June 2007

Last Sunday, Stanley Lucas of Cornwall died aged 110 (born on 15 January, 1900). Stanley was thought to be not only the oldest male member of the British Methodist Church, but one of the oldest men in the world.

Is this sort of longevity characteristic of Methodists? Seemingly, yes. An analysis of family announcements printed in the Methodist Recorder carried out by British Religion in Numbers, hosted by Manchester University, shows that in 1973 the mean age of death for Methodist laity was 77.9 years for men and 83 for women. By 2008 these figures had risen to 83.9 and 91.1 respectively – well above the life expectancy for the UK population as a whole (77 for men and 82 for women).

Dr Richard Vautrey, GP and Vice President of the Methodist Conference, said, “I’m sure there are many different factors at work for Methodists to attain these numbers. But I would guess that our emphasis on caring for our spiritual as well as physical health, avoiding excess, engaging with people in our communities and being good neighbours all help.”

The position for male Methodist ministers is similar, with a mean age of death of 83.4 years for those whose obituaries appeared in the 2009 edition of the Minutes of the Annual Conference and Directory of the Methodist Church. Since the Methodist Church began ordaining women in 1973, too few Methodist women ministers die each year to draw any meaningful conclusions.

And this is not a new pattern. Clive Field’s unpublished Oxford DPhil thesis of 1974 revealed that, until the beginning of the twentieth century, the death rate per 1,000 among lay members of the various Methodist denominations in Britain was appreciably below the national level, especially in Wesleyan Methodism. Published studies by Kenneth Brown (‘A Social History of the Nonconformist Ministry in England and Wales, 1800-1930’) and Tim Allison (‘An Historical Cohort Study of Methodist Ministers Examining Lifespan and Socioeconomic Status’ - University of Manchester MSc thesis, 1995) demonstrate similar trends. More information about the research by British Religion in Numbers can be found at http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=361.

Methodist commentators, both in the Victorian era and since, were quick to point out that the longevity of Methodists was not accidental. They posited a clear link between a religious, ‘clean’ and virtuous life on the one hand and a long one on the other. The avoidance of physical and moral excess was especially advocated.

The Church’s annual governing body, the Methodist Conference, is currently meeting in Portsmouth, and begins every year with singing “And are we yet alive?”, a hymn by Charles Wesley.

Leaders from the Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed Churches, together with the Christian charity Church Action on Poverty ( CAP ), are calling upon the chancellor to make a thorough revision of the taxation system a central part of Tuesday’s budget. The four organisations are specifically calling for Mr Osborne to make changes to ensure that taxes are shared fairly amongst all tax payers.

Under the current system the poorest pay around 46 per cent of their income in taxes, compared to the 34 per cent of income paid by the wealthiest.[1] An equal sharing of this tax burden is the very least that fairness demands, the group said.

In common with CAP , the three denominations have a natural concern for the poorest and weakest in society and a long tradition of campaigning on issues of justice and fairness.

John Marsh, moderator of the general assembly of the United Reformed Church, said: “It’s clear that our country’s fiscal deficit should be tackled and I have no doubt that deep cuts will be announced in Tuesday’s budget. There are only two way to reduce the deficit – increase the money coming in and reduce the money going out – and we urge the chancellor to consider the moral dimensions of both.”

Building on this, Paul Morrison, policy adviser for the Methodist Church , said: “We believe that paying fair taxes is the moral duty of all. However, it’s possible legally to side step that moral obligation: for example, some footballers currently playing in the England World Cup squad in South Africa get part of their earnings paid into ‘image rights companies’ – thus avoiding UK income tax on some of their very high wages.”

Jonathan Edwards, general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, added: “It is the duty of the government to levy taxes fairly on those who can afford to pay and it is the duty of those who can pay, to pay their fair share. There are many legal ways to reduce a tax bill but we are asking, when public services are being cut and many are losing their jobs, is this ethical? Are these measures legal? Yes, perfectly. Is it fair? Absolutely not!”

In the next few months Church Action on Poverty will be working with a number of groups applying the Fairness Test to individual changes in tax and spending. This test will apply simple values of justice to spending cuts and tax rises:

Niall Cooper, national coordinator for CAP , said: “Raising fair taxes puts justice and morality at the heart of domestic economic policy, not only protecting the essential services that the most vulnerable members of our society rely on, but also rectifying the inequalities built into our taxation system.”

[1] The Poorest 10% pay 46% of their total gross income in tax, whilst the wealthiest 10% pay 34% in tax. Figures derived from Jones F (2008) ‘The effects of taxes and benefits on household income’. This analysis includes all taxes but necessarily omits effects of some tax avoidance or evasion measures and is therefore an underestimation ofthe fair tax gap.