16 March 2018
Welcome for Liverpool's new District Chairman
The Rev James Booth has been appointed as the new Chairman ofthe Liverpool Methodist District. A welcome service was held for MrBooth at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral last Saturday afternoon.
The British Methodist Conference appointed Mr Booth to beChairman of the Liverpool Methodist District for a period of sixyears from today. He succeeds the Rev Dr John Taylor, a formerPresident of the British Methodist Conference, who has retired tothe West Midlands.
Mr Booth becomes the most senior Methodist minister in a regionthat covers Merseyside and Wirral, and the area including StHelens, Warrington, Widnes and Southport. In his role as DistrictChair he will work closely alongside Anglican Bishop James Jones,Roman Catholic Archbishop Patrick Kelly, and other Church leadersin the region.
The Rev James Booth was educated at Queen Elizabeth GrammarSchool, Wakefield, and read law at Leeds University and the LondonCollege of Law before becoming a solicitor.
He practised law in Yorkshire until 1977 when he responded to acall to serve in the Methodist Church overseas. He served as aYouth Worker in the Ivory Coast for three years. He studied for theMethodist ministry at Queen's College, Birmingham, whilst workingas Free Church Chaplain at Lanchester Polytechnic and WarwickUniversity in the Coventry Methodist Circuit.
In 1984, Mr Booth returned to the Ivory Coast to trainevangelists at Dabou Ecole Biblique. He served as Synod Secretaryof the Dabou District and ministered to a multi-cultural communityin Abidjan. A serious illness for his youngest child forced hisreturn to the UK in 1987.
After a brief stay in the Croydon Methodist Circuit, Mr Boothserved in Windsor between 1988-1998. There he participated in amajor property project, in local radio, prison chaplaincy,ecumenical work as secretary of the Churches Together in Windsorand as a school governor.
He was Synod Secretary of the London South West MethodistDistrict in 1997-98. In 1998, he was appointed SuperintendentMinister of the Reading and Silchester Circuit. This large circuitcalled for sensitive leadership qualities and management skills ina time of ministerial shortage.
Mr Booth has served on a number of national Methodist bodies,including the Law and Polity Committee since 1997, as MethodistConference Assistant Record Secretary since 1998 and as deputyconvenor of the Connexional Discipline Committee since 2001.