Ms. Gillian Kingston, vice president of the World Methodist Council, visited Rome from 21-24 May 2024, in conjunction with MEOR’s Wesley Day celebrations. A lay member of the Methodist Church in Ireland, Ms. Kingston has been vice president of the World Methodist Council, the Christian world communion of Methodist and Wesleyan churches, since 2014 and will conclude her service in August 2024.
At the beginning of her visit, Ms. Kingston met Pope Francis for a brief exchange following the Pope’s weekly audience (see photo above). She was accompanied by Director Matthew A. Laferty and Fr. Martin Browne OSB, the Vatican official for Methodist relations.
Ms. Kingston also met H.E. Archbishop Flavio Pace, the newly installed secretary at the Holy See’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. During the visit, Ms. Kingston and Abp. Pace spoke of the ecumenical witness of the World Methodist Council and the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission, as well as Abp. Pace’s vision for Christian unity. Ms. Kingston served as a member of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission from 1986-2006.
Ms. Kingston also made several other courtesy calls during her brief Roman trip. She met
H.E. Ambassador Frances Collins, the Irish ambassador to the Holy See
Deacon Alessandra Trotta, moderator of the governing board of the Waldensian-Methodist Church in Italy
H.G. Archbishop Ian Ernest and Mme Kamla Ernest of the Anglican Centre in Rome
Rev. Sarah Mae Gabuyo, pastor of Ponte Sant’Angelo Methodist Church in Rome
MEOR’s annual garden party to commemorate the conversions of Charles and John Wesley was held on Thursday, 23 May in the garden of Christ Church Lutheran in Rome. Ms. Kingston addressed the 50-person gathering, thanking them for their support of MEOR and sharing the theme of the upcoming World Methodist Conference – “On the Move”.
The Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome is the presence of the World Methodist Council in Rome for ecumenical dialogue, joint action for peace and justice, prayer and reflection, and hospitality.
Photos: left – Ms. Kingston with Deacon Alessandra Trotta. Photo by M. Laferty/MEOR; center – Ms. Kingston (second left) with Abp. Flavio Pace (second right) with Director Matthew Laferty and Fr Martin Browne. Photo by DPCU; right – Ms. Kingston (right) with Ambassador Frances Collins (center) and Director Matthew Laferty. Photo by Frances Armstrong/Irish Embassy; top – Pope Francis greeting Ms. Kingston, Director Matthew Laferty, and Fr. Martin Browne on 22 May 2024 in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican. Photo by Vatican Media.
The 4th Global Gathering of the Global Christian Forum – an international Christian ecumenical platform – met in Accra, Ghana, from 16-19 April 2024, under the theme “That the World May Know,” bringing together over 250 leaders from all major Christian confessional families. The Rev. Matthew A. Laferty, director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome, was an invited participant.
The Global Christian Forum is a unique gathering of global Christian churches and organisations bringing together all the major streams of world Christianity. The GCF is an open space where all Christians can meet to nurture unity by fostering mutual respect and understanding as well as by addressing together common challenges. It creates ‘space’ where participants all meet on an equal basis, to foster mutual respect, and to explore and address together common concerns. The Global Christian Forum is built on four pillar partnerships with the World Council of Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, the World Evangelical Alliance, and the Pentecostal World Fellowship.
On behalf of the World Methodist Council, General Secretary Ivan Abrahams offers prayers and condolences to the people of Taiwan and their loved ones following the severe earthquake there on 3 April 2024. He calls on all people, and especially the Methodist family, to remember those affected by this 7.2 magnitude earthquake.
Death and destruction are widespread on the Islan, but the severest destruction was near Hualien, which was closest to the center. Following the earthquake, Taiwan has experienced more than 100 aftershocks.
