METHODIST UNITY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 250, 18 July 1931, Page 7

METHODIST UNITY

Wesleyans Resolve to Come Into Line VOTE AT CONFERENCE By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Rec. July 17, 8 p.m.). London, July 17. The Wesleyan Methodist conference at Birmingham decided by 558 votes to 14 in favour of the union of the three Methodist churches. The other two already have voted in favour of the proposal. A Christmas message from the three Methodist presidents to the Methodist people, stated: — “The New Year, upon which we are entering, will be one of very great importance for our Methodist Church, for it will bring us to the threshold of ‘Methodist Union.’ During the past few months it has been our privilege, as presidents of the three Uniting Conferences, to visit many places in England for public meetings, with a view to preparation for reunion. We have been astonished with the enthusiasm displayed, and the determination- so to prepare the way that when the event comes in September, 1932, nothing shall be lacking necessary for success. “Even those who, at one time, were opposed to reunion, now not only acknowledge that it i a inevitable, but that thereby God is pointing a path for greater usefulness for our Methodist Church, greater economy of resources, greater powers of coping with the new populations and difficulties of the new age. The delay which has taken place has not been without its advantages. All parties have had more time to look round and see what reunion will involve, and to make plans for the future. The greatest need of all, however, is that there shall come upon us such a spiritual uplift and blessing which shall enable us to turn the present times of distress into the beginnings of new life for us all. The message was signed.—H. B. wora man (Wesleyan Methodist) W Musson Kelly (Primitive Methodist), and A. E. x. Cosson (United Methodist).