The leaders of the Methodist Church have launched a new weblog to enable them to better communicate with their members across the UK and around the world.

The Rev Martyn Atkins, President of the Conference, and Vice President Ms Ruby Beech, took up their new offices at the Methodist Conference held in Blackpool last month.

The two leaders have already been blogging since the Methodist Conference and will continue to post up their thoughts on issues of interest to Church members throughout their year of office.

Rev Atkins said the weblog would complement the leaders' face-to-face work, "One of the most important tasks for the President and Vice President is to talk and listen to people.

"We will do this by speaking to individuals and groups and by travelling widely and our regular columns in the Methodist Recorder, but now we can add the weblog to this list as well."

Ms Beech affirmed her desire to follow the good example set by Methodism's founding father John Wesley and his formidable hymn-writing brother Charles.

"John and Charles Wesley travelled thousands of miles on horseback to meet people, and those meetings were often quite noisy and challenging," she said.

"This weblog will allow us to discuss things with people all over the world, and to share our experiences. There are many weblogs by Methodists - both individuals and groups - and by people from other churches, but this is the first time that the President and Vice President have tried this."