A Methodist Way of Life

Each worship event requires willingness to encounter others created in God’s image and an intention to engage with fellow worshippers. As in the Quaker tradition we have to be as aware of each other as we are of God. The wheel of fellowship connects us to each other round the rim as well as via the spokes to the hub at the centre. That is why the sharing of the peace has been restored to the heart of our worship. We cannot come to worship the one Father, through

the one Saviour and in the one Spirit and leave the one world God has made behind. In the intercessory part of worship we bring into God’s presence real issues and vital concerns facing the church, facing the world and facing those in need. Jesus warned against those who came to the altar with unresolved issues concerning their neighbour (Matthew 5:23-24).

In worship we also engage with the physicality of our being. We do not worship as disembodied spirits. Worship demands the whole person. The engaging of Spirit and matter is at the heart of the biblical understanding of creation as it is celebrated in the creation poem at the beginning of Genesis and central to a gospel that celebrates the Word becoming flesh.

So in our worship we encounter God as Father, Son and Spirit through the sacramental grace that is offered to us in the physicality of baptismal water, through our sharing of eucharistic bread and wine, through our receiving of the oil of anointing, through the sacramental union of marriage, through the imposition of hands in ordination and through the reverent committal of the dead. In its fullness the Church employs in its praise the human voice, instrumental music, movement and dance, candles and light, incense and smell and more, so that every part of our outward sacrifice of praise engages with the inward offering of our worship.

The Revd Prebendary Norman Wallwork is a retired Methodist minister who is also a prebendary (or canon) of Wells Cathedral. He is a member of the Methodist Sacramental Fellowship, affirming within Methodism a catholic Christianity rooted in the doctrine of the Trinity.

O Lord, We lift our eyes to see your glory. We open our hearts to receive your love. We engage our minds to understand your truths. We offer our songs to praise your name. Lord, as we give you our lives, please take everything that we are, so that we may reveal your blessings to the world. Amen.