Getting down to business

In the afternoon of the General Assembly in Ecuador, Bishop Salomon recounted the 12 years of his ministry as head of the IEMUE. The Church had doubled in membership. There were now indigenous congregations taking an active part in the life of the church. The church's youth ministry had grown.  The Church had responded to many local natural disasters and had been salt and light to many affected communities. They had more trained Ministers (over 80% of Ministers now had theological training, a huge step forward for this church). They had grown in partnership with many organisations, including the Methodist Church in Britain. However, one of the most important achievements for the church was that it had chosen a Methodist identity about 7 years ago, and that it now had a set of criteria against which each local congregation could develop its Methodist identity and mission. Bishop Salomon was clearly moved in his recalling of the last 12 years.

 The most talked about topic of the General Assembly in informal conversations seems to be about the three candidates for Bishop, who will be elected this afternoon and consecrated tomorrow. The photos show us the three candidates, known to the members of the IEMUE as Pastor Ramirez, Pastor Silvio and Pastor Rodolfo, respectively. Michaela and I have heard about what each one could bring to the church if they were elected, so if you are reading this blog before the elections take place in about 6 hours, please pray for the Holy Spirit to have it's way through the votes of the IEMUE's representatives at the General Assembly. Watch this space!

During the afternoon session, the Assembly was divided into groups to discuss the progress of the church in several key areas, including questions on what impact the church has on society, how decision-making structures could become more democratic, as well as many others. In our discussion group, several members mentioned that their church did not have a full-time Minister, and that this was something badly needed because the general attitude was that if the Minister was unable to preach on a Sunday, people would simply not turn up to church. Michaela pointed out that un the UK, local churches also want to have a Minister dedicated to their congregation, but there are simply not enough to go around. She encouraged the group by saying that Methodism was originally a lay movement, and that perhaps the church could think about developing lay leadership and lay preachers, instead of relying on Ministers.  This was fed back to the assembly and discussions on this theme and others will continue today.

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