Methodism

The Methodist movement is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity. It originated in 18th century England, and thanks to vigorous missionary activity spread throughout the British Empire, the United States, and beyond. Originally it appealed especially to poor workers such as miners and farmers. In the United States, it became the religion of many slaves. Theologically it is Arminian, emphasizing that all people can be saved. It has often been low church in liturgy, even though its founder John Wesley (1703-91) was high church. The World Methodist Council Handbook of 2000 stated that the number of Methodist members worldwide was about thirty eight million.

The Wesleyan revival

The Methodist revival originated in England. It was started by a group of men including John Wesley and his younger brother Charles as a movement within the Church of England in the 18th century, focused on Bible study, and a methodical approach to scriptures and Christian living. The term "Methodist" was a pejorative nickname that was given to a small society of students at Oxford, who met together between 1729 and 1735 for the purpose of mutual improvement. They were accustomed (unusually, at that time) to attend a service of Holy Communion every week, to fast regularly and to abstain from most forms of amusement and luxury. They also frequently visited poor and sick persons and prisoners.

Early Methodists reacted against perceived apathy in the Church of England, became open-air preachers and established Methodist societies wherever they went. They were notorious for their enthusiastic sermons and often accused of fanaticism. In those days, upper class members of the established church feared that the doctrines emphasized by the Methodists, such as Justification by Faith, and of the constant and sustained action of the Holy Spirit upon the believer's soul, would produce ill effects upon weak minds. Theophilus Evans, an early critic of the movement, even wrote that it was "the natural Tendency of their Behaviour, in Voice and Gesture and horrid Expressions, to make People mad." In one of his prints, William Hogarth likewise attacked Methodists as "enthusiasts" full of "Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism.":http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/wesley/quiz/7b.stm. But the Methodists resisted the many attacks against their movement. (See John Wesley and George Whitefield for a much more complete discussion of early Methodism.)

John Wesley came under the influence of the Moravians and of the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), who denied that God had pre-ordained an elect number of people to eternal bliss whilst others perished eternally. An even more famous contemporary preacher Whitefield (1714-70), who, like Wesley, was at the heart of the evangelical revival adopted Calvinistic views. Consequently, their followers separated, those of Whitefield becoming Calvinistic Methodists. Generally Methodists have followed Wesley in Arminian theology.

Theology and liturgy

Part of the series on Methodism

John Wesley

Background Christianity Protestantism Pietism Anglicanism Arminianism

Doctrinal distinctives Articles of Religion Prevenient Grace Governmental Atonement Imparted righteousness Christian perfection

People Charles Wesley George Whitefield Thomas Coke Francis Asbury Richard Allen Albert C. Outler

Largest groups World Methodist Council United Methodist Church AME Church British Methodist Church

Related movements Holiness movement Salvation Army Personalism Pentecostalism

Traditionally, Methodism has emphasized the Arminian view of free will, mediated through God's prevenient grace, as opposed to predestination. This distinguishes it, historically, from Calvinist traditions such as Presbyterianism. However, in strongly Calvinist areas such as Wales, Calvinistic Methodists remain, also called the Presbyterian Church of Wales. Also, more recent theological debates have often cut across denominational lines, so that theologically liberal Methodist and Reformed churches have more in common with each other than with more conservative members of their own denominations.

John Wesley was not a systematic theologian, though Methodist ministerial students and trainee local preachers do study his sermons for his theology. The popular expression of Methodist theology is in the hymns of Charles Wesley. Since enthusiastic congregational singing was a part of the Evangelical movement, Wesleyan theology took root and spread through this channel.

Methodism follows the traditional and near-universal Christian belief in the triune God-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In devotional terms, this confession is said to embrace the biblical witness to God's activity in creation, encompass God's gracious self-involvement in the dramas of history, and anticipate the consummation of God's reign. Methodists, like most Protestant denominations, affirms that there are two Sacraments: Baptism and Holy Communion.

It is a traditional position of the Methodist Church (as of many others) that any disciplined theological work calls for the careful use of reason. By reason, it is said, one reads and interprets Scripture. By reason one determines whether one's Christian witness is clear. By reason one asks questions of faith and seeks to understand God's action and will.

This Methodist Church has emphasized the importance of Scriptural holiness, which entails more than personal piety; love of God is always linked with love of neighbor, a passion for justice and renewal in the life of the world. John Wesley made much of the process of sanctification, occasionally even seeming to claim that individuals could achieve Christian Perfection in this human life. But often he drew back from such a position. Even many Methodists think that he claimed too much for sanctification. However, the positive aspect of this belief is its emphasis upon personal and social holiness. Wesley was (unusually for his time) well read in the fathers of the Eastern Orthodox churches, some of whom had stressed the possibility of theiosis: becoming God-bearing towards other people and all creation. It can be claimed that, in a small way, Methodism has reclaimed this Eastern doctrine for Protestant Churches in the modern and contemporary world.

