The Methodist Onion

You can think of Methodism being somewhat like an onion (no jokes about making you cry, please 😊).

As a church, we see ourselves at the heart of wider circles of community and fellowship around us. 

In Methodism, no church exists in isolation. Every Methodist church belongs first to a group of local churches called a Circuit, so Offington Park belongs to the West Sussex Coast and Downs Circuit, encompassing 17 churches along the Sussex Coast. Beyond that, each circuit also belongs to a District (ours is the South-East District). Wider still, all those churches, circuits and districts belong to the Methodist Church of Great Britain. This is far more than just an umbrella organisation. We call it a 'Connexion' (yes, that is the right spelling), because we feel a great sense of connectedness and responsibility to the wider Methodist family.

However, at Offington Park we pretty much see ourselves as belonging to not one but two onions, because we are also at the heart a local community which extends out from the many organisations which meet on our premises to the surrounding neighbourhood of Broadwater and the wider community of Worthing. 

The logo of the Methodist Church incorporates an ‘Orb and Cross’ device.

It consists of a white cross on a red circle. The circle, or ‘Orb’, represents the world for whom Jesus Christ died so that a relationship with God could be made possible through the power of the Holy Spirit, here represented by the colour white.

You'll find representations of this logo all around our church, here at Offington Park.

The design is registered with the College of Arms who are the official heraldic authority in Great Britain.