The Annual conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland returns to Cork from June 11th to 15th. The last occasion on which it met there was in 1991. Like all such governing bodies, its meeting combines a review of the activities of the past year and plans for the future. The ministers meet on Friday, morning and afternoon. In the evening they are joined by the laity for the Representative Session which continues for the following four days. One of the indicators of change in the life of the church is the coming and going of ministers.
This year one young woman and three young men are to be presented to the conference as candidates for the ministry and if accepted will start training at Edgehill College, Belfast, in the autumn. Fourteen ministers, three women and 11 men, who have spent the last few years in training at Edgehill College and on circuit, will be presented as candidates for ordination.
In a church with only 130 ministers in active work, this is quite a large number - larger than anyone can remember. The previous record was also held by a Cork conference, that of 1962, when 12 ministers were ordained in Cork and a 13th on the mission field.
Two ministers have sought permission to retire, the Rev J. Winston Good and the Rev D.A. Levistone Cooney. Mr Good retires after 40 years of ministry, and Mr Cooney after 30. Three retired ministers have died since the last conference: the Rev Cecil Owens in June 1998; the Rev Roy Rooney in January 1999; and the Rev John Harrison last month.
The Disciple Bible study course has been widely used in America and was introduced to Ireland in 1993. It has been greatly appreciated by those who have read it. A training course for prospective leaders of the study will be held at Edgehill College, Belfast, from September 8th to 10th and is open to clergy and laity. Full details of this may be had from Mrs Val FitzGerald of Deelis, North Circular Road, Limerick; telephone (061) 453742. Residential and non-residential participants are welcome.
The Senior Girls' Choir of Methodist College won this year's Sainsbury's Choir of the Year Award. Now, joined by the college's chamber choir and a number of instrumentalists, it is planning a tour of the US.
The tour will include concerts in Boston, New York and Washington. It will conclude with a concert in Nashville, Tennessee, which is linked with Belfast in a sister-cities scheme. Nashville is a very strong Methodist centre. The tour will be led by the principal, Dr Wilfred Mulryne. He will meet individuals and companies who might be interested in capital developments at the college.
The president of the church, the Rev David Kerr, is approaching the end of his year of office. Tomorrow morning he will preach in the church at Longford, and in the evening at Lucan. On Sunday, June 6th, he will preach in the morning at Glenburn Church in Belfast. On Friday, June 11th, he will install his successor, the Rev Dr Kenneth Wilson.
Dr Wilson lives in Bray and is superintendent minister of the Dun Laoghaire circuit. His father's work meant that he spent his childhood in several Northern Irish towns, and it was from Armagh that he entered the ministry in 1961. He served several appointments under the Methodist Missionary Society in the Caribbean, and in Ireland has been stationed in Dublin, Belfast, Cullybackey and Lisburn.
On Sunday, June 13th, RTE will broadcast morning worship from the television studio led by the Rev Graham Hamilton and members of the Dublin Methodist Churches. Mr Hamilton is at present chaplain of Wesley College, Dublin.