Methodism
A
name designating several Protestant groups, Methodism has its roots in the work
of John and Charles Wesley, sons of an Anglican rector and his wife, Susannah.
A friend and Oxford classmate of the Wesleys, George Whitefield, was also
instrumental in forming the Holy Club (ca. 1725), which stressed "inward
religion, the religion of the heart." These awakenings coupled with the
club's insistence on exacting discipline in scholastic as well as spiritual matters earned its
members the jeering title of "Methodists" by 1729.
In
1735 the Wesleys sailed to America as missionaries, but not before John, a
somewhat troubled young Anglican priest, noted: "My chief motive is the
hope of saving my own soul." In the spring of 1738 John Wesley returned to
England filled with a troubled sense of failure . He was attracted to the piety and feelings of inward assurance so
notably evidenced among the Moravians. Wesley knew this was lacking in his own
life despite his outward discipline. He saw himself failing to bear fruits of
"inward holiness." Convinced of the necessity for faith and the inner
witness, Wesley passed through a torturous spring, fearing that at the advanced
age of thirty-five both life and God were passing him by. By a predetermined (by God) meeting he
overheard a group of "washer women" talking in the street about the work of the Holy Spirit in there lifes,
about trusting Jesus Christ alone; I
felt "I did trust Christ",
"Christ alone for salvation"
And so he was converted.
By
1739 the distinct and aggressively evangelistic and highly disciplined
Methodist movement spread like wildfire through field preaching, lay preaching,
bands, and societies. The "Rules of Bands" demanded a highly
disciplined life, an exacting schedule of meetings in which the society members
were expected to share intimate details of their daily lives, to confess their
sins to one another, to pray for each other, and to exhort members of the class
toward inner holiness and good works. The enthusiasm of the revivals came under
the control of the bands or societies. The weekly prayer meetings; the use of
an itinerary system of traveling preachers; the annual conferences; the
establishment of chapels; the prolific outpouring of tracts, letters, sermons,
and hymns; and the general superintendency of John Wesley became the hallmark
of what emerged as a worldwide Methodist movement. Beginning with Church of England congregations banning John
Wesley from their pulpits in 1738, before Aldersgate, tensions with the
Established Church were inevitable, for one must always choose between serving
God or the denomination!. Wesley's penchant for organization and discipline
helped the people to reach out and strive for the Kingdom of God! And so they
were called Methodists. A name not meant
as a compliment! As the revivalistic
awakening came to include Methodism, work extended from England to Ireland,
Scotland, and Wales, Soon lay
preachers were active in America, establishing circuits along the midAtlantic
states under the supervision of Francis Asbury, sent by Wesley in 1771. In 1744
a conference was held in London and standards for doctrine, liturgy and
discipline were adopted. The Wesleys maintained their personal ties
(ordination) and devotion to the Church of England with its emphasis on the
sacraments and its antipopery views. Episcopal in its organization, the
Methodist Connexion was autocratically controlled by John Wesley. By 1784
Wesley concluded that no one individual would be a suitable successor. He
therefore moved to record a "Deed of Declaration" in which he
declared a group of one hundred of his most able leaders (the "Legal
Hundred") his legal successor.
This
established that Methodist societies were now duly constituted as legal
entities, conceived of as ecclesicla in ecclesia but formally separate entities
from the Church of England. This also established the Annual Conference as the
primary authority in the Methodist system.
In
September of that same year Wesley yielded to American pressure to have his preachers
administer the sacraments by ordaining two lay helpers as elders and Thomas
Coke as general superintendent without consulting with his conference. He was
persuaded to this act by Peter King's Account of the Primitive Church (1691)
that presbyters held the same spiritual authority as bishops to ordain in the
early church and by the Bishop of London's refusal in 1780 to ordain any of
Methodism's preachers in America. The three newly ordained men were dispatched
to build up the full work of Methodism in America. At the Christmas Conference
in Baltimore in 1784 Coke ordained Asbury, and the Methodist Episcopal Church
was organized. Coke and Asbury were elected general superintendents. A Sunday
Service based on the Book of Common Prayer and Twenty-five Articles of Religion
abridged by Wesley from the Thirty-nine Articles were adopted by the new
denomination.
Continuing
his work among the various societies, Wesley ordained a number of presbyters in
Scotland and England, and for the mission field. Unlike Methodism in America,
no formal separation was consummated in England until after Wesley's death in
1791. A conciliar effort by the Church of England in 1793 prompted a formal
"Plan of Pacification" in 1795. But final separation occurred in 1797,
as the Rubicon had been crossed in 1784, and the formal organization of
Methodism was well under way by the beginning of the nineteenth century.
In
England a number of Methodist bodies splintered from the main Methodism
movement. The Ecumenical Methodist Conferences formalized a renewed conciliar
spirit. From 1907 to 1933 various groups united to become part of the Methodist
Church. On July 8, 1969, a plan calling for merger of the Methodist and
Anglican communions faced defeat at the hands of the Anglican Convocations
where the concept of historic episcopacy as an office and not an order proved
unacceptable. In Canada the Methodist Church of Canada joined with the
Presbyterian Church and selected Union Churches together with the
Congregational Churches to form the United Church of Canada.
A
group of German pietists under Jacob Albright were attracted to Methodism and
in 1807 organized the Newly-Formed Methodist Conference or the German Methodist
Conference. The English-speaking Methodist lay preachers were unable to serve
this German-speaking immigrant group, so the Evangelical Association was formed
in 1816. During this same period Phillip Otterbein, friend of Asbury, together
with Martin Boehm founded the United Brethren in Christ among German-speaking
immigrants with its organizing General Conference in 1815. In 1946 these two
German immigrant churches merged to form the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB)
Church. With its ethnic distinctiveness on the wane, and clearly Methodist in
polity and theology, the EUBs merged in 1968 with The Methodist Church to form
The United Methodist Church.
See
also WESLEY, JOHN;
WESLEYAN TRADITION; WATSON, RICHARD.