Reflections on the 1st LWPT Assembly 29-30th April 2006
by Gill Morton

For those of us attending the first LWPT Annual Assembly in April, all roads led to Downham Market.  When we arrived we received a warm welcome from the door stewards and met old friends and made new friends.

About 100 friends of LWPT gathered. We were introduced to the LWPT Trustees who were present and we shared news of friends and our messages of greeting and sympathy were recorded. 

The business meeting started with a presentation by Ros Peedle as to how LWPT is progressing. The new design of Ichthus is widely appreciated and, as Leaders of Worship are also to receive this, their names are needed by LWPT Office.  Ichthus will also provide worship materials to supplement ‘Roots’. LWPT Head Office can send out invitations to an LWPT local event if the postcode areas are provided.

Lois Morton, the first LWPT Advocate, has agreed to continue her work until the end of August and John Witt has agreed to serve in this position from September 2006 for a year.

At the end of the presentation there were questions which were followed by the study sessions led by Peter Relf (Connexional Local Preachers’ Secretary).

These were broken down into two sessions, the first being The Nature of Christ. Peter introduced each of the seven headings and split us into seven groups. (The emphasis for each group was on the word or words in bold print:
Jesus is the Christ
Jesus is the Christ
Jesus the Christ is God acting
God acts in the world
God acts in and through people
Christ is a community
Christ is a community of practice

Each group was to look at one of the headings. I was in the group looking through the Gospels to find occasions when people asked ‘who is Jesus?’.  Needless to say we found a large number of texts! We had a break for refreshments followed by the session entitled Proclaiming Christ. The focus was on five areas:

• Choosing hymns and songs
• Prayer writing
• Preparing a meditation on Christ
• Considering testimony
• Expressing headline good news about Christ

We divided into groups again and to produce items to be included in our evening worship. My group looked at choosing hymns and songs.  We had to choose just one hymn and there was a wide variety of ideas within the group but we eventually managed to settle on just one and our spokesperson introduced this in the worship. It was interesting to hear what all the other groups had discovered.  Those considering testimony said that it needed to be up to date and relevant and they produced some excellent ‘headlines’ expressing good news about Jesus.

After the study sessions, we walked across the town square to the Town Hall where we had an excellent carvery meal.  The deputy Mayor and Mayoress were present as was the Chair of the District, the Rev Graham Thompson.  We returned to the Church to share in the worship we had prepared, then departed to our various hosts for the night. The Local Preachers attending LWPT Assembly led a large number of services on the Sunday in the District. After we had all been extremely well fed by our hosts we returned to Downham Market for the service of Celebration and Communion for the closing of the first Annual LWPT Assembly, led by the Rev Graham Thompson with Deacon Myrtle Poxon (Past Vice-President of Conference) as the Preacher. This was an uplifting service and an excellent finish to a most enjoyable weekend.

The people at Downham Market Methodist Church were very helpful and had gone to a great deal of trouble to accommodate us all. Downham Market is a lovely town with a good selection of shops and, of course, a market. Except for a few showers early on Saturday morning the weather was extremely kind to us and this was a fitting start to what promises to be a really good regular event – I know I am looking forward to the next one.