Benjamin L. Hartley, “‘That They All Might Be One’: John R. Mott’s Contributions to Methodism, Interreligious Dialogue, and Racial Reconciliation.”

Abstract: An extraordinary organizer and leader, Methodist layman John R. Mott (1865-1955) was influential in the establishment and growth of many different world-wide Christian organizations in the early twentieth century.  He was even asked to serve as ambassador to China by President Woodrow Wilson—a position he declined.  For his work in organizing people and resources for world peace Mott was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946.

This article focuses on Mott’s efforts at ecumenism for the sake of Christian mission by analyzing three dimensions of Mott’s work:  Mott’s Methodism, his efforts in global interreligious dialogue, and work in racial reconciliation efforts at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.  His work in relationship to these three themes is traced throughout his life in order to highlight the development of his ideas and activism as he interacted with many different ecumenical organizations and world Christian leaders.  The article illustrates the tensions and inconsistencies that emerged in Mott’s thinking and ecumenical practice as he sought to emphasize unity for the sake of mission in the many different facets of his work.

This article is now ready for reading at http://www.methodistreview.org.

Dr. Rex D. Matthews, Candler School of Theology, rex.matthews@emory.edu

Thanks for your continuing interest in our work.

Dr. Rex D. Matthews, Candler School of Theology, rex.matthews@emory.edu

The conference has been organised in response to the 100th anniversary of the ordination of Olive Winchester, the first woman to be ordained in the UK on 11 May 1912 in Glasgow, and also the first woman to graduate with the Bachelor of Divinity degree from Glasgow University. While the motivation for the event is inspired by the ordination of women in the Church, the conference seeks to reflect on and celebrate all women in ministry, lay and ordained.

The conference is ecumenical and invites participants from across the theological and denominational spectrum. The weekend conference has been organised and sponsored by four main partners: the University of Glasgow School of Critical Studies; International Christian College; Nazarene Theological College, Manchester; and Sharpe Memorial Church of the Nazarene, Glasgow.

The aim of the conference is three-fold:

1. to reflect on and celebrate the role of women in the Church and ministry;

2. to hear and share practical and inspirational stories of women in the Church and ministry;

3. to encourage one another in the present and future journey of women in the Church and ministry.

The weekend event includes:

• An ‘Academic Conference’ on Friday 11 May, with 3 keynote speakers offering historical and theological analysis and reflections on the role of women in the church’s past, present, and future, plus a selection of shorter papers around this theme. The academic conference will be held at Glasgow University. See the call for papers at the end of this message.

• A ‘Women in Ministry Day Conference’ (lay & ordained) on Saturday 12 May, with keynote speakers, seminars and workshops, focused on practical and inspirational stories of women in a variety of ministry contexts and leadership roles. The venue is to be confirmed.

• Celebration through Public Worship on Saturday night, Sunday morning and Sunday evening 13 May, with a variety of women in ministry leading and speaking reflecting different traditions and expressions on worship. The Saturday evening venue is to be confirmed, but the Sunday celebrations will be hosted by Sharpe Memorial Church of the Nazarene, the church in which Olive Winchester was ordained in 1912.

For further information about the Saturday and Sunday events, please contact the Revd Dr Ian Wills: iangwills@hotmail.com

A website has been set-up for the conference at: http://www.mwrc.ac.uk/women-the-church-and-ministry/

Call for Papers

Proposals are invited for short papers (20 minutes) on any historical or theological aspect of women in the church and ministry. Please provide an abstract of approximately 250 words, to be sent by 15 February 2012 to both:

Dr Heather Walton, University of Glasgow School of Critical Studies, 4 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK email – Heather.Walton@glasgow.ac.uk

Dr Geordan Hammond, Nazarene Theological College, Dene Road, Didsbury, Manchester M20 2GU, UK  email –  ghammond@nazarene.ac.uk

For your reference, here is their site: http://www.logos.com/product/8652/religious-and-theological-abstracts

Pickwick Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, has recently released Geordan Hammond and Peter S. Forsaith, eds. Religion, Gender, and Industry: Exploring Church and Methodism in a Local Setting. This is a volume of essays from the 2009 conference jointly-sponsored by the MWRC and Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History. You are very welcome to forward this message to others who might be interested. We would also be grateful if those of you in academic settings would consider encouraging your librarian to obtain the book.