In liturgical matters, whereas most Methodist worship is modeled after the Book of Common Prayer, a unique feature of the American Methodist Church is its observance of the season of Kingdomtide, which encompasses the last 13 weeks before Advent, thus dividing the long season after Pentecost into two discrete segments. During Kingdomtide, Methodist liturgy emphasizes charitable work and alleviating the suffering of the poor.

A second distinctive liturgical feature of Methodism is the use of Covenant services. Although practice varies between different national churches, most Methodist churches annually follow the call of John Wesley for a renewal of their covenant with God. It is common, at least in British Methodism, for each congregation to normally hold an annual Covenant Service on the first convenient Sunday of the year, and Wesley's Covenant Prayer is still used, with minor modification, in the order of service. It is a striking and sobering piece of liturgical writing, as the following excerpts illustrate:

...Christ has many services to be done. Some are easy, others are difficult. Some bring honour, others bring reproach. Some are suitable to our natural inclinations and temporal interests, others are contrary to both... Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ, who strengthens us.

...I am no longer my own but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal...

Methodism in Great Britain

Main article: Methodist Church of Great Britain

Wesley Memorial Church, a Methodist church in Oxford, where the Wesley brothers studied.

British Methodism does not have bishops, though a report, "What Sort of Bishops?", to the Conference of 2005, was accepted for study and report. This report considered if this should now be changed and if so what forms of episcopal authority might be acceptable. It has however always been characterised by a strong central organization, the Connexion, which holds an annual Conference (the Methodist Church retains the 18th century spelling "connexion" for many purposes). The connexion is divided into districts in the charge of a Chair (who may be male or female). Some Methodist districts correspond approximately, in geographical terms, to the dioceses of the Church of England. The districts are divided into circuits governed by the Circuit Meeting and led and administrated principally by a "superintendent minister", and ministers are appointed to these rather than to individual churches (though some large inner-city churches, known as Central Halls, are designated as circuits in themselves - Westminster Central Hall, opposite Westminster Abbey in central London is the best known). Most circuits have fewer ministers than churches, and the majority of services are led by lay local preachers, or by retired ("supernumerary") ministers. The superintendent and other ministers are assisted in the leadership and administration of the Circuit by lay Circuit Stewards, who collectively with the ministers form what is normally known as the Circuit Leadership Team.

Schisms within the original Methodist church, and independent revivals, led to the formation of a number of separate denominations calling themselves Methodist. The largest of these were the Primitive Methodist church, deriving from a revival at Mow Cop in Staffordshire, the Bible Christians and the United Methodist Church (not connected with the American denomination of the same name, but a union of three smaller denominations). The original church became known as the Wesleyan Methodist Church to distinguish it from these bodies. The three major streams of British Methodism united in 1932 to form the current Methodist Church of Great Britain.

In the 1960s, the Methodist Church made ecumenical overtures to the Church of England, aimed at church unity. Formally, these failed when they were rejected by the Church of England's General Synod in 1972; conversations and co-operation continued, however, leading in 2003 to the signing of a covenant between the two churches. From the 1970s onward, the Methodist Church also participated in several "Local Ecumenical Projects" (LEPs) both with the Church of England and with the United Reformed Church, which involved sharing churches, schools and in some cases ministers.

Traditionally, Methodism proved particularly popular in Wales and Cornwall, and in the north-east of England, regions noted for their non-conformism and distrust of the Church of England. However, even in these areas the British Methodist Church is in steep decline, like most mainstream British churches. Between 2001 and 2004, national Methodist membership fell by 9.7% (http://www.methodist.org.uk/static/statistics/membership.htm).

(See also 1904-1905 Welsh Revival and Welsh Methodist revival.)

Methodism in the United States

File:Methodist cross.gif

® The United Methodist cross, adopted in 1968, is known as the Cross and Flame. The cross represents Christ while the flame represents the Holy Spirit of Pentecost.

The First Great Awakening was a religious movement in the 1730s and 1740s. The English Methodist preacher George Whitefield played a major role, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style.

The new style of sermons and the way people practiced their faith breathed new life into religion in America. People became passionately and emotionally involved in their religion, rather than passively listening to intellectual discourse in a detached manner. People began to study the Bible at home. The effect was akin to the individualistic trends present in Europe during the Protestant Reformation.

The first American Methodist bishops were Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury, whose boyhood home, Bishop Asbury Cottage, in West Bromwich, England, is now a museum. Upon the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, Coke (already ordained in the Church of England) ordained Asbury a deacon, elder, and bishop each on three successive days. Circuit riders, many of whom were laymen, traveled by horseback to preach the gospel and establish churches in many places. One of the most famous circuit riders was Robert Strawbridge who lived in the vicinity of Carroll County, Maryland soon after arriving in the Colonies around 1760.

