In a virtual encounter today, the Rev. Matthew A. Laferty, director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome, and Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, Geneva Secretary of the World Methodist Council, met Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, vice moderator of the World Council of Churches central committee, to discuss the work of the World Council of Churches, programs from the Geneva and Rome offices, and ways to strengthen the Methodist/Wesleyan engagement in international ecumenism.
The Rev. Matthew A. Laferty, MEOR director and Methodist representative to the Holy See, met H.Em. Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Vatican’s Discastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, with other dicastery officials to discuss the work of Methodists and Catholics in the areas of peacebuilding, migration, and creation care. This Vatican department “promotes the integral development of the person in light of the Gospel and in line with the Social Doctrine of the [Catholic] Church” and gives “attention to taking care of the goods of justice, peace and the safeguarding of Creation, as well as issues regarding disarmament, human rights, human mobility, health, charitable works, expressing the concern and attention of the Pope towards a humanity that suffers, among whom are the needy, the ill and the excluded.” Cardinal Turkson served on the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission from 1996-2006.
The Rev. Matthew A. Laferty, Methodist representative to the Holy See, met H.E. Derek Hannon, Irish ambassador to the Holy See, at the Irish Embassy today to discuss a wide range of topics including Methodism in Ireland, the work of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome, and reconciliation in Ireland.
On 23 March 2021, Mrs. Gillian Kingston, a laywoman from the Methodist Church in Ireland and the vice president of the World Methodist Council, presented on the history of the international Methodist-Catholic bilateral dialogue from 1967 to 2006 in a webinar entitled, “From Denver to Dublin, from Brighton to Seoul: History of International Methodist-Catholic Dialogue from 1967 to 2006”. Her recorded lecture is available on YouTube.
BIOGRAPHY – Ms. Gillian Kingston comes from the Republic of Ireland. She is a lay preacher in the Methodist Church in Ireland and serves as the vice president of the World Methodist Council. For twenty years (1986-2006), she was a member of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission and involved in the production of 4 commission reports. She was the chairperson of the Program Planning Committee for the World Methodist Conference in Seoul, Korea, in July 2006. Ms. Kingston is a past president of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland as well as the Irish Council of Churches. She was the first Lay Leader of the Conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland, a position established in 2010. Gillian is married to Tom, a Methodist minister who is retired; they have four adult children and eight grandchildren.
The World Methodist Council – the global Christian communion of Methodist and Wesleyan churches – has organized a special online prayer service on 25 March at 16:00 (Rome) to pray for and with migrants and refugees as well as hear their stories of pain, suffering, resilience, and hope during the pandemic. The prayer service is part of the Week of Prayer for the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Bishop Rosemarie Wenner—Geneva Secretary of the World Methodist Council—is organizing and leading the service. Additionally, invited speakers are Ms. Marta Bernardini from Mediterranean Hope, the Rev. Jovavern Lungub from The United Methodist Church in the Philippines who is working with the Filipino community in Adu Dhabi, Ms. Carmen Mollo from Casa de la Esperanza of the Methodist Church in Peru, and the Rev. Jack Amick from the Global Migration Office of the United Methodist Committee on Relief. The prayer service will last 60 minutes and will be conducted on Zoom.
Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome 