The former president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, Dr Norman Taggart, has encouraged members of the church to talk to all Christians. "We can't engage in the work of God in Ireland today unless we meet with and share with Christians of other traditions, right across the board," he said yesterday, as the church's annual conference continued in Dublin. "The people of God are the people of God, irrespective of their backgrounds," he said and spoke of the great privilege it was in his year as president, travelling the length and breadth of Ireland, "to discover good-hearted warm Catholics and Protestants, including Methodists, doing things together." He also urged members to face the issues, when about the work of God on this island, "and not just sectarianism, but unemployment and those people for whom the bottom has fallen out of life". One of the guests at the conference, Monsignor Patrick Devine, who was representing the (Catholic) Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, said the Catholic and Methodist churches joint commission "has made extraordinary progress on the road to what is now seen by them as nothing less that `full communion' or organic unity between us, a goal not considered as even possible when the dialogue began".
He told the conference "your invitation testifies to the ongoing development of new relationships between Catholics and Protestants not only in this country but worldwide, a relationship leading us out of past divisions through our present friendly co-existence to a future church unity we know not what, something we must leave to Almighty God . . ."
"Ar son Eaglais na hEireann, agus are mo shon fein, rath Deo raibh . . .," (On behalf of the Church of Ireland, and on my own behalf, the blessings of God on you . . .) was how Mrs Valerie Jones, representing the Church of Ireland, concluded her remarks. to the conference. Dr Sam Hutchinson, former moderator, represented the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Alluding to the current situation in the North he said it was "a period of golden opportunity" but warned "we are not out of the woods yet. The next few weeks could bring their own problems".
In the debate on the inter-church relations report the Rev Paul Kingston, of the Dublin district, said hard questions had to be faced on issues such as sharing Communion with Roman Catholics. Methodists saw the Eucharist as an evolving sign (of unity), while Catholics saw it as a sign of unity. The question for Methodists was whether they were exercising integrity when sharing in something with which they did not exactly feel at one.
In the debate on the trustees report it was disclosed the church had moved some of its investment portfolio from the Allied Irish Bank in Dublin to the Epworth company in London, which also handles investments for the Methodist Church in England. This was done to allow for greater ethical investment. The nature of its portfolio with AIB meant the church had less control over where the money was invested. The ministerial treasurer, Rev Charles Eyre, also said the church's investment fund was now valued at £10.2 million.
Yesterday conference delegates had a group photograph taken with their hands over their mouths, as a protest against the military regime in Burma. Mr Andrew Cunningham, of the church's department of youth and children, said that on average 10,000 people had died in Burma every year since 1988, when on "the eighth of the eighth, 88" 10,000 were killed by the military as they marched for democracy. The youth group has organised a `Liberate '98' Burma campaign.