The Second Great Awakening was a nationwide wave of revivals. In New England, the renewed interest in religion inspired a wave of social activism among Yankees; Methodism grew rapidly and established several colleges, notably Boston University. In the "burned over district" of western New York, the spirit of revival burned brightly. Methodism saw the emergence of a Holiness movement. In the west especially at Cane Ridge, Kentucky and in Tennessee, the revival strengthened the Methodists and the Baptists.

Disputes over slavery placed the church in difficulty in the first half of the 1800s, with the northern church leaders fearful of a split with the South, and reluctant to take a stand. The Wesleyan Methodists (which later became The Wesleyan Church) and the Free Methodist Churches were formed by staunch abolitionists, and the Free Methodists were especially active in the Underground Railroad, which helped to free the slaves. Finally, in a much larger split, in 1845 at Louisville, the churches of the slaveholding states left the Methodist Episcopal Church and formed The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The northern and southern branches were reunited in 1939, when slavery was no longer an issue. The Methodist Protestant Church also joined this merger. Some southerners, conservative in theology, and strongly segregationist, opposed the merger, and formed the Southern Methodist Church in 1940.

The Third Great Awakening from 1858 to 1908 saw enormous growth in Methodist membership. Methodists were often involved in the Missionary Awakening aand the Social Gospel Movement. The awakening in so many cities in 1858 started the movement, but in the North it was interrupted by the Civil War. In the South, on the other hand, the Civil War stimulated revivals, especially in Lee's army.

The United Methodist Church was formed in 1968 as a result of a merger between the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church. The former church had resulted from mergers of several groups of German Methodist heritage. The merged church had approximately 9 million members as of the late 1990s. While United Methodist Church in America membership has been gently declining (http://www.umc.org/site/c.gjJTJbMUIuE/b.880375/k.EA3C/United_Methodist_attendance_rises_but_membership_continues_down.htm), associated groups in developing countries are growing rapidly.

American Methodist churches are generally organized on a connectional model, related but not identical to (and spelled differently from) that used in Britain. Ministers are assigned to churches by bishops, distinguishing it from presbyterian government. Methodist denominations typically give lay members representation at regional and national meetings (conferences) at which the business of the church is conducted, making it different from episcopalian government. This connectional organizational model differs further from the congregational model, for example of Baptist, and Congregationalist Churches, among others.

In addition to the United Methodist Church, there are over 40 other denominations that descend from John Wesley's Methodist movement. Some, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Free Methodists and the Wesleyan Church (formerly Wesleyan Methodist), are explicitly Methodist. Others do not call themselves Methodist, but grew out of the Methodist movement: for example, The Salvation Army and the Church of the Nazarene. Some of the charismatic or pentecostal churches such as the Pentecostal Holiness Church and the Assemblies of God also have roots in or draw from Wesleyan thought.

The Holiness Revival was primarily among people of Methodist persuasion, who felt that the church had once again become apathetic, losing the Wesleyan zeal. Some important events of this revival were the writings of Phoebe Palmer during the mid-1800s, the establishment of the first of many holiness camp meetings at Vineland, New Jersey in 1867, and the founding of Asbury College, (1890), and other similar institutions in the US around the turn of the 20th century.

From its beginnings in England, Methodism laid emphasis on social service and education. Numerous originally Methodist institutions of higher education were founded in the United States in the early half of the 19th century, and today altogether there are about twenty universities and colleges named as "Methodist" or "Wesleyan" still in existence.

The United Methodist Church allows for a wide range of theological and political beliefs. For example, Republican President George W. Bush is a member. Vice President Dick Cheney attends the United Methodist Church (though he is not a member). Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Edwards are both members of the United Methodist Church.

Other countries

An estimated 75 million people worldwide belong to the Methodist community.

