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News
Manskar, director of Wesleyan Leadership in Discipleship Ministries, a division of the General Board of Discipleship (GBOD), an agency of The United Methodist Church, urges both ordained and lay leaders to consider this pilgrimage as an important step in their learning about their church and its mission. The next pilgrimage will begin May 11 in Salisbury, England, with events running through May 21 in London. For information about cost and registration, visit www.gbod.org/wesleypilgrimage. Manskar says he believes there are enough people who would benefit from the event to make it a yearly pilgrimage because he wants both the current leaders and the provisional members who are preparing for ordination to join him on this trek. There are discounts available for early registrants and for provisional members (details on the website). "We don't want to limit this to those who are ordained," he says, adding that the pilgrimage is something that also would benefit lay leaders, certified lay ministers and licensed local pastors. "I want to take leaders on this pilgrimage. I don't want a bunch of tourists." It's not that he has anything against tourists, but this is "an intense 10 days" designed for those who want to walk the ground where the Wesleys were raised and where they formed their theology. "I want to firmly ground these leaders in the Wesley tradition, spirituality and theological practices. We want to help them become principled leaders to help the church fulfill its mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." Hosts for the journey include not just Manskar, but also Dr. Paul W. Chilcote, professor of Historical Theology and Wesleyan Studies at Ashland Theological Seminary and President of the Charles Wesley Society, the Rev. Anita Wood (Director of Professional Ministry Development at GBHEM) and Dr. Tim Macquiban (British Methodist Wesley scholar and minister of Wesley Methodist Church in Cambridge, England). The stated goals of the pilgrimage, as posted on the website, include allowing the participants the opportunity to:
Pilgrims will begin each day with a brief morning prayer service and end with evening Eucharist. In between will come visits to important historical, spiritual and theological sites in Epworth, Oxford, Bristol, London and Salisbury. Manskar says every time he takes this pilgrimage, "I see by the end of the 10 days, these people have had a profound experience. It changes them." The Rev. Bob Kaylor, senior pastor of Park City Community Church in Park City, Utah, a 2006 pilgrim, sums up the experience perfectly in his testimony posted on the website: "Walking the footsteps of the Wesleys was both inspiring and instructive for me. I came away convinced that the passion for scriptural holiness and practical divinity that drove John, Charles and their early Methodist colleagues is precisely the kind of passion we need in our churches today." The General Board of Discipleship's mission is to support annual conference and local church leaders for their task of equipping world-changing disciples. An agency of The United Methodist Church, GBOD (www.gbod.org) is located at 1908 Grand Ave. in Nashville, Tenn. For more information, call the Media Relations Office toll free at 877-899-2780, ext. 7017.
News Media Contact: Steve Horswill-Johnston, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 340-1726 or shorswill-johnston@gbod.org.
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