Key points:

• The European Methodist Historical Conference, subtitled the “Methodist Mission at Home and Abroad,” was held Sept. 6-9 in Italy.
• During a Sept. 6 general audience at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, Pope Francis was given a John Wesley bobblehead by Ashley Boggan D., top executive of the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History.
• Other meetings were held at the Waldensian Faculty of Theology, the Historical Archives of St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican library.

Tickling the funny bone of Pope Francis will likely be the fondest memory Ashley Boggan D. takes from the European Methodist Historical Conference, despite all the important work that was accomplished.

During the pope’s Sept. 6 general audience at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, Boggan D. presented the pontiff with a John Wesley bobblehead.

“I was going to hand it to him and see if he would take it,” she said. “He grabbed it and this big smile just lit up his face and he said ‘Wesley. Methodistica’ and just started laughing.”

At the Sept. 6-9 “Methodist Mission at Home and Abroad” conference itself, there were presentations on mission work in the German colonial empire, China, Serbia and elsewhere. The keynote presentation, “The Role of Deaconesses in Methodist Mission,” was given by Priscilla Pope-Levison, research professor of practical theology at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.

“The opportunity to get to know Methodists in the U.K., Austria, Germany, Russia, Italy, Hungary and elsewhere in Europe is such a unique and valuable opportunity, particularly for someone from the U.S.,” Pope-Levison said. “As an academic historian, I was interested in learning from the presentations, all of which provided me with new information and perspectives.”

 
A John Wesley bobblehead was presented to Pope Francis on Sept. 6 while a group of United Methodists attended the European Methodist Historical Conference in Italy. According to Ashley Boggan D. with the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, the Pope chuckled and said, “Wesley. Methodistica.” Photo courtesy of Ashley Boggan D.

On Boggan D.’s way to front-row seats arranged for the pope’s appearance, there was a shortcut through a castle used during the Spanish Inquisition. Boggan D., the top executive of the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, also got to touch a sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and see the room where the 17th-century artist slept while he was working on it.

But handing a John Wesley bobblehead to the pope and making him chuckle with delight? Now that’s memorable.

“He was holding the bobblehead and shaking it so that its head would bobble, and was just cracking up,” Boggan D. recalled. “And so we all started laughing.”

The prime seats Boggan D. and her party had for the audience with the pope were arranged by the Rev. Matthew A. Laferty, director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome.

The office is the presence of the World Methodist Council in Rome for ecumenical dialogue, joint action for peace and justice, prayer and reflection and hospitality.

“I was able to arrange a number of meetings with Protestant and Catholic partners in Rome, including meetings at the Vatican,” Laferty said.

“The pope gives a religious teaching in St. Peter's Square each Wednesday to a large crowd. A handful of visitors are able to meet after the audience and our Methodist guests were granted the opportunity to greet the pope.”

 
Pope Francis holds the John Wesley bobblehead given to him by Ashley Boggan D., top executive of the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, during the pope’s Sept. 6 general audience at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. Photo courtesy of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome.

Other meetings arranged by Laferty for the visitors included:

• A visit to the Waldensian Faculty of Theology in Rome, which trains ministers for the Methodist-Waldensian Church in Italy.
• A briefing by the Rev. Luca Baratto from the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy about their work and the presence of Protestant churches in Italy.
• A tour of the historical archives of St. Peter's Basilica, where the group saw both records and artifacts from the Basilica, including a letter written by Michelangelo and the pieces of the former ciborium above Peter's tomb.
• A briefing by Bishop Paul Tighe and officials from the Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education about Catholic education and educational networks.
• A tour of the Vatican library and meeting with Bishop Angelo Vincenzo Zani, the librarian and archivist of the Roman Catholic Church.
• A briefing by Father Martin Browne, a Vatican official for Methodist relations at the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, about Methodist-Catholic international relations.

The pope is significant to all Christians, Boggan D. said, and especially to Christian historians.

“When you teach Christian history, so much of it is dictated by the pope and the pope's religious authority and … perspective on the world and the Christian mission in the world,” Boggan D. said.

“As a laywoman myself, Pope Francis … has done a lot of small things that really signal … an opening up of religious authority.”

For instance, Pope Francis ended the tradition of the pope living in his traditional summer residence.

“Pope Francis doesn't go there because he thinks it’s too opulent, so it's been opened up as a museum. … It really just shows kind of a really respectable humility about the office that is incredibly admirable, I think.”

Patterson is a UM News reporter in Nashville, Tennessee.