First Friday Letter The World Methodist Council
January 2024
Greetings from the Vice President Greetings from Ireland, where, we say Athbhlian faoi mheasa daoibh – Happy New Year! As we move from 2023, our thoughts and prayers are engaged with the conflict in Palestine and Israel. This particular conflict touches us in a significant way because it is occurring in the land where Jesus Christ knew birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension. It is a Holy Land. But it is far from being the only theatre of war in today’s world – we think of Ukraine, where the conflict is having knock-on effects for those countries which depended on grain from Ukraine; Sudan and Yemen, where civil wars continue with devastating humanitarian fall-out; Myanmar, where the Rohingya people continue to be brutally oppressed on racial grounds… to name just some of the many places where there is conflict. Peace is, therefore, a major concern as 2024 dawns. At Christmas, we listened to the angels’ song – peace on earth to those on whom God’s favour rests. (Luke 2.14). And, you know what, that means all of us – we are each made in the image of God, God’s favour rests on us all and that’s how we need to regard each other… Some thirty years after the angels’ song, Jesus said to his followers, Blessed are the peacemakers – for they shall be called the children of God. As the World Methodist family, we take peace-making seriously. During the 1976 Council meeting Dublin, at the height of the civil unrest in Northern Ireland, the World Methodist Peace Award was proposed and inaugurated. During the intervening years, the award has gone to people and organisations in many countries on all continents, to those whose names are familiar, to others whose names are known only within their communities. Peace-making is a daunting and arduous task, but the prophets Isaiah and Micah dreamed of a time when swords would be beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks, where people would sit at peace under their own fig trees and vines (Isaiah 2:1-5 and Micah 4:1-5). This is our dream too… As 2024 dawns on the world, beginning in the Pacific Ocean and rolling westwards, we, ‘the people called Methodist’ are challenged to be peace-makers, to pray and to work for peace… As the song says, Let there be peace on earth – and let it begin with me… I look forward to seeing you at the World Methodist Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, in August when we will gather to reflect on what it means to be a people On the Move. In the meantime, Go n’eiri an bothair libh – may the road rise before you! Gillian Kingston Vice President
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World Methodist Council
First Friday Letter page 1