What and Who are Methodists?

 Our church is a community of people who are drawn together by God's love as they know it, expressed in the story of Jesus - his birth and life, teaching, suffering, death and resurrection. We try to follow the way of Jesus and to share God's love through action and word in our local communities and in the wider world. Because this experience of Jesus Christ has so shaped our lives, we invite others to share in the love, life and hope that is freely given to us. 

 

  The Methodist Church in Ireland is part of the world wide Methodist Church and belongs to the universal catholic Church. It rejoices in the inheritance of the Apostolic faith, accepts the fundamental principles of the historic creeds and of the Protestant Reformation, and affirms its belief in the Holy Scriptures, interpreted using reason, tradition and the experience of God in our lives. 

 

  There are approximately two hundred Methodist congregations, called ‘Societies’ in Ireland, with a total community of approximately fifty thousand people. There are ten other Methodist congregations in the Dublin area. 

 

  In the Methodist Church, lay people have always played a major part in running the Church and each church or society is ‘managed’ by congregational meetings and a church council. Our ministers are appointed to congregations by the Methodist Church and stay approximately 7-8 years. Each individual congregation belongs to a group of societies in an area and this is called a ‘Circuit’ and Circuits are grouped into ‘Districts’. 

 

 The Dun Laoghaire Circuit includes Bray and Blackrock. Affairs of the Methodist Church in Ireland are governed by the Annual Conference which elects a President and a Lay Leader.