Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome

The highest Synodal Assembly of The United Methodist Church in Poland has released a statement appealing to Christians and other people of good will to provide help for those in need on the Polish Belarusian Border, stating that as Christians and Polish citizens, “we cannot remain silent when we see how a part of our country has become a place of humanitarian crisis affecting men, women and children, and among them also the sick and traumatized.”

They call on “members and sympathizers as well as all people of good will to engage in initiatives to support the victims of the humanitarian crisis on the Polish borders and to pray for those whose duty it is to ensure security and peace in our homeland.”

The European Methodist Council issued a statement on 19 November 2021 saying,

As members of the European Methodist Council, we offer our full support to the United Methodist Church in Poland for the release of this statement and for their call to prayer and action. Additionally, we support our church members in the countries bordering Belarus – Poland, Latvia and Lithuania – as they seek to help those who have been impacted by this crisis. We invite Methodist, Wesleyan and United Churches in Europe to join with our member churches in Poland, Latvia and Lithuania in prayer. We ask the governments in the countries bordering Belarus to give access to the Red Cross to provide support for victims. We appeal to the European Union to make every effort to solve this situation.

The European Methodist Council

Read the full statement from The United Methodist Church in Poland in English or in Polish.

The Reverend Matthew A. Laferty, director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome, attended a Sung Eucharist service at All Saints’ Anglican Church in Rome on Remembrance Sunday, 14 November 2021. In additional to ecumenical guests, several members of the diplomatic community were also in attendance. Members of the Armed Forces and their families and those who have lost their lives as a result of conflict or terrorism are remembered.

All Saints’ Anglican Church in Rome is a chaplaincy of the Diocese of Europe of the Church of England.

Pictured: Fr. Robert McCulloch of the Missionary Society of St. Columban, Archbishop Ian Ernest of the Anglican Centre in Rome, Fr. Robert Warren of All Saints’ Anglican Church in Rome, Rev. Laferty, and Fr. Bob Hayes of Domus Australia

As members of the European Commission on Mission* and the European Methodist Council **, we stand in united solidarity to call for Vaccine Equity in the global response to Covid-19. As leaders, and representatives of Church mission boards and development agencies, our focus is to serve, learn from and support partners – churches, organisations and individuals who live and work in communities most affected by poverty in lower-income countries around the world. We passionately believe that it is imperative that governments, pharmaceutical companies, global and local health authorities take tangible action to more equitably distribute, and give access to, COVID-19 vaccinations and the supplies needed to distribute them.

It is vital that the richest countries in the world end any vaccine hoarding and nationalism that is limiting supplies to majority world countries. Whilst initial commitments are a good start, there is much more we can do and give to share essential resources for effective response with the wider world, in the midst of this pandemic and in the years to come as we learn to live with this virus. This equitable distribution needs to be immediate to ensure that lives are saved in every country of the world and to remove the delays and obstructions that are preventing roll out in lower-income countries.

This commitment to equity and shared resource is necessary and relevant not only for this moment in time, but for all health and economic crises. Far too often, we see that the poorest are at the ‘back of the line’ in our global health priorities. The end of this injustice is long overdue and this pandemic gives us an opportunity to chart a new and just path, as we navigate the crises of the days and years to come.

We call on all churches and faith groups, supporters and friends of our organisations to continue to help spread factual and evidenced based messaging, to do our part to stem the prolific and harmful impact of vaccine avoidance and hesitancy caused by misinformation. It is for all of us to not only do our part in receiving the gift of this vaccine, but also to help build confidence in, and ensure access to the vaccine for every one of our neighbours around the globe.

We call for Vaccine Equity now, and for every person, leader and organisation to do their part to ensure that access for all becomes a reality in our world today.

*The European Commission on Mission is (ECOM) is a fellowship of leaders and representatives of Methodist mission boards, mission agencies and task forces, or their equivalent in Europe, as well as the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM). ECOM is regarded as a related organisation within the European Methodist Council (EMC), and thereby reports to EMC annually.

**The European Methodist Council is a membership body for Methodist, Wesleyan and Uniting Churches across Europe who work together to develop a greater understanding of our shared challenges so that we can all be more effective in God’s mission. Read more here.

The webinar is Monday, 22 November 2021 at 18:00 GMT/19:00 Rome.

Ten years after the second Salvation Army-World Methodist Council Dialogue ended, the webinar will look back to a journey of joint witness and service and explore further possibilities to be in mission together at a local, regional, national, and international level.

The webinar will feature participants from Australia, Mexico and United Kingdom who are working together in education, refugee issues, Recovery Church, and church partnerships.

The webinar will be introduced by Bishop Ivan Abrahams and General Brian Peddle and moderated by Commissioner E. Jane Paone and Bishop Rosemarie Wenner.

Key speakers are:

• The Reverend Dr Paul Chilcote
  Director of Global Wesleyan Theology, Wesley House, Cambridge UK
• Lt Colonel Dr Karen Shakespeare
  Chair of The Salvation Army’s International Theological Council

The webinar will be conducted in English and Spanish.

Register for the webinar at sar.my/wtim.

Download the event flyer (712 KB).

The oversight committee of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome—the MEOR Forum—met online on Monday, 25 October 2021 to review the work of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome in 2020-2021 and discuss plans and finances for the coming year. The meeting was planned to take place in-person in Rome, but COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions made it impossible for all the Forum members to attend an in-person gathering.

During the director’s report, MEOR director the Reverend Matthew A. Laferty shared about the challenges and the opportunities of the COVID-19 pandemic on MEOR’s programs. He noted that the pandemic created opportunities to deepen relationships with local partners through more frequent contact due to reduced travel and less crowded schedules. The pandemic forced the director and the Forum to reimagine MEOR’s work by adding online programming like webinars.  Director Laferty also presented a work plan for 2021-2022 which focuses on developing stronger relationships with partners in Rome through relational ecumenism, increased usage of digital spaces for MEOR’s programs, and designing new seminars for 2023 when more international travel is likely to resume.

In other news, the MEOR Forum

• Welcomed the Revd Michaela Youngson, assistant conference secretary and connexional ecumenical officer of the Methodist Church in Britain, who succeeded the Revd Ruth Gee as a new Forum member.
• Formally removed TheWesley hospitality group from the MEOR partnership due to the closure and sale of their Rome operations.
• Re-elected Bishop Ivan Abrahams, general secretary of the World Methodist Council, and elected the Revd Michaela Youngson as the Forum co-chairs.
• Reviewed the 2021-2022 budget of approximately €145,000 and discussed MEOR’s long-term financial sustainability.
• Authorized a plan which will eventually lead to the formation of a new legal non-profit corporation in Italy to better facilitate MEOR’s business and financial transactions.
• Postponed discussion of proposals for more relational governance to the Forum’s next meeting in the spring.

The Forum plans to meet in the spring with an in-person gathering in Rome.

The Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome is the presence of the World Methodist Council in Rome to promote ecumenical dialogue, joint action for peace and justice, payer and reflection, and hospitality. MEOR is a unique partnership of the World Methodist Council with the European Methodist Council, the Methodist Church in Britain, the Methodist Churches in Italy, and The United Methodist Church.