Methodist Church of Great Britain
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The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestant Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodists worldwide.[6] It participates in the World Methodist Council, and the World Council of Churches among other ecumenical associations.
The Methodist Church[1] | |
---|---|
Classification | Protestant |
Orientation | Methodist |
Theology | Wesleyan |
Governance | Connexionalism |
President | Gill Newton[2] |
Vice-President | Kerry Scarlett[2] |
Associations | |
Region | Great Britain Channel Islands · Isle of Man · Gibraltar · Malta |
Headquarters | Methodist Church House, 25 Tavistock Place, London[3] |
Origin | 1932 (Methodist Union)1 Great Britain |
Merger of | |
Local churches | 4,110 (as of 2019[update])[4] |
Members | 136,891 (as of 2022[update])[5] |
Ministers | 3,459 |
Aid organization | All We Can |
Official website | methodist |
1. The Methodist movement originated in the 18th century |
Methodism began primarily through the work of John Wesley, who led an evangelical revival in 18th-century Britain. An Anglican priest, Wesley adopted unconventional and controversial practices, such as open-air preaching, to reach factory labourers and newly urbanised masses uprooted from their traditional village culture at the start of the Industrial Revolution. His preaching centred upon the universality of God's grace for all, the transforming effect of faith on character, and the possibility of perfection in love during this life. He organised the new converts locally and in a "Connexion" across Britain. Following Wesley's death, the Methodist revival became a separate church and ordained its own ministers; it was called a Nonconformist church because it did not conform to the rules of the established Church of England. In the 19th century, the Wesleyan Methodist Church experienced many secessions, with the largest of the offshoots being the Primitive Methodists. The main streams of Methodism were reunited in 1932, forming the Methodist Church as it is today.
Methodist circuits, containing several local churches, are grouped into thirty districts. The supreme governing body of the church is the annual Methodist Conference; it is headed by the president of Conference, a presbyteral minister (currently Gill Newton), supported by a vice-president who can be a local preacher or deacon. The denomination ordains women and openly LGBT ministers.
The Methodist Church is Wesleyan in its theology and practice. It uses the historic creeds and bases its doctrinal standards on Wesley's Notes on the New Testament and his Forty-four Sermons.[7]: 213 Church services can be structured with liturgy taken from a service book—especially for the celebration of Holy Communion—but commonly include free forms of worship.
The 2009 British Social Attitudes Survey found that around 800,000 people, or 1.29 per cent of the British population, identified as Methodist.[8] As of 2022[update], active membership stood at approximately 137,000,[5] representing an 32 per cent decline from the 2014 figure.[9] Methodism is the fourth-largest Christian group in Britain.[10] Around 202,000 people attend a Methodist church service each week, while 490,000 to 500,000 take part in some other form of Methodist activity, such as youth work and community events organised by local churches.[11]
Origins
The movement that would become the Methodist Church originated in the early 18th century within the Church of England. A small group of students at Oxford University, including John Wesley (1703–1791) and his younger brother Charles (1707–1788), met together for the purpose of mutual improvement; they focused on studying the Bible and living a holy life. Other students mocked the group, saying they were the "Holy Club" and "the Methodists",[note 1] being methodical and exceptionally detailed in their Bible study, opinions and disciplined lifestyle.[13][14]
The first Methodist movement outside the Church of England was associated with Howell Harris (1714–1773),[15] who launched the Welsh Methodist revival in the 1730s.[16] This was to become the Calvinistic Methodist Church (today known as the Presbyterian Church of Wales).[17] Another branch of the Methodist revival was under the ministry of George Whitefield (1714–1770), a friend of the Wesleys from the Oxford Holy Club—resulting in the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion.[18]
The largest branch of Methodism in England was organised by John Wesley. In May 1738 he claimed to have experienced a profound discovery of God in his heart, a pivotal event that has come to be called his evangelical conversion.[19] From 1739, Wesley took to open-air preaching, and converted people to his movement.[20] He formed small classes in which his followers would receive religious guidance and intensive accountability in their personal lives.[21] Wesley also appointed itinerant evangelists to travel and preach as he did and to care for these groups of people. It is a tribute to Wesley's powers of oratory and organisational skills that the term Methodism is today assumed to mean Wesleyan Methodism unless otherwise specified.[17] Theologically, Wesley held to the Arminian belief that salvation is available to all people,[22] in opposition to the Calvinist ideas of election and predestination that were accepted by the Calvinistic Methodists.[17]
