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METHODISM IN THE UNITED
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See also:METHODISM IN THE See also:UNITED STATES
There are in the United States sixteen distinct Methodist denominations, all agreeing essentially in See also:doctrine. See also: 2 Other preaching-places, 1561. ' See also:Sunday and See also:Thursday See also:Schools.
' Methodism is also represented in several See also:European countries by Conferences and See also:Missions affiliated to the Methodist Episcopal See also: He likewise ordained two of his See also:lay preachers as deacons and elders, to accompany Coke, whom Wesley sent to America as his See also:commissioner to establish, for the Methodist Society, a See also:system of Church See also:government, which should include the administration of See also:Baptism and of the See also:Lord's Supper. Coke above. The 1908 returns are: See also:Bulgaria, 546 members; See also:Denmark, 3 71; See also:Finland and St See also:Petersburg, 1367; See also:France, 221; See also:Italy, 3669; North See also:Germany, 12,886; See also:Norway, 6054; South Germany, i1,8o8; See also:Sweden, 15,430; See also:Switzerland, 9419. Western Conference only. was furnished by Wesley with a document setting forth the of 1848 convened it represented 780 travelling preachers and grounds on which he had taken this step. Wesley also appointed Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury " to be See also:joint superintendents over our brethren in North America." Soon after Coke and his companions arrived they met Asbury and fifteen preachers, and a See also:special conference was called, which opened on the 24th of See also:December 1784, in the suburbs of See also:Baltimore, Maryland. This See also:convention organized itself into a Methodist Episcopal Church, in which the See also:liturgy sent by Wesley should be read, and the sacraments should be administered by superintendents, elders and deacons, these elders and deacons to be ordained by a See also:presbytery using the episcopal See also:form. Coke and Asbury were unanimously elected superintendents, Coke, aided by his clerical companions from England, ordaining Asbury as See also:deacon and See also:elder and formally consecrating him a See also:general superintendent. Several elders were ordained. This convention adopted the first Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It adopted the existing doctrinal See also:standards, consisting chiefly of Wesley's Sermons and his Notes on the New Testament; also twenty-five of the Articles of See also:Religion of the Church of England, modified so as to eradicate all trace of High Church ritualism, See also:Anglican or See also:Roman, and the distinctive doctrines of Calvinism. The Church thus established began its ecclesiastical career with 18,000 members, 104 travelling preachers, about the same number of local preachers, and more than 200 licensed exhorters. There were 6o chapels and 800 See also:regular preaching places.
The See also:energy of Asbury, and the position of Coke in the Church of England, his See also:wealth, culture, and preaching See also:power, greatly reinforced the efforts of the preachers. The administration of the sacraments brought See also:peace; and many who would not unite with the " Society " asked See also:admission to the Church. Within five years the number of preachers swelled to 227, and the members to 45,949 (See also: This led to a demand for the substitution of a delegated General Conference, which was conceded by the Conference of 18o8 to take effect four years later. The See also:office then known as the Presiding Eldership had become powerful: Bishops appointed the pastors to churches, Presiding Elders to districts; but it was the purpose of the See also:majority to See also:transfer to the Annual Conferences the power of appointing Presiding Elders. The See also:change, though discussed for many years, has not been accomplished. 'Several issues had been settled; but one, that of See also:slavery, had to be faced. The See also:storm burst on the Conference of 1844. See also:Bishop James Osgood See also:Andrew (1794-1871), a native of the South, had, by See also:inheritance and See also:marriage, become a slaveholder. After debates of many days, he was requested " to desist from the exercise of the office of Bishop while this impediment remained." The See also:Southern members declared that the infliction of such a stigma upon Bishop Andrew would make it impossible for them to maintain the See also:influence of Methodism in the South, and a tentative See also:plan of separation was adopted by the Conference by an almost unanimous vote. The result was that the Methodist Episcopal Church was bisected, and when the General Conference 532,290 members fewer than it had numbered four years before. After the See also:Civil War the increase in membership was See also:note-worthy. The quadrennial Conference of 1868 represented 222,687 members more than its predecessor; of this gain 117,326 were in the Southern States. In 1872 lay representatives were admitted, the Constitution having been amended so as to make it legal. It was not, however, an equal See also:representation, for though ministerial Conferences were represented according to their number, in no circumstances could there be more than two lay representatives from one Annual Conference. Not till 190o were lay and clerical representation equalized. In 1864 the time limit of pastorates