THE Methodist Church is demanding a loosening of the ties between the Church of England and the State if the two churches are to move towards closer unity.

A report prepared for the Methodist Conference in Loughborough next month will come close to proposing disestablishing the Anglican Church in England. It makes particular criticism of the bishops who sit in the House of Lords, describing them as “too part-time” and says fewer bishops would make for “more effective representatives”.

While not proposing a complete severance of the ties between the Established Church and the State, the report proposes that the role of the Crown in the appointment of bishops is abolished. It also calls for “clarification” about the role of the Queen as Supreme Governor.

The report comes nearly a year after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, signed the Anglican-Methodist Covenant in Westminster Abbey at a service attended by the Queen.

John Wesley, co-founder of Methodism, who died in 1791, was, like his hymn-writing brother Charles, a clergyman in the Church of England. The two churches split in the 19th century in a dispute over ordinations.

The last attempts to reunite them in 1969 and 1972 failed when the Church of England refused to accept the Methodist ministry as equal to its own.

But the changing fortunes of both churches have left the Methodist Church in a stronger position to make demands.

BLESSING COUNT

33 Methodist districts; 43 Anglican dioceses in England.

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