Book Details:

Hammond, Geordan, Religion, Gender, and Industry, ISBN 13: 978-1-60899-642-1, Pub Date: 11/4/2011

web page for the book: https://wipfandstock.com/store/Religion_Gender_and_Industry_Exploring_Church_and_Methodism_in_a_Local_Setting/

Theme: Eschatology in Wesleyan and Methodist Traditions

How should the spiritual descendants of John and Charles Wesley think about the Christian hope? What do Wesleyan and Methodist folk mean when they affirm the traditional language of the Apostles’ Creed that Jesus “will come to judge the quick and the dead”? What might this have to do with Wesleyan movements for social justice and social reform? The papers to be presented in this session will explore the connections between Christological affirmations, eschatological expectations, and efforts at concrete social reform in Wesleyan and Methodist theological traditions.

Resurrection and Reform: Christological Eschatology in the Wesleyan Tradition

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the connection between eschatology and Christology for Wesleyan/Methodist dogmatics, with special reference to its implications for social praxis. Our thesis is that a Christologically-shaped eschatology provides a theological vision to warrant and sustain Wesleyan efforts for social reform.

Jesus Christ in his resurrection holds together the dialectic of continuity and change that conditions both eschatological thinking and social acting. We develop this thesis by examining three theological texts from different periods in the history of Methodism: Charles Wesley’s Hymns for Our Lord’s Resurrection (1746), William Burt Pope’s A Compendium of Christian Theology (1875), and Daniel Thambyrajah Niles’ Who is this Jesus? (1968). We conclude by urging Wesleyan/Methodist theologians to pursue greater dogmatic clarity and consistency with regard to the intersection of Christology and eschatology, not as an end in itself, but in order to sustain our social praxis by explicating its operative norms.

God’s Deliverance of Animals: Future Belief and Present Challenge

This paper argues that any authentic Wesleyan and Methodist agenda of social reform must take John Wesley’s eschatological vision seriously by making a concern for non-human animals an inescapable part of its programme. As Wesley realized, eschatology is related to ethics in that once we have glimpsed the breadth of God’s redemptive purposes, we cannot see the creatures God will redeem in the same way again, whether human or other-than-human. If Wesley’s interpretation of Romans 8 is correct, the followers of Christ must reflect on what God’s future general deliverance of all creatures means for current human practices that deliver other creatures into situations of suffering. Such reflection will require those who claim to be inheritors of Wesley’s vision to be prominent among advocates for better treatment of other animals in agriculture, research, sport and beyond, and may prompt them to consider adopting Wesley’s vegetarianism.

The Creative Eschatological Tension in John Wesley’s Sermon “The General Spread of the Gospel”

John Wesley’s 1783 sermon “The General Spread of the Gospel” presents an intriguing tension. Wesley both despaired about the state of the world and at the same time expressed a profound hope that can only be adequately characterized as eschatological; he believed that God had begun a work of renewing creation, specifically through his Methodist movement, that represented the first stirrings of a universal redemption. This tension is heightened by Wesley’s continuing and characteristic insistence upon a synergistic model of divine activity in creation; he never veered long from his conviction that the manner of God’s working was to renew and to heighten human ability (e.g., understanding, affections, liberty) rather than to annul it. A characteristically Wesleyan interpretation of eschatology must, like Wesley, maintain hope in God’s labor to redeem creation through Jesus Christ while also acknowledging that such labor neither bypasses nor cancels authentic human responsibility.

The Eschatological Significance of Work for Justice within History: A Contribution from Wesleyan Conceptions of Sanctification

This paper builds upon the eschatological insight of Jose Miguez Bonino by including a consideration of the unique contribution Wesleyan theology can make to eschatology through its understanding of sanctification. The Wesleyan conception of sanctification is fertile ground for a discussion of the eschatological significance of work for justice in history. This development of the doctrine of sanctification in relation with eschatology will also provide a fuller and social dynamic to the doctrine of sanctification itself, as this aspect of salvation would refer to social sanctification, transforming society to closer reflect the Kingdom to be consummated with Christ’s Parousia.

