Mapping methodism: Migration, diversity and participatory research in the methodist church in britain

Abstract

Since its inception in mid-eighteenth century England, the Methodist Church has been shaped by migration. From the early itinerant ministers crossing Britain on horseback to the missionaries who crossed the globe, Methodism can be conceptualized as a ministry of movement. Today, migration is more relevant than ever to the Methodist Church in Britain. In London alone, more than two-thirds of the city’s Methodist churchgoers have their places of family origin outside the UK. More broadly, the rapidly changing demographic composition is provoking the Church to engage in new ways with its ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity. This chapter draws on a new mapping initiative to explore emerging narratives of migration in the Methodist Church in Britain. It explores the scope for participatory mapping to illuminate the challenges and opportunities that diversity brings the Church and which point towards diverse geographies and theologies of identity and belonging.