“To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: grace and peace to you from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” So Gillian Kingston, the Vice-President of
the World Methodist Council, began her address to the packed congregation of Ponte
Sant ’Angelo Methodist Church in the centre of Rome at the welcome service for the new
minister, the Revd Dr Tim Macquiban. She described it as ‘a greeting as sincere today as it
was when the Apostle Paul offered it to your predecessors some 2,000 years ago.’
Dr Macquiban succeeds the Revd Ken Howcroft as minister of the church which has been
witnessing to English speaking Methodists on this site from around the world in Rome for
almost 100 years. He and his wife Angela arrived in Rome from ministry in Cambridge. He
will also be the director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office in Rome.
Mrs Kingston expressed delight at being associated ‘with what can only be termed a
‘win/win/win’ situation with the Macquibans coming to ‘a warm and loving congregation in
the heart of a historic and vibrant city’ and the congregation having ‘acquired residents in
the manse who will love and care for you because that is the kind of people they
are. Friends in Rome,’ she continued, ‘you have among you a theologian and a pastor, an
historian and a thinker.’
The Revd Neil Stubbens, ecumenical officer of the British Methodist Church, presided at the
service and the President of the Methodist Church in Italy, Alessandra Trotta, welcomed Dr
and Mrs Macquiban to Rome. Ecumenical greetings were brought from Anglican, Roman
Catholic, Lutheran and Baptist representatives including the Most Revd Archbishop David
Moxon, Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome. The church’s African choir sang during
the welcome service.
Colin Smith, attending the service and visiting from England.