Ken calls for more '˜joy' as role set to end

Lay leader of the Methodist church in Ireland, Portadown man Ken Twyble, is about to step down from the position that he has held for the past three years.
By The Newsroom
Published 5th Jun 2016, 11:29 BST
Kenneth Twyble pictured in 2013 before his appointment as lay leader. He was presented with a Wesley Study Bible by the Rev Dr David Clements, superintendent of the Portadown Methodist Circuit, and Mrs Myrtle Wright, circuit steward. INPT22-030Kenneth Twyble pictured in 2013 before his appointment as lay leader. He was presented with a Wesley Study Bible by the Rev Dr David Clements, superintendent of the Portadown Methodist Circuit, and Mrs Myrtle Wright, circuit steward. INPT22-030
Kenneth Twyble pictured in 2013 before his appointment as lay leader. He was presented with a Wesley Study Bible by the Rev Dr David Clements, superintendent of the Portadown Methodist Circuit, and Mrs Myrtle Wright, circuit steward. INPT22-030

My Twyble will hand over the position to Dr Fergus O’Ferrall from Dun Laoghaire at the annual Methodist conference later this month.

In his final column in the Methodist Newsletter Mr Twyble pleads for a more joyful church.

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He suggests that we have become rather too earnest, too undemonstrative, and too unwilling either to experience simple joy or show it. “Christ promised life ‘more abundant’ to his followers. Yet the picture that is often painted of us, particularly by younger people and by those outside the church, is that we are dour, or boring, or worse,” he said.

His closing prayer is “that we all experience joy in our hearts so that we radiate joy to the world and be the source of joyful encouragement to as many as possible”.

Mr Twyble, a member of Edenderry Methodist Church, will continue to serve as lay assistant on the Cranagill Charlemont circuit, a role he has held for the past 11 years.

Related topics:PortadownIreland