Methodist preachers were famous for their impassioned sermons, though opponents accused them of "enthusiasm", i.e. fanaticism.[23] During Wesley's lifetime, many members of England's established church feared that new doctrines promulgated by the Methodists, such as the necessity of a new birth for salvation, of 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".[24] In one of his prints, William Hogarth likewise attacked Methodists as enthusiasts full of "Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism".[25] Other attacks against the Methodists were physically violent—Wesley was nearly murdered by a mob at Wednesbury in 1743.[26] The Methodists responded vigorously to their critics and thrived despite the attacks against them.[27]
As Wesley and his assistants preached around the country they formed local societies, authorised and organised through Wesley's leadership and conferences of preachers. Wesley insisted that Methodists regularly attend their local parish church as well as Methodist meetings.[28] In 1784, Wesley made provision for the continuance as a corporate body after his death of the 'Yearly Conference of the People called Methodists'.[29] He nominated 100 people and declared them to be its members and laid down the method by which their successors were to be appointed. The Conference has remained the governing body of Methodism ever since.[29]
Separation from the Church of England
As his societies multiplied, and elements of an ecclesiastical system were successively adopted, the breach between Wesley and the Church of England (Anglicanism) gradually widened. In 1784, Wesley responded to the shortage of priests in the American colonies due to the American Revolutionary War by ordaining preachers for America with power to administer the sacraments.[30] Wesley's actions precipitated the split between American Methodists and the Church of England (which held that only bishops could ordain persons to ministry).[31]
With regard to the position of Methodism within Christendom, "John Wesley once noted that what God had achieved in the development of Methodism was no mere human endeavor but the work of God. As such it would be preserved by God so long as history remained."[32] Calling it "the grand depositum" of the Methodist faith, Wesley specifically taught that the propagation of the doctrine of entire sanctification was the reason that God raised up the Methodists in the world (see § Wesleyan theology).[33]
British Methodism separated from the Church of England soon after the death of Wesley. There were early contentions over the powers of preachers and the Conference, and the timing of chapel services.[34] At this point in time a majority of Methodist members were not attending Anglican church services.[34] The 1795 Plan of Pacification permitted Methodist chapels to celebrate Holy Communion where both a majority of trustees and a majority of the stewards and leaders allowed it.[35] (These services often used Wesley's abridgement of the Book of Common Prayer.[35]) This permission was later extended to the administration of baptism, burial and timing of services, bringing Methodist chapels into direct competition with the local parish church. Consequently, known Methodists were excluded from the Church of England.[34] Alexander Kilham and his 'radicals' denounced the Conference for giving too much power to the ministers of the church at the expense of the laity. In 1797, following the Plan of Pacification, Kilham was expelled from the church. The radicals formed the Methodist New Connexion, while the original body came to be known as the Wesleyan Methodist Church.[34]
1790 to 1910
Early growth
Early Methodists were systematic in collecting statistics on membership.[36] Their growth was rapid, from 58,000 in 1790 to 302,000 in 1830 and 518,000 in 1850.[37] Those were the official members, but the national census of 1851 counted people with an informal connection to Methodism, and the total was 1,463,000.[37] Growth was steady in both rural and urban areas, despite disruption caused by numerous schisms; these resulted in separate denominations (or "connexions") such as the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the first and largest, followed by the New Connexion, the Bible Christian Church and the Primitive Methodist Church.[37] Some of the growth can be attributed to the failure of the established Church of England to provide church facilities.[38] In the later 19th century a programme of church building by the established church, in competition with the Nonconformists, increased the number of church-attending Anglicans.[39] This reduced the opportunities for the Nonconformists in general and the Methodists in particular to keep growing. Membership reached 602,000 in 1870 and peaked at 841,000 in 1910.[40][41]
