the composition and diversity of the Methodist Church is changing rapidly. A partnership of key groups is now aided by a Partnership Officer, a Learning & Development Officer, and financial resources to support strategic, creative and collaborative engagement with cultural diversity throughout the Connexion.
Belonging Together is a vision of the Methodist Church in Britain fulfilling its vocation of worship and mission through its richly diverse membership, fully recognising the plural society within which it is placed. It’s a vision which celebrates the Church’s diversity and rejoices at the creative interaction within the Connexion of people and groups of culturally different backgrounds, enabling all to contribute to the ministry of the whole people of God. It’s a vision of a Church which affirms our distinctive ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, while encouraging us to learn from each other and to share with each other our gifts, graces and experiences.
The Partnership involves Districts, various sections of the Connexional Team, Learning & Training Institutions, and those responsible for racial justice. “Belonging Together” seeks to:
- Improve induction and supportfor ministers joining the Methodist Church in Britain from international partner conferences and their receiving Circuits
- Record the experiences of people from ethnically diverse backgrounds coming forward for leadership
- Improve supportfor ethnically distinct congregations and fellowships
- Develop models of sustainability for events and networks which support ethnically diverse ministers and congregations
- Facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and learningthroughout the Connexion
- Review the criteria for candidating, preparing and stationing of those coming forward for ordained and lay ministry
- Develop strategies to spread more widely the spiritual theological and practical understandings discovered or developed in the London, Birmingham and other Districts
- Build capacity forchildren and young people to experience the richness of diversity.
- Develop theological reflections about diversity, and explore how CPD embodies an ethos of inclusion and participation
- Map thediversity of Church membership, and those coming forward for authorised forms of ministry
Contact information for this initiative:
The Revd Katei Kirby, “Belonging Together” Partnership Officer
Email: , Tel: 020 7467 5244, Mobile: 07875 144 437
Dr Lia Dong Shimada, “Belonging Together” Learning and Development Officer
Email: , Tel: 020 7467 5174, Mobile: 07817 927 603
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