Dr Collins has lectured and taught on The Theology of John Wesley through-out the world in diverse settings from Moscow to Costa Rica and is known for his engaging, critical-thinking style. He is recognised for his exemplary teaching and is the 2008 recipient of the Professor of the Year Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Asbury Theological Seminary.

He has published a host of books and scores of articles exploring topics ranging from Wesleyan theology to Christian spirituality. His highly regarded book, The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace, is described as the most complete and correct account of John Wesley’s theology available.

Dr Collins’ lectures on the Practical Theology of John Wesley are not to be missed.

Melbourne: Tuesday 24 January at the Uniting Church Centre for Theology and Ministry. For details or further information please contact   glenaobrien@gmail.com

Sydney: Saturday 21 January at Congress Hall Conference Centre. For details or further information please contact  enquiries@boothcollege.edu.au

Brisbane: Friday 27 January at Nazarene Theological College. For details or further information please contact office@ntc.edu.au

The MWRC has recently welcomed Asbury University as its ninth partner institution. For an NCN News story regarding this new partnership, visit http://www.ncnnews.com/nphweb/html/ncn/article.jsp?sid=10000008&id=10010837.

A number of MWRC Junior Fellows completed their doctorates at MWRC partner institutions during the 2010-11 academic year. See http://www.mwrc.ac.uk/junior-fellows-graduated/ to find out about their work.

The fourth volume of Wesley and Methodist Studies is shaping up well. Amongst other articles it will feature three essays from an American Academy of Religion session on ‘New Horizons and Frontiers: Evangelical Preachers and Preaching’. For further details join the WMS Facebook page or visit the WMS website.

The 2012 MWRC Annual Lecture will be given by Dr David Ceri Jones, Lecturer in History, Aberystwyth University. The preliminary title for the lecture is ‘The Elect Methodists: Rehabilitating Calvinistic Methodism’. The lecture will be on Monday 11th June at 5pm on the campus of Nazarene Theological College.

The date for the 2012 Postgraduate Colloquium has provisionally been set as Tuesday 12 June.

Many of you will be subscribers to the online journal Methodist Review. MR now publishes quarterly newsletters, which are very useful for learning about news and upcoming events related to Wesley and Methodist Studies. The latest issue contains an important notice about the Methodist Archives Collection Catalogue at the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. The link to the catalogue is: http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/searchresources/guidetospecialcollections/methodist/methodistarchivescollectioncatalogue/

The Methodist Missionary Society History Project will hold in 2012 annual conference in Manchester at Luther King House from 3-4 November. The theme will be mission and inter-church and inter-faith relationships.

Geordan Hammond, Director, Manchester Wesley Research Centre, Co-editor, Wesley and Methodist Studies, ww.mwrc.ac.uk

The Fourth Annual Wesley Studies Symposium will be held at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto this coming March, on Tuesday, the 13th. We are currently working on plans for this event, including schedule and presenters.  Please mark the date, and let others who may have interest know of the event.

I will be in touch shortly with further information. You may contact me by email if you have questions or suggestions.

Best wishes,

Howard Snyder,  Professor of Wesley Studies, Tyndale Seminary, Toronto, Ontario

New Book: Salvation Means Creation Healed: https://wipfandstock.com/store/Salvation_Means_Creation_Healed_The_Ecology_of_Sin_and_Grace_Overcoming_the_Divorce_between_Earth_and_Heaven

Methodist Review has just published two new articles in its latest issue at http://www.methodistreview.org/index.php/mr

Darryl W. Stephens, “Moral Exemplar or Ethical Professional? Clergy and Sexual Sin in Methodist Church Law” (pp. 55-99)

Stephen W. Rankin, “Wesley and War: Guidance for Modern Day Heirs?” (pp. 101-39)

We invite you to visit our web site to review the Table of Contents of the current issue of the journal, the new articles and other items of interest.  Thanks for your continuing interest in our work.

The October 2011 issue of The Methodist Review Newsletter has just been published and is now available on the journal website at http://www.methodistreview.org/index.php/mr

Dr. Rex D. Matthews, Candler School of Theology,  rex.matthews@emory.edu

Methodist Review Vol 3 (2011)    Table of Contents: http://www.methodistreview.org/index.php/mr/issue/view/9