was lengthened to three years, and in 1888 to five years. This limit was taken off in 1900, and pastors can be reappointed at the will of the Bishop. Five See also:women presented See also:credentials as lay delegates in 1888. Their eligibility was questioned; and they were denied admission. For the next four General Conferences the struggle for the admission of women recurred. In 1900-1904 a general revision of the Constitution took See also:place, and the words " lay members " were substituted for " laymen " in that See also:part of the Constitution which deals with the eligibility of delegates to the General Conference. The General Conference has power to make rules and regulations for the Church, subject only to restrictions which protect the Standards of Doctrine, the General Rules, the disposition of the See also:property of the See also:Book Concern and its income, the income of the Chartered Fund, and the right of ministers to trial before a See also:jury of their peers, an appeal, and similar rights of the laity. By a two-thirds vote of a General Conference, and two-thirds votes of the members of the Annual Conference, and of the members of the Lay Electoral Conferences, See also:present and voting, what is said in these " Restrictive Rules " can be altered or repealed, except that which deals with the Articles of Religion and " the present existing and established Standards of Doctrine." In the Annual Conferences the Bishop is the See also:sole interpreter of See also:law, subject to appeal to the General Conference. When presiding in the General Conference, a Bishop has no authority to decide questions of law, but may decide questions of See also:order subject to an appeal to the body. The district superintendent visits each charge several times annually, presiding in the Quarterly Conference, the highest local authority in the Church, and he is expected to conserve the unity of the See also:denomination and a regard for See also:laws enacted by the supreme body. In the See also:absence of a Bishop the district superintendent represents him, and may transfer any ministers within the See also:bounds of his district. Connexional Institutions.—The Book Concern, established in 1789, publishes the necessary devotional books of the Church, such as hymnal, discipline, theological See also:works, religious experience, and numerous magazines and papers. The See also:Board of See also:Foreign Missions carries on extensive operations in See also:China, See also:Japan, See also:Korea, See also:India and Malaysia, Italy, South America and See also:Mexico. It assists the Methodist Churches organized in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Switzerland, and has recently established missions in See also:Russia and France. The Board of See also:Home Missions and Church See also:Extension supplies the foreign peoples domiciled in the United States with ministers of their own See also:tongue. It assists all English-speaking churches in need of help, and secures, by gifts and time loans, the erection of churches'wherever needed. Invaluable coadjutors of these Boards are the Women's Foreign Missionary and the Women's Home Missionary societies. The Board of See also:Education, with the aid of a University See also:Senate,' assists See also:young people to obtain education, and raises the See also:standard of seminaries, colleges and See also:universities. The Church, in the United States, supports 54 colleges and universities and to theological seminaries. The Freedmen's Aid Society is devoted to the educational needs of the See also:negro See also:race in the United States, in which work it has been very successful. The Sunday School See also:Union, Epworth See also:League, Methodist See also:Brother-See also:hood, hospitals, homes for the aged, See also:deaconess homes and See also:children's institutions are maintained by -an increasing army of workers. The whole number of ministers (exclusive of foreign missions) in 1907, was 17,694; churches, 27,691; communicants, 2,984,261. The Methodist Episcopal Church Soul/I.—After the adjourn- See also:Canada were united in 1907 in a new organization entitled the ment of the General Conference of 1844, the representatives of Methodist Church of Japan. A distinguishing feature of this church is a See also:practical See also:veto power possessed by the bishops, to be
thirteen Conferences covering the states holding slaves appealed exercised when the conference adopts any measure which in their to their constituents to determine what should be done to prevent See also:opinion is unconstitutional. They have the right to present Methodism in the South from being deprived of its influence over written objections and should the General Conference, by two-
the whites and of the See also:privilege, till then fully accorded, of preach thirds vote adhere to its See also:action, the proposal is sent down to the Annual Conference for ratification; otherwise it is void. Fraternal
See also:ing the Gospel and teaching its precepts to slaves. In 1845 a relations between the two See also:great Episcopal Methodist Churches representative Convention was called; this body, with the ap- were fully established in 1876, and have broadened in spirit and
proval and participation of Bishop Andrew, organized the Metho- See also:scope from that time.
he Methodist Episcopal Church South in 19o7 had 6774 ministers, dist Episcopal Church South. At its first General Conference,
T 16,I56 churches and 1,631,379 communicants.