Early Methodism was particularly prominent in Devon and Cornwall, which were key centres of activity by the Bible Christian faction.[42] The Bible Christians produced many preachers, and sent many missionaries to Australia.[43] Methodism as a whole grew rapidly in the old mill towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire, where the preachers stressed that the working classes were equal to the upper classes in the eyes of God.[44] In Wales, three elements separately welcomed Methodism: Welsh-speaking, English-speaking, and Calvinistic.[45]
The independent Methodist movement did not appeal to England's landed gentry; they favoured the developing evangelical movement inside the Church of England. However, Methodism became popular among ambitious middle class families.[46] For example, the Osborn family of Sheffield, whose steel company emerged in the mid-19th century in Sheffield's period of rapid industrialisation. Historian Clyde Binfield says their fervent Methodist faith strengthened their commitment to economic independence, spiritual certainty and civic responsibility.[46]
Methodism was especially popular among skilled workers and much less prevalent among labourers. Historians such as Élie Halévy, Eric J. Hobsbawm, E. P. Thompson, and Alan Gilbert have explored the role of Methodism in the early decades of the making of the British working class (1760–1820). On the one hand it provided a model of how to efficiently organise large numbers of people and sustain their connection over a long period of time, and on the other it diverted and discouraged political radicalism.[47] In explaining why Britain did not undergo a social revolution in the period 1790–1832, a time that appeared ripe for violent social upheaval, Halévy argued that Methodism forestalled revolution among the working class by redirecting its energies toward spiritual affairs rather than workplace concerns.[48] Thompson argues that overall it had a politically regressive effect.[49]
Leadership
John Wesley was the longtime president of the Methodist Conference, but after his death it was agreed that in future, so much authority would not be placed in the hands of one man. Instead, the president would be elected for one year, to sit in Wesley's chair.[2] Successive Methodist schisms resulted in multiple presidents, before a united conference assembled in 1932.
Wesley wrote, edited or abridged some 400 publications. As well as theology he wrote about music, marriage, medicine, abolitionism and politics.[50] Wesley himself and the senior leadership were political conservatives. Although many trade union leaders were attracted to Methodism—the Tolpuddle Martyrs being an early example[51]—the church itself did not actively support the unions. Historians Patrick K. O'Brien and Roland Quinault argue:
John Wesley's own Tory sympathies and autocratic instincts had been strong and genuine, and as far as possible he had instilled into his followers deference toward established social and religious authorities. He emphasised political quietism. His mission he saw as strictly spiritual, and his own inherently conservative political instincts and social values reinforced a pragmatic concern to give as little offense as possible to a suspicious wider society. These same motives influenced the ministerial oligarchy...."Methodism" said Jabez Bunting...hates democracy as it hates sin."[52]
Jabez Bunting (1779–1858) was the most prominent leader of the Wesleyan Methodist movement after Wesley's death. He preached successful revivals until 1802, when he saw revivals leading to dissension and division. He then became dedicated to church order and discipline, and vehemently opposed revivalism.[53] He was a popular preacher in numerous cities. He was four times chosen to be president of the Conference and held numerous senior positions as administrator and watched budgets very closely. Bunting and his allies centralised power by making the Conference the final arbiter of Methodism, and giving it the power to reassign preachers and select superintendents. He was zealous in the cause of foreign missions. In English politics he was conservative. He had little tolerance for liberal elements or for Sunday schools and temperance crusades, which led to expulsion of his opponents, whereupon a third of the members broke away in 1849. Numerous alliances with other groups failed and weakened his control.[53][54]
William Bramwell (1759–1818) was a preacher who engendered controversy due to his intense revivalist preaching style, which spurred awakenings throughout the north of England—including the 1793–97 Yorkshire Revival—and his association with Alexander Kilham (1762–1798). Kilham was a revivalist who led the New Connexion secession from mainstream Wesleyan ministry.[55]
Hugh Price Hughes (1847–1902) was the first superintendent of the West London Methodist Mission, a key Methodist organisation. Recognised as one of the greatest orators of his era, he also founded and edited an influential newspaper, the Methodist Times in 1885. Hughes played a key role in leading Methodists into the Liberal Party coalition, away from the Conservative leanings of previous Methodist leaders.[56][57]