Prayers for comfort for the injured and bereaved will continue as well as calls for assistance to those needing help with places to stay, reconstruction, and day-to-day supplies.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging. Psalm 46:1-3 (NIV)
The management team of the World Methodist Council, comprised of President Rev. Prof. Jong Chun Park, Vice President Ms. Gillian Kingston, General Secretary Revd Ivan Abrahams, Geneva Secretary Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, and Treasurer/CFO Mr. Kirby Hickey, issue the following statements on 17 March 2024.
Statement on Situtation in Middle East
The Management Team of the World Methodist Council, meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, on 11-12 March 2024, calls on Methodists world-wide to join in prayer for the people of Gaza, the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel at this time of unprecedented and deepening crisis.
We condemn unequivocally the indiscriminate killing by Hamas of innocent Israeli civilians and the taking of hostages, men, women and children, which has precipitated the current situation. We are appalled by the killing of thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza in the continued and intensive bombing of the enclave and its cities by Israeli forces. While affirming the right of the State of Israel to defend itself, we urge the immediate recognition of international law in respect of civilian populations and occupied territories.
We join the many calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities in order that adequate humanitarian aid may reach the people of Gaza who are without power, water, food and medical supplies and are living in increasingly desperate conditions, now amounting to famine.
Ps 130.1 “Out of the depths we cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear our voice.”
Statement on Ukraine and Russia
The Management Team of the World Methodist Council, meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, on 11-12 March 2024, has noted with deep concern the second anniversary of the war initiated by an unprovoked attack on Ukraine by Russia in February 2022.
Recognising that the history of the region is long and complex, and that nothing but suffering and destruction can be achieved by armed conflict, we call for an immediate cessation of fighting and the withdrawal from occupied territory. We further note with concern that the ongoing war continues to cause food deprivation in parts of the world which have been heavily dependent on grain from Ukraine for survival.
The Team remembers that there are Methodist and other Christians on each side in this conflict and prays that they may be blessed as peace-makers.
We ask for prayer for ‘the people called Methodist’ and others in the region, for Bishop Eduard Khegay of the Eurasia Episcopal Area of The United Methodist Church, for Bishop Christian Alsted of the Nordic and Baltic Episcopal Area as he travels to and from Ukraine and for all local and regional church leaders as they minister against this backdrop of war.
ROME (MEOR) – A group of 10 bishops from three different Methodist churches in the United States embarked on a study pilgrimage in Rome, Italy, from 5-8 March 2024. The bishops were drawn from the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and The United Methodist Church; all three churches are member churches of the World Methodist Council, the international Christian communion of Methodist, Wesleyan, and Uniting churches. The three churches underwent separation during the 19th century due to the sin of slavery and racism. Since 2012, the churches, along with 3 other Methodist churches, are in a special full communion relationship.
The trip was organized by the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome with the generous support of the Kentucky-based Magee Christian Education Foundation. The Rev. Dr. Jean Hawxhurst, ecumenical staff officer of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church, also provided leadership, collaboration, and program development for the study pilgrimage.
The bishops began their program on 5 March with a visit to the necropolis under St. Peter’s Basilica, where the group prayed the Lord’s Prayer near the tomb of Peter the Apostle.
Bishop Tracy Smith Malone from The United Methodist Church reflects on visiting the tomb of St. Peter this morning with the Pan-Methodist study pilgrimage sponsored by the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome
During their visit to Rome, the bishops met with leaders from various departments of the Vatican to learn about dialogue, theologies of Christian unity, and Methodist-Catholic relations. The delegation first met with H.Em. Cardinal Kurt Koch of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity along with dicastery officials to discuss current trends in the modern ecumenical movement and the need for greater consensus on the definition and goal of Christian unity. Additionally, the delegation learned about the Catholic Church’s synodal process at the Synod Office, where they were welcomed by Sr. Nathalie Becquart XMCJ, undersecretary of the Synod Office, and taught by Synod official Sr. Marie Kolbe Zamona.