in 1846, the See also:senior Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, The See also:African Methodist Episcopal Church.—This body originated See also:Joshua Soule (1781-1867), offered himself to the Church, which in strained relations between the white and coloured Methodists of accepted him in his episcopal capacity. See also: A vote to authorize the stantly risen in public estimation. One of its peculiarities is that division failed, and the Methodist Episcopal Church South, the bishops are members of the General Conference. It sustains hopeless of See also:relief, brought two suits, one against the Book Concern See also:Wilberforce University (at Wilberforce, See also:Ohio) and other educational institutions, and has missions in See also:Africa, South America, the See also:West in New York, and the other against the Book Concern in Cincin- Indies and See also:Hawaii. Notable orators have risen up among its nati. The former was decided in favour of the Methodist Epis- members, who have added greatly to the respect See also:felt for their See also:copal Church South, and the latter in favour of the Methodist race and Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Church. In the latter See also:case an appeal was taken by largest See also:Christian denomination consisting wholly of the Negro the Methodist Episcopal Church South to the Supreme See also:Court of race, in 1907 comprised 6190 ministers, 5321 churches, and 842,023 communicants. the United States, which body unanimously decided that the The African Methodist Episcopal See also:Zion Church.—Some of the Methodist Episcopal Church South was an integral part of the coloured people in the See also:city of New York, " feeling themselves op- Methodist Episcopal Church which owned the Book Concerns, pressed by See also:caste See also:prejudice, and suffering the deprivation of Church privileges permitted to others," organized among themselves, in and ordered that the Southern Church should receive a See also:pro- 1796, and in the year 'Roo built a church and named it Zion. portioliate part of the property of both Book Concerns. The For twenty years the Methodist Episcopal Church supplied this amount ordered by the Court was in due time received. church with pastors. Then the members induced three white The membership of the Church in 186o was more than three- ministers to ordain as elders three of their brethren, already deacons. Since they had Methodist precedents for such ordination, these quarters of a million; but the Church was doomed to feel the proceeded to ordain others, and established churches in Phila- force of the destructive elements of the Civil War. In See also:April 1862 delphia and New See also:Hampshire. The elders ordained one of their New See also: Two Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church The most radical change was the introduction into the General South presided, and ordained to the See also:Episcopacy two coloured Conference of a number of lay representatives equal to elders, selected by the eight coloured conferences. The coloured vote the number of clerical, and the admission into each Annual KeoplepalChu ch named the organization the Coloured Methodist Conference of four lay delegates for each Presiding Elder's The Union American Methodist Episcopal Church agrees in district. doctrines and usages with other Methodist bodies. It is divided The coloured people, with the consent of the Church, withdrew into Conferences and elects its Bishops for See also:life. It had in 1907, in 1870, and formed a new Church called the Coloured Methodist 18,500 members, 138 ministers and 255 churches. Episcopal Church. B.—Non-Episcopal Methodist Churches. The most striking denominational effort in its See also:history was the The Methodist See also:Protestant Church.—In 1821 ministers and lay-See also:maintenance of the solvency of the Publishing House, which men of the Methodist Episcopal Church began to criticize its was seized by the Federal Troops, and used as a United States polity, and when their utterances became aggressive the ad-See also:printing office; with the damage done, and debts incurred in herents to the regular order replied with equal vigour. During rebuilding, after a See also:fire, See also:interest, &c., the liabilities were $35,000, the General Conference of 1824, held in Baltimore, a Convention with debts $125,000 in excess of See also:assets. The concern was of " Reformers " met, and established a periodical entitled' The declared insolvent; but the necessary funds were forthcoming, Mutual Rights of the Ministers and Members of the Methodist and the See also:honour of the Church was maintained. Episcopal Church, and made arrangements to organize Union Societies. Travelling and local ministers and laymen were expelled for See also:schism and spreading incendiary publications. See also:Prior to the Conference those expelled, and their sympathizers, formed themselves into a society named " See also:Associate Methodist Reformers." These sent memorials to the General Conference of 1828, and issued addresses to the public. After a powerful and painful discussion, the appeals of the expelled members of Education has received unceasing See also:attention. The titles to 175 institutions are held by the Church, and the list of colleges and their See also:character is a See also:credit to the denomination. The most important is See also:Vanderbilt University, at See also:Nashville, See also:Tennessee, founded in 1872, and largely endowed by members of the See also:family whose name it bears. The See also:chief foreign missions are in China, Mexico, See also:Brazil, Japan, Korea and See also:Cuba. Its See also:mission in Japan and the mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Church of Conferences were rejected. The controversy centred upon lay representation, the episcopacy and the presiding eldership. A General Convention was held on the 2nd of See also:November 183o, a Constitution was adopted, and a new organization was established, styled the Methodist Protestant Church. Within eight years it had accumulated 50,000 members, the majority of whom were in the South and bordering states. The Methodist Protestant Church has a presbyterial form of government, the See also:powers being in the Conference. There is no episcopal office or General Superintendent; each Annual Conference elects its own chairman. Its General Conference meets once in four years. Ministers and laymen equal in number are elected by the Annual Conferences, in a ratio of one delegate for r000 members. The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of 1908 sent delegates to the Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, making overtures toward an organic union, but formal negotiations have not been instituted. This Church had, in 1907, 1551 ministers, 2242 churches and 183,894 communicants. The Wesleyan Methodist Connection or Church of America.