John Scott Lidgett (1854–1953) achieved prominence both as a theologian and reformer by stressing the importance of the church's engagement with the whole of society and human culture. He promoted the Social Gospel and founded the Bermondsey Settlement to reach the poor of London, as well as the Wesley Guild, a social organisation aimed at young people which reached 150,000 members by 1900.[58][59]
Women
Early Methodism experienced a radical and spiritual phase that allowed women authority in church leadership. In 1771, Mary Bosanquet (1739–1815) wrote to John Wesley to defend hers and Sarah Crosby's work preaching and leading classes at her orphanage, Cross Hall.[60] Her argument was that women should be able to preach when they experienced an "extraordinary call".[60][61] Wesley accepted Bosanquet's argument, and formally began to allow women to preach in Methodism in 1771.[61] In general, the role of the woman preacher emerged from the sense that the home should be a place of community care and should foster personal growth. Women gained self-esteem at this time when members were encouraged to testify about the nature of their faith. Methodist women formed a community that cared for the vulnerable, extending the role of mothering beyond physical care.[62] However the centrality of women's role sharply diminished after 1790 as the Methodist movement became more structured and more male dominated.[61]
In the 18th century Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, (1707–91) played a major role in financing and guiding early Methodism. Hastings was the first female principal of a men's college in Wales, Trevecca College, for the education of Methodist ministers.[63] She financed the building of 64 chapels in England and Wales, wrote often to George Whitefield and John Wesley, and funded mission work in colonial America. She is best remembered for her adversarial relationships with other Methodists who objected to a woman having power.[63][64]
Youth and education
Methodists placed a high priority on close guidance of their youth, as seen in the activities of Sunday schools and the Band of Hope (whose members signed a pledge to "abstain from all intoxicating liquors").[65][66]
Wesley himself opened schools at The Foundery in London, and Kingswood School. A Wesleyan report in 1832 said that for the church to prosper the system of Sunday schools should be augmented by day-schools with educated teachers. It was proposed in 1843 that 700 new day-schools be established within seven years. Though a steady increase was achieved, that ambitious target could not be reached, in part limited by the number of suitably qualified teachers. Most teachers came from one institution in Glasgow. The Wesleyan Education Report for 1844 called for a permanent Wesleyan teacher-training college. The result was the foundation of Westminster Training College at Horseferry Road, Westminster in 1851.[68]
19th-century England lacked a state school system; the major supplier was the Church of England. The Wesleyan Education Committee, which existed from 1838 to 1902, has documented Methodism's involvement in the education of children. At first most effort was placed in creating Sunday schools. In 1837 there were 3,339 Sunday schools with 59,297 teachers and 341,443 pupils.[69] In 1836 the Wesleyan Methodist Conference gave its blessing to the creation of 'Weekday schools'.[70][71] In 1902 the Methodists operated 738 schools, so their children would not have to learn from Anglican teachers. The Methodists, along with other Nonconformists, bitterly opposed the Education Act 1902, which funded Church of England schools and funded Methodists schools too but placed them under local education authorities that were usually controlled by Anglicans.[72] In the 20th century the number of Methodist Church-operated schools declined, as many became state-run schools, with only 28 still operating in 1996.[73]
Colonial missions
Through vigorous missionary work, Methodism spread throughout the British Empire. It was especially successful in the new United States, thanks to the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. English emigrants brought Methodism to Canada and Australia.[74] British and American missionaries reached out to India and some other imperial colonies.[75] In general the conversion efforts were only modestly successful, but reports back to Britain did have an influence in shaping how Methodists understood the wider world.[76]
Nonconformist conscience
Historians group Methodists together with other Protestant groups as "Nonconformists" or "Dissenters", standing in opposition to the established Church of England. In the 19th century the Dissenters who went to chapel comprised half the people who actually attended services on Sunday. The "Nonconformist conscience" was their moral sensibility which they tried to implement in British politics.[77][57] The two categories of Dissenters, or Nonconformists, were in addition to the evangelicals or "Low Church" element in the Church of England. "Old Dissenters", dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, included Baptists, Congregationalists, Quakers, Unitarians, and Presbyterians outside Scotland. "New Dissenters" emerged in the 18th century and were mainly Methodists, especially the Wesleyan Methodists.[77]