Our delegation of 10 bishops from the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and The United Methodist Church visited the Synod Office of the Catholic Church today to learn about the synodal process of the Catholic Church. The delegation was greeted by Sr. Nathalie Becquart XMCJ, undersecretary of the Synod Office, and briefed by Sr. Marie Kolbe Zamora, a Synod official. The encounter was marked by listening, mutual learning, and sharing about how Methodists and Catholics seek to be listening churches.
The bishops also visited the headquarters of the Methodist-Waldensian Church in Italy and the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy. At the Methodist-Waldensian headquarters, the delegation was received by Deacon Alesssandra Trotta, a Methodist deacon serving as the moderator of the General Board (Tavola Valdese), and Pastor Luca Anziani, president of the Methodist permanent committee. The Methodist Church in Italy and the Waldensian Church formed an union in 1975. Pastor Luca Baratto, executive secretary, welcomed the group to the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy and overviewed the Federation’s ministries. Ms. Marta Bernardini and Ms. Fiona Kendall of Mediterranean Hope presented on the Federation’s work with migrants and refugees. Additionally, the Rev. Sarah Mae Gabuyo, a United Methodist elder serving as the pastor of Ponte Sant’Angelo Methodist Church in Rome, led the group in a time of prayer during their visit to the church.
Deacon Alessandra Trotta, moderator of the General Board of the Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches, and Rev. Luca Anziani, president of the Methodist Churches in Italy, met the pan-Methodist bishops to share the history and mission of Methodists and Waldensians in Italy, their church unity, and models of sharing and growing as diverse churches together.
U.S. ambassador to the Holy See Joseph Donnelly and his wife Mrs. Jill Donnelly hosted the delegation for dinner at Villa Richardson, the official ambassadorial residence, where there was a lively exchange on issues affecting the United States and the role of Methodists in American public life, ending with singing of historic Wesleyan hymns.
Bishop Sylvester Williams, Sr. of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church shares about experiences on the second day of our pan-Methodist study pilgrimage in Rome, including meeting Pope Francis. The program was sponsored by the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome.
Other visits included the
Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue where the group was received by Monsignor Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku K. and Sister Grace Marie Horan FSE and given an orientation to the department’s concept of dialogue and its work,
Centro Pro Unione, a center promoting Christian unity organized by the Franciscan Friars of Atonement who initiated the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity,
Sant’Egidio Community, a Catholic lay movement committed to peace, dialogue, and serving the poor that received the World Methodist Peace Award in 1998, and
Focolare Movement, a Catholic lay movement dedicated to charity, encounter, and friendship.
On 8 March, the group toured various churches in central Rome as well as the Abbey of Three Fountains and the Papal Basilica of St. Paul’s-Outside-the-Walls, respectively the sites of the Apostle Paul’s execution and burial.
Bishop Sally Dyck from The United Methodist Church talks about our Christian call to sacrifice after visiting the site of the Apostle Paul’s execution in Rome during the the Pan-Methodist Study Pilgrimage sponsored by the Methodist Ecumencial Office Rome.
The program concluded with a special dinner at the Hotel Casa Valdese where the delegation was joined by several ecumenical guests representing various churches.
The bishops who participated in the study pilgrimage were:
African Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Jeffrey N. Leath, AME ecumenical officer
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Lawrence L. Reddick III of the Eighth Episcopal District (Texas and Jamaica) and senior bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Teresa Snorton, CME ecumenical and development officer Bishop Marvin Frank Thomas, Sr. of the First Episcopal District (Arkansas and Tennessee) Bishop Sylvester Williams, Sr. of the Third Episcopal District (the Midwest)
The United Methodist Church Bishop Sally Dyck, ecumenical officer of the Council of Bishops Bishop Tracy Smith Malone of the Ohio East Episcopal Area and incoming president of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church Bishop Jonathan Holston of the Columbia Episcopal Area (South Carolina) Bishop Frank Beard of the Illinois Episcopal Area Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi of the Pittsburgh Episcopal Area
The delegation was also accompanied by Director Matthew A. Laferty, Dr. Jean Hawxhurst, and Mrs. Melissa Beard.
Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome 