The Revd Leslie Griffiths, a past president of the Methodist conference, believes that the Porvoo Agreement, between Anglican and Lutheran Churches in northern Europe, may solve one of the thorniest problems between the Church of England and the Methodist Church.

The Church of England has twice - in 1969 and 1972 - failed to agree to a plan for organic union with the Methodist Church. One of the difficulties was the question of the status of Methodist orders. Some Anglicans believe that Methodist orders are invalid because Methodist ministers have not been ordained by bishops belonging to the historic episcopate.

Methodists trace back their orders to the travelling preachers ordained by John Wesley, an ordained Anglican priest who founded Methodism in the 18th century.

Leslie Griffiths told ENI that the Porvoo agreement "might prove to be the key" in resolving issues connected with the "historic episcopate".

Among Lutheran Churches participating in Porvoo, those which at the Reformation did not keep an unbroken succession of ordination bishops are nonetheless held to have maintained "apostolic continuity". However, all the Lutheran Churches participating in Porvoo have at least an episcopal structure, unlike the Methodist Church in Britain, which does not have bishops.

A panel of negotiators from the Church of England and from the Methodist Church has met twice in the past year for "talks about talks". The group is expected to publish proposals following its next meeting in July this year.

So far the panel has avoided the word "union", instead speaking of a "common vision of unity" and of developing "practical ways of growing together".

But the idea of unification with an episcopal Church remains a problem for some Methodist traditionalists.

Oliver Beckerlegge, a prominent Methodist writer, said he would oppose organic union on any terms likely to be proposed by the negotiating panel.

He told ENI: "Episcopacy is not warranted by scripture, and is just not on. Our chairmen, unlike bishops, aren't there for life, and our clergy are all of one grade: simply ministers."

However Leslie Griffiths said many of the negotiators in the "talks about talks" had "nothing less than unity in their sights".

He added: "For many Methodists there is still unresolved pain from the last go. If we had courage, we could do things faster in the present climate." However, an Anglican authority on Porvoo, Canon John Halliburton, of St Paul's Cathedral in London, has warned against drawing a close parallel between Porvoo and Anglican-Methodist talks.

Canon Halliburton, a contributor to the Porvoo Common Statement, told ENI: "The existence of Porvoo opens lines of communication with the Methodists that we didn't have before."

But he stressed the two situations were not the same. He said: "Apostolicity is about not only ordination, but also Church structure. The Porvoo Churches never lost episcopal government, which isn't the case with British Methodists."