Pastoral Letter – East Anglia District
Chair of the District – Revd. Julian M. Pursehouse
September 2022
Dear Friends,
I am writing this letter on the eve of a new Connexional Year and in doing so I am profoundly aware of those circuits and ministers for whom this marks a period of significant change. I am of course referring to our itinerant ministry and the reality of new ministers matched to new appointments and circuits preparing to welcome new ministry into their midst. This is a time of great upheaval and change for all concerned and I would not want to underestimate the level of anxiety that this sometimes engenders. Indeed, I would want to implore all of you to remember such people and places in your prayers.
In recent years the principle of itinerancy has occasionally been called into question as that which sometimes militates against good relationship with an existing context or that commitment to the principle can cause undue personal harm to partners and family members who may not have signed up for the itinerant lifestyle! Whilst I recognise these tensions and work with them on an annual basis as a Chair of District involved in stationing, at a personal level, I am committed to the principle and have endeavoured to faithfully uphold it in the practise of my own life of ordained ministry. In a recent Conference Report, there is a statement on itinerancy in which we find the following words;
‘At the same time, the covenant relationship implies a readiness upon the part of the individual minister to be open to the needs of the Connexion as a whole at any point in their ministerial journey..’
At the heart of itinerancy is the covenant relationship with the Conference that determines the ministry and mission needs of the wider Connexion at any given time – part of that covenant relationship is being alert and attentive to the mission of God in the world and being willing to respond to it and participate in it, as and when the Conference invites us to do so through the processes of the Church. For me, itinerancy is also a reminder that very little in life and human experience remains static and unchanging – an unsettling reality that has grown in prominence through the worst moments of the pandemic and the shifting fortunes of world economies in the light of utility markets. There are some changing realities that we are powerless to overcome.
To embrace this principle, we must be prepared to embody a costly spirituality of letting go or relinquishment so that we are able to welcome the new things that God may be unfolding around us and through us – this applies as much to churches as to ministers. Perhaps from time to time, it would be no bad thing for the Methodist people (both lay and ordained) to revisit the words of the Methodist Covenant Prayer;
‘let me be employed for you or laid aside for you’.
Over the years, I’ve become convinced that we cheerfully do the former but struggle to embrace the latter! As you journey with all God’s people, lay and ordained, you might want to ponder those words and consider how they resonate for you in this new Connexional Year – what is God calling you to relinquish and what is God calling you to take up?
With very best wishes,
Julian