A joint report, Mission and Ministry in Covenant, has been published by the Church of England and the Methodist Church in Britain.
It sets out proposals which the churches say, if accepted, will enable a new depth of communion between the two churches. It would allow clergy from each church serve in the other, as well as the introduction of bishops in the Methodist Church.
A statement by the Methodist Church says ‘this joint report represents a major step of growth in the relationship between the two churches, building on the theological convergence encapsulated in the Anglican-Methodist Covenant, signed in 2003, and the work of the Covenant’s Joint Implementation Commission from 2003-2014’.
The Church of England says the proposals ‘would bring them into a new relationship of full communion, after a period of some 200 years of formal separation’.
The report has been released for discussion in the Methodist Conference this week and the Church of England’s General Synod in July.
You can read separate statements and the full report on the Church of England and Methodist Church in Britain websites.