—In the Methodist Episcopal Church slavery was always a cause of contention. In 1842 certain Methodist abolitionists conferred as to the See also:wisdom of seceding. Among the leaders were See also:Orange See also:Scott (r800-1847), Jotham See also:Horton and LeRoy See also:Sunderland( 18o2–1885) and in a See also:paper, which they had established, known as The True W esleyan,they announced their withdrawal from the Church, and issued a See also:call for a convention of all like-minded, which met on the 31st of May 1843, at See also:Utica, New York, and founded the Wesleyan Methodist Connection or Church of America. The enterprise started with 6000 laymen and 22 travelling ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and nearly as many more from the Methodist Protestant Church and other small bodies of Methodist antecedents. Its General Conference has an equal number of ministers and laymen. In less than eighteen months this body had gained in members 250%; but as the Methodist Episcopal Church had purged itself from slavery in 1844, and slavery itself was abolished in 1862, a large number of ministers and thousands of communicants, connected with this body, returned to the Methodist Episcopal Church. It had in 1907 539 ministers, 609 churches and 18,587 communicants. The Congregational Methodists originated in See also:Georgia in 1852 ; but in polity they are not strictly Congregational. Appeals from the decision of the See also:Lower Church may be taken to a District Conference, thence to the See also:State Conference, and ultimately to the General Conference. This Church had, in 1907, chiefly in Southern states, 24,000 members, 415 ministers and 425 churches. The See also:Free Methodist Church.—This body was organized in See also:August 186o, and was the result of ten years of agitation. A number of ministers and members within the bounds of the Genesee Conference, in Western New York, in 185o, began to deplore and denounce the decline of spirituality in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Rev. B. T. See also:Roberts, the ablest among them, was reprimanded by the Bishop presiding in the Annual Conference, and next year he was expelled. Similar proceedings were taken against others, who appealed to the General Conference of 186o, but their See also:expulsion was confirmed. It was the purpose of the founders to conserve the usage and the spirit of See also:primitive Methodism. The government of the Church is See also:simple, in all but the Episcopacy and its adjuncts resembling that of the Church whence it sprang. The Free Methodist Church had, in 1907, 1032 ministers, Iio6 churches, and 31,376 communicants. See also:Minor Methodist Churches.—The Primitive Methodist Church, as it exists in the United States, came from England. In 1907 it reported 7013 communicants. The Independent Methodists are composed of congregations in Maryland, Tennessee and the District of See also:Columbia. They had fewer than 3000 members in 1907. The Evangelist Missionary Church comprises ministers and members in Ohio, who in 1886 withdrew from the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. They had in 1907 about 5000 members. The New Congregational Methodists in 1881 withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in Georgia. They had 4022 members in 1907. The African Union Methodist Protestant Church See also:dates from 1816, and differed from the African Methodist Episcopal Church in opposing itinerancy, " paid ministers," and episcopacy. In 1907 it had 3867 members in eight states. The Zion Union Apostolic Church was organized in 1869, in Virginia. It was reported in 1890 to have 2346 communicants, and shows no gain at the present time.
History of American Methodism (New York, 1884) ; Francis Asbury, See also:Journal (3 vols., New York, 1852) ; Nathan Bangs, A History of the, Methodist Episcopal Church from its Origin in 1776 to the General Conference of 1840 (4 vols., New York, 1839—1842) ; See also: H. Bassett, History of the Methodist Protestant Church (See also:Pittsburg, 1878, revised, 1882, 1887); Thomas E. See also:Bond, See also:Economy of Methodism, Illustrated and Defended ; J. M. Buckley, History of Methodism in the United States (1897); H. K. See also:Carroll, Religious Forces of the United States (New York, 2nd ed. 1896) ; See also:David W. See also:Clark, Life and Times of See also:Elijah Redding (New York, 1855) ; Daniel See also:Dorchester, See also:Christianity in the United States (New York, 1895) ; See also:Edward J. Drinkhouse, History of Methodist Reform 2 vols., Baltimore, 1899); Robert Emory, History of the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church (New York, 1843) ; William L. See also:Harris, Constitutional Powers of the General Conference (186o) J. W. Hood, One See also:Hundred Years of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (New York, 1895) ; See also:Jesse See also: Gracey; David See also:Sherman, History of the Revisions of the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church (New York, 3rd ed., 189o) See also:Abel See also:Stevens, History of Methodism (3 vols., New York, 1858) ; id. History of the Methodist Episcopal Church (4 vols., New York, f864); id. The See also:Centenary of American Methodism (New York, 1866) ; John J. Tigert, A Constitutional History of American Episcopal Methodism (Nashville, 1894) ; J. B. Wakeley, Lost Chapters Recovered from the Early History of American Methodism (New York, 1858) ; Thomas See also:Ware, Sketches of His Own Life and Travels (New York, 1839) ; and the Discipline and See also:Journals of the various American Methodist Churches. And the Proceedings of the Centennial Methodist Conference (1884) ; of the First Ecumenical Conference (1881); of the second Ecumenical Conference (1891); and of the third Ecumenical Conference (1901). (J. M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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