• In Australia, the Methodist Church merged with the majority of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and the Congregational Union of Australia in 1977, becoming the Uniting Church. The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia continues to operate independently. There are also other independent Methodist congregations. Some of these were established by, or have been impacted by, Tongan immigrants.
• In Canada, the Methodist Church of Canada was an 1884 union of pioneering groups. In 1925, they merged with the Presbyterians, then by far the largest Protestant communion in Canada, most Congregationalists, Union Churches in Western Canada, and the American Presbyterian Church in Montreal, to form the United Church of Canada. In 1968, the Evangelical United Brethren Church's Canadian congregations joined after their American counterparts joined the United Methodist Church.
• Bermuda's Methodist Synod, is a separate presbytery of the United Church of Canada's Maritime Conference.
• There are small Methodist Churches in many European countries, the strongest being in Germany. These mostly derive from links with the American rather than the British church.
• The strongest Methodist church in the world is probably now in South Korea. There are many Korean-language Methodist churches in North America catering to Korean-speaking immigrants, not all of which are named as Methodist. There are several denominations which are of Wesleyan/Methodist heritage, but not explicitly Methodist.
• A high proportion of the Polynesian population of Fiji are Methodists. Fiji has the highest percentage of Methodists in the world.
• Missionaries from Britain, North America, and Australia founded Methodist churches in many Commonwealth countries. These are now independent and many of them are stronger than the former "mother" churches. In addition to the churches, these missionaries often also founded schools to serve the local community. A good example of such a school is the Methodist Boys' School in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and The Anglo-Chinese Schools, Methodist Girls Schools and Fairfield Methodist Schools in Singapore
• Almost all Methodist churches are members of a consultative body called the World Methodist Council, which has its headquarters at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, USA.
• The Igreja Metodista Unida is one of the largest denominations of Mozambique.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Methodist churches

• Albert Outler
• Articles of Religion (Methodist)
• Assurance (theology)
• Atonement (Governmental view)
• Category:Methodism
• Category:Methodists
• Category:Methodist theologians
• Christian apologetics
• Christian perfection
• Holiness movement
• Imparted righteousness
• List of Christian denominations#Methodists
• Methodist theologians (list)
• Means of Grace
• Methodism (philosophy) (unrelated to the religious movement)
• New Birth
• Personalism
• Pietism
• Prevenient Grace
• The Supernatural Occurrences of John Wesley

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Cracknell, Kenneth and Susan J. White. An Introduction to World Methodism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0521818494.
• Keim, Albert N. (1990). The CPS Story, Good Books. ISBN 1-56148-002-9
• Swarthmore College Peace Collection: List of CPS Camps (by Camp Number), retrieved 2006-01-25.

Further Reading

World

• Harmon, Nolan B., ed. The Encyclopedia of World Methodism. Abingdon Press, 1974. ISBN 0687117844.
• Richard P. Heitzenrater. Wesley and the People Called Methodists (1994)
• David Hempton. Methodism: Empire of the Spirit (2005)
• David Hempton. Methodism and Politics in British Society, 1750-1850 (1984)
• John Kent; Wesley and the Wesleyans Cambridge University Press, 2002
• Wellman J. Warner; The Wesleyan Movement in the Industrial Revolution 1930

African Americans

• James T. Campbell; Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa Oxford University Press, 1995
• Carol V. R. George, Segregated Sabbaths: Richard Allen and the Rise of Independent Black Churches, 1760-1840 (1973)
• Montgomery, William G. Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South, 1865-1900 (1993),
• Clarence Walker, A Rock in a Weary Land: The African Methodist Episcopal Church During the Civil War and Reconstruction (1982).
• David W. Wills, and Richard Newman, eds., Black Apostles at Home and Abroad: Afro-American and the Christian Mission from the Revolution to Reconstruction (1982).

USA

• Cameron, Richard M. ed. Methodism and Society in Historical Perspective 4 vol (1961)
• Cynthia Lynn Lyerly. Methodism and the Southern Mind, 1770-1810. Religion in America Series. Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. x, 251. ISBN 0-19-511429-9
• Donald Meyer; The Protestant Search for Political Realism, 1919-1941 Wesleyan Univ. Press 1988.
• Jean Miller Schmidt. Grace Sufficient: A History of Women in American Methodism, 1760-1939 (1996)
• Sweet, William Warren, Methodism in American History (1954) (ISBN 0687250811)
• John H. Wigger; Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. ix, 269. focus on 1770-1910

Primary sources

• Russell E. Richey et al eds. The Methodist Experience in America: A Sourcebook (2000) 756pp of of original documents
• Sweet, William Warren, ed. Religion on the American Frontier: 1783-1840, Vol. IV. The Methodists: A Collection of Source Materials (1946) (ISBN 0815402252) 800 pp of documents regarding American frontier

External links

• Free Methodist Church of North America
• Methodist Church In Singapore
• Conservative Holiness Web Directory
• World Methodist Council
• Divisions and Reunions in North American Methodism
• United Methodist Church
• United Methodist Social Principles
• Francis Asbury
• African Methodist Episcopal Church
• African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
• Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
• Methodist Church in Britain
• Methodist Church in Ireland
• Southern Methodist Church
• Southern Congregational Methodist Church
• Methodist History Bookmarks
• 200 Years of United Methodism
• Faith, Feeling, and Fanaticism
• Methodist Church in Hong Kong
• Kwong Yuen Methodist Church of Hong Kong (循道衛理聯合教會廣源堂)

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