Spam?

When is spam not spam? As a Methodist minister I’ve been sent an email from supporters of Newlyn Trinity Methodist Chapel, which features this weekend in the final of BBC2’s Restoration Village. Is this spam? Has it just been sent to me as part of the Methodist family? Right now it’s sitting in the quarantine section of my anti-spam software, waiting to see whether the sender will authenticate it. But I have to say I’m disturbed. Methodism used to sell the database of ministers’ names and addresses to various organisations who desired to increase the amount of junk mail we received. This one hasn’t come from an official source. Someone (the signatory claims to be the minister) has probably trawled through the Minutes of the Methodist Conference to lay their hands on every minister’s email address they can find.

It’s possibly a good cause. But a further question is, why should I just vote for it because it is Methodist?

And more than that, how far are we about restoring and maintaining listed buildings? Where they are a tool in the cause of mission then we must be. But many a church leader knows the bane of dealing with English Heritage or similar organisations. And the declared hope for restoring this chapel is as a Heritage Centre. Am I too cynical to ask how Gospel that is? The congregation itself is meeting elsewhere while new premises are being built. They have a worthwhile mission statement on the ‘About Us‘ page of their site. It doesn’t seem to connect with the restoration stuff.

So to be honest I’m sceptical about lending support to the telephone voting campaign. Is there a different angle I’ve missed?

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