The Methodist Church is on its way to rejoining the Church of England in a historic move. The Methodist Church of Great Britain has just 265,000 members compared with the 960,000 who attend Sunday services each week in the Church of England.
However it owns a network of 5,800 chapels across Britain, including a particularly valuable asset in Westminster Central Hall, the large conference venue near Parliament.
The Rev David Gamble, president of the Methodist Conference, told General Synod, the Church of England’s governing body on Thursday: "We are prepared to go out of existence not because we are declining or failing in mission, but for the sake of mission.
"In other words, we are prepared to be changed and even to cease having a separate existence as a Church if that will serve the needs of the Kingdom."
Methodism developed in the 18th century through the radical and evangelical sermons of John Wesley, a Church of England priest, who preached to great crowds outdoors.
It split decisively from the national church after his death, in 1795.
Since then the two denominations have attempted to join forces but the move has been scuppered by divisions over the place of women in the church and the validity of their priestly orders.
There are no bishops in Methodism, while both men and women can be Chair of a District.
However in 2003 the churches signed a national Covenant including a commitment to work towards “organic unity”.
They have since set up a joint initiative called Fresh Expressions to find new ways of bringing people to church.
Plans for Anglican-Methodist unity developed after the Archbishop of Canterbury called for the non-conformists to introduce bishops in 1946.
But although the Methodist Conference approved total union, in 1972 opposition from Anglo-Catholics – who cannot accept women priests - led the General Synod of the Church of England to reject the move.
It is believed Methodists have now recovered from the hurt this caused, there are fewer grounds on which traditionalists in the Church of England can object to unity as it introduced female priests in 1994 and is likely to have women bishops by 2014.
Thursday’s address by Mr Gamble was the first by a Methodist President to Synod since 1993.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is due to address the Methodist Conference in June, while reports on the Covenant process will be made to both national assemblies next year.
But formal progress between merging the denominations is unlikely to take place until women bishops are introduced to the Church of England, in 2014 at the earliest.
The Bishop of Coventry, the Rt Rev Christopher Coxworth, admitted there would be “culture clashes” ahead.
But he said: “That’s just the way we are. When two people get to know each other there’s a clash of culture. That’s the same as in a relationship – you learn a lot from each other.
“We need to be very cautious with the institutional process. It’s vital that we don’t fail because we can’t afford to fail again.”
He said the Methodist church's decision was consistent with its "radical commitment" to the Christian mission.
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