The "Nonconformist conscience" of the "Old" group emphasised religious freedom and equality, pursuit of justice, and opposition to discrimination, compulsion and coercion. The "New Dissenters" (and also the Anglican evangelicals) stressed personal morality issues, including sexuality, family values, temperance, and Sabbath-keeping. Both factions were politically active, but until the mid-19th century the Old group supported mostly Whigs and Liberals in politics, while the New generally supported Conservatives. However the Methodists changed and in the 1880s moved into the Liberal Party, drawn in large part by Gladstone's intense moralism. The result was a merging of the Old and New, strengthening their great weight as a political pressure group.[78][79] They joined on new issues especially supporting temperance and opposing the Education Act 1902, with the former of special interest to Methodists.[80][81] By 1914 the conscience was weakening and by the 1920s it was virtually dead politically.[82]
Architecture
In the early days of Methodism chapels were sometimes built octagonal, largely to avoid conflict with the established Church of England. The first was in Norwich (1757); it was followed by Rotherham (1761), Whitby (1762), Yarm (1763), Heptonstall (1764) and nine others. John Wesley personally approved the design of the octagonal chapels, stating, "It is better for the voice and on many accounts more commodious than any other." He is also said to have added—"there are no corners for the devil to hide in".[83]
Methodist Heritage records the Yarm chapel as the oldest in England in continual use as a place of Methodist worship.[84] Its design and construction were overseen by Wesley, who preached at the chapel frequently and declared it as his "favourite".[84]
Nevertheless, the Heptonstall chapel has also contested for the title of oldest octagon chapel in continual use.[85] The building featured in the BBC television series Churches: How to Read Them. Presenter Richard Taylor named it as one of his ten favourite churches, saying: "If buildings have an aura, this one radiated friendship."[86]
Primitive Methodism
The Wesleyan Methodists' rejection of revivals and camp meetings led to the founding in 1820 of the Primitive Methodist Connexion in England and Scotland, which emphasised those practices. It was a democratic, lay-oriented movement. Its social base was among the poorer members of society; they appreciated both its content (damnation, salvation, sinners and saints) and style (direct, spontaneous, and passionate). It offered an alternative to the more middle class Wesleyan Methodists and the upper class controlled Anglican established church, and in turn sometimes led adherents to Pentecostalism.[87] The Primitive Methodists were poorly funded and had trouble building chapels or schools and supporting ministers.[88] Growth was strong in the middle 19th century. Membership declined after 1900 because of growing secularism in society, a resurgence of Anglicanism among the working classes, competition from other Nonconformist denominations (including former Methodist minister William Booth's Salvation Army), and competition among different Methodist branches.[89]
The leading theologian of the Primitive Methodists was Arthur Peake (1865–1929), professor of biblical criticism at the University of Manchester, 1904–29. He was active in numerous leadership roles and promoted Methodist Union that came about in 1932 after his death. He popularised modern biblical scholarship, including the new higher criticism. He approached the Bible not as the infallible word of God, but as the record of revelation written by fallible humans.[90]
1910 to present
Reunification
Membership of the various Methodist branches peaked at 841,000 in 1910, then fell steadily to 425,000 in 1990.[41] The second half of the 19th century saw many of the small schisms reunited to become the United Methodist Free Churches, and a further union in 1907 with the Methodist New Connexion and Bible Christian Church brought the United Methodist Church into being. In 1908 the major three branches were the Wesleyan Methodists, the Primitive Methodists, and the United Methodists. After the late 19th century evangelical approaches to the unchurched were less effective and less used. Methodists paid more attention to their current membership, and less to outreach, while middle-class family size shrank steadily.[91] There were fewer famous preachers or outstanding leaders. The theological change that emphasised the conversion experience as being a one-time lifetime event rather than as a step on the road to perfection lessened the importance of class-meeting attendance and made revivals less meaningful.[92] The growth mechanisms that had worked so well in the expansion phase in the early 19th century were largely discarded, including revivals and the personal appeal in class meetings, as well as the love feast, the Sunday night prayer meeting, and the open-air meeting. The failure to grow was signalled by the flagging experience of the Sunday schools, whose enrolments fell steadily.[93][94]
With the Methodist Union of 1932 the three main Methodist connexions in Britain—the Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, and United Methodists—came together to form the present Methodist Church.[95] Some offshoots of Methodism, such as the Independent Methodist Connexion, remain totally separate organisations.[96]
Attempts to reverse the decline
After the union of 1932 many towns and villages were left with rival Methodist churches and circuits that were slow to amalgamate.[97] Methodist historian Reginald Ward states that because unification was unevenly implemented until the 1950s, it distracted attention away from the urgent need to revive the fast-shrinking movement. The hoped-for financial gains proved to be illusory, and Methodist leaders spent the early post-war era vainly trying to achieve union with the Church of England.[98] Multiple approaches were used to turn around the membership decline and flagging zeal in the post-war era, but none worked well. For example, Methodist group tours were organised, but they ended when it was clear they made little impact.[99]
During the 20th century Methodists increasingly embraced Christian socialist ideas. Donald Soper (1903–1998) was perhaps the most widely recognised Methodist leader. An activist, he promoted pacifism and nuclear disarmament in cooperation with the Labour Party.[100] Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a moralistic Methodist; Soper denounced her policies as unchristian. However, in "the battle for Britain's soul" she was reelected over and over.[101] Methodist historian Martin Wellings says of Soper:
His combination of modernist theology, high sacramentalism, and Socialist politics, expressed with insouciant wit and unapologetic élan, thrilled audiences, delighted admirers, and reduced opponents to apoplectic fury.[100]
In 1967, Soper, then the only Methodist minister in the House of Lords, lamented that:
To-day we are living in what is the first genuinely pagan age—that is to say, there are so many people, particularly children, who never remember having heard hymns at their mother's knee, as I have, whose first tunes are from Radio One, and not from any hymn book; whose first acquaintance with their friends and relations and other people is not in the Sunday School or in the Church at all, as mine was.[102]
Scholars have suggested multiple possible reasons for the decline, but have not agreed on their relative importance. Wellings lays out the "classical model" of secularization, while noting that it has been challenged by some scholars.
The familiar starting-point, a classical model of secularization, argues that religious faith becomes less plausible and religious practice more difficult in advanced industrial and urbanized societies. The breakdown or disruption of traditional communities and norms of behavior; the spread of a scientific world-view diminishing the scope of the supernatural and the role of God; increasing material affluence promoting self-reliance and this-worldly optimism; and greater awareness and toleration of different creeds and ideas, encouraging religious pluralism and eviscerating commitment to a particular faith, all form components of the case for secularization. Applied to the British churches in general by Steve Bruce and to Methodism in particular by Robert Currie, this model traces decline back to the Victorian era and charts in the twentieth century a steady ebbing of the sea of faith.[100][103]
Over the ten-year period from 2006 to 2016 membership decreased from 262,972 to 188,398. This represents a decline at a rate of 3.5 per cent year-on-year.[11][104] There were 4,512 local churches in the denomination.[11] Over the following three years to 2019 the rate of decline slowed slightly, as membership reduced to under 170,000, and church numbers to 4,110.[4]
Methodism was endowed by the Wesley brothers with worship characterised by a twofold practice: the sacramental liturgy of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer on the one hand and the free form "service of the word", i.e. a Nonconformist preaching service, on the other.[105][106] Listening to the reading of Scripture and a sermon based upon the biblical text is virtually always included in Methodist worship.[105] The Methodist Church follows the Revised Common Lectionary, in common with other major denominations in Britain.[107] Similar to most historic Christian churches, the Methodist Church has official liturgies for services such as Holy Communion (the Lord's Supper), Baptism, Ordination, and Marriage. These and other patterns of worship are contained in the Methodist Worship Book, the most recent Methodist service book.[108] It states in its preface that worship is "a gracious encounter between God and the Church. God speaks to us, especially through scripture read and proclaimed and through symbols and sacraments. We respond chiefly through hymns and prayers and acts of dedication."[109] Methodism has typically allowed for freedom in how the liturgy is celebrated—the Worship Book serves as a guideline, but ministers, preachers and other worship leaders are not obligated to use it.[note 2]
The Methodist Church has used a succession of hymnals (hymn books) and service books. The Methodist Hymn-Book (1933) was the first hymnal published after the 1932 union.[108] In 1936 the church authorised the Book of Offices,[note 3] including an "Order for Morning Prayer", which followed the precedent of Wesleyan liturgies based on the Book of Common Prayer (1662).[111][112] Later, the Methodist Service Book (1975) modernised the language used in the Communion prayers; its widespread usage has been cited as a cause for more frequent celebration of Communion in the Methodist Church.[113] The publication of a new hymnal, Hymns and Psalms (1983), expanded the repertoire of 20th-century compositions.[108]
The Methodist Worship Book (1999) includes a wider range of services for every season; it continues the 1975 service book's intention of preserving Methodist traditions while taking into account the insights of the liturgical renewal movement.[112][113] News media took interest in its publication due to the utilisation of gender-neutral language and the inclusion of a prayer addressed to "God our Father and our Mother ".[113] This prayer was viewed by some traditionalists as a "challenging" departure from the masculine language which is traditionally used when referring to God.[114]
Hymnody is used to communicate doctrine, and is recognised as a central feature of Methodism's liturgical identity.[115] The church is known for its rich musical tradition, and Charles Wesley was instrumental in writing many of the popular hymns sung by Methodist congregations.[116][117][118] Singing the Faith is the current hymnal, published by the church in 2011.[119] It contains 748 hymns and songs and 42 liturgical settings (such as the Kyrie, the Sanctus and the Lord's Prayer, as well as material from the Taizé and Iona traditions).[119] There are also 50 canticles and psalms, selected on the basis of their use within liturgy.[119] The collection of 89 hymns by Charles Wesley[120] is a reduction from over 200 in the 1933 Hymn-Book.[108]
Holy Communion
Methodist congregations celebrate Holy Communion within a Sunday service generally at least once a month.[121] The practice of an open table is now widespread in the Methodist Church. Although the phrasing and exact requirements in a particular local church may vary, generally "all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ"[122]: 7 are invited to receive bread and wine, irrespective of age or denominational identity. However this is not historic Methodist practice. Guidelines about Children and Holy Communion, issued in 1987, affirmed that those receiving communion should, if not already baptised, be encouraged to be baptised—though acknowledging that this "theological principle" was not widely adhered to.[122]
Covenant Service
A distinctive liturgical feature of British Methodism is the Covenant Service. Methodists annually follow the call of John Wesley for a renewal of their covenant with God.[123] In 1755, Wesley crafted the original Covenant Service using material from the writings of eminent clerics Joseph and Richard Alleine. In 1780, Wesley printed an excerpt from Richard Alleine's Vindiciae Pietatis, which is prayer for renewal of a believer's covenant with God.[124] This excerpt, known in modified form as the Wesley Covenant Prayer, remained in use—linked with Holy Communion and observed on the first Sunday of the New Year—among Wesleyan Methodists until 1936.[124] In the 1920s, Wesleyan minister George B. Robson expanded the form of the Covenant Service by replacing most of the exhortation with prayers of adoration, thanksgiving and confession. Robson's Covenant Service was revised and officially authorised for use in the Book of Offices (1936). Further revisions, strengthening the link with Communion and intercession for the wider church and the world, appeared in the Service Book (1975) and Worship Book (1999).[124] This Covenant Prayer, which has been adopted by other Christian traditions, has been described as "a celebration of all that God has done and an affirmation that we give our lives and choices to God".[125]
Core beliefs
A summary of Methodist doctrine is contained in the Catechism for the Use of the People Called Methodists.[126] Some core beliefs that are affirmed by most Methodists include:
- The belief that God is all-knowing, possesses infinite love, is all-powerful, and the creator of all things.
- God has always existed and will always continue to exist.
- God is three persons in one: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit.
- God is the master of all creation and humans are meant to live in a holy covenant with him. Humans have broken this covenant by their sins but all can be forgiven through the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
- Jesus was God in human form, who died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement for the sins of all people, and who was resurrected to bring them hope of eternal life.
- God's pardon for guilty sinners is granted to and received through faith alone.
- The grace of God is seen by people through the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives and in their world. (Scriptural holiness.)
- Scripture, comprising the Old and New Testaments, records divine revelation and is the primary source of authority for Christians.
- Baptism and the Lord's Supper (commonly called Holy Communion) are the two sacraments instituted by Jesus:
- Baptism involves being sprinkled with water or total immersion in it. This symbolises being brought into the community of faith; the sacrament requires a response of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.[127] The church practices infant baptism in anticipation of a response to be made later in confirmation.[128]
- The Lord's Supper is a sacrament in which participants eat bread and drink wine in memory of the Last Supper. The Catechism states, "Jesus Christ is present with his worshipping people ... As they eat the bread and drink the wine, through the power of the Holy Spirit they receive him by faith and with thanksgiving."[129]
Wesleyan theology
Wesleyan tradition stands at a unique cross-roads between evangelical and sacramental, between liturgical and charismatic, and between Anglo-Catholic and Reformed theology and practice.[130] It has been characterised as Arminian theology with an emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit to bring holiness into the life of the participating believer. The Methodist Church teaches the Arminian concepts of free will, conditional election, and sanctifying grace. John Wesley was perhaps the clearest English proponent of Arminianism.[131][132] Wesley taught that salvation is achieved through "divine/human cooperation" (which is referred to as synergism),[133][134] however, one cannot either turn to God nor believe unless God has first drawn a person and implanted the desire in their heart (the Wesleyan doctrine of prevenient grace).[135]
Wesley believed that certain aspects of the Christian faith required special emphasis.[136] Wesleyan Methodist minister William Fitzgerald (1856–1931) summarised the core emphases of Wesleyan doctrine by using four statements that collectively are called the 'Four Alls'.[137] These are expressed:
- All people need to be saved (total depravity)
- All people can be saved (unlimited atonement)
- All people can know they are saved (assurance of faith)
- All people can be saved to the uttermost (Christian perfection)[138]
Wesley described the mission of Methodism as being "to spread scriptural holiness over the land".[139] Methodists believe that inner holiness (sanctification) should be evidenced by external actions (that is, outward holiness), such as avoiding ostentation, dressing modestly, and acting honestly.[140] Wesley made much of the ongoing process or "journey" of sanctification, occasionally even seeming to claim that believers could to some degree attain perfection in this life.[141][note 4]
It is a traditional position of the Methodist Church that any disciplined theological work calls for the careful use of reason by which to understand God's action and will.[112] However, Methodists also look to Christian tradition as a source of doctrine. Wesley himself believed that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in the Bible as the sole foundational source. The centrality of Scripture was so important for Wesley that he called himself "a man of one book".[143] Methodism has also emphasised a personal experience of faith; this is linked to the Methodist doctrine of assurance. These four elements taken together form the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.[144]
Scripture
According to a conference report, A Lamp to my Feet and a Light to my Path (1998),[note 5][145] there are different perspectives on biblical authority which are held within the Methodist Church. The report summarises a range of views, as follows:[146]
- The Bible is the Word of God and is therefore inerrant (free of all error and entirely trustworthy in everything which it records) and has complete authority in all matters of theology and behavior....
- The Bible's teaching about God, salvation and Christian living is entirely trustworthy. It cannot be expected, however, to provide entirely accurate scientific or historical information....
- The Bible is the essential foundation on which Christian faith and life are built. However, its teachings were formed in particular historical and cultural contexts and must therefore be read in that light....
- The Bible's teaching, while foundational and authoritative for Christians, needs to be interpreted by the church.... Church tradition is therefore high importance as a practical source of authority.
- The Bible is one of the main ways in which God speaks to the believer... Much stress is placed on spiritual experience itself, which conveys its own compelling authority.
- The Bible witnesses to God's revelation of himself through history and supremely through Jesus Christ. However, the Bible is not itself that revelation, but only the witness to it.... Reason, tradition and experience are as important as the biblical witnesses.
- The Bible comprises a diverse and often contradictory collection of documents which represent the experiences of various people in various times and places. The Christian's task is to follow, in some way, the example of Christ. And to the extent that the Bible records evidence of his character and teaching it offers a useful resource.
Doctrinal standards
The Methodist Church understands itself to be part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.[147] It recognises the historic creeds, the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, as two statements of belief which have been in use since the earliest days of the Christian Church,[148] and which may be used in church services; alongside these a short "affirmation of faith" is also set out in the Methodist Worship Book.[149]
Although Methodist practices and interpretation of beliefs have evolved over time, these practices and beliefs can be traced to the writings, hymns and sermons of the church's founders,[150] especially John Wesley and Charles Wesley. The Methodist Church does not possess a strict set of doctrines comparable to that of the Westminster Confession, but it does specify general doctrinal standards, as follows:
The Methodist Church claims and cherishes its place in the Holy Catholic Church which is the Body of Christ. It rejoices in the inheritance of the apostolic faith and loyally accepts the fundamental principles of the historic creeds and of the Protestant Reformation. It ever remembers that in the providence of God Methodism was raised up to spread scriptural holiness through the land by the proclamation of the evangelical faith and declares its unfaltering resolve to be true to its divinely appointed mission.
The doctrines of the evangelical faith which Methodism has held from the beginning and still holds are based upon the divine revelation recorded in the Holy Scriptures. The Methodist Church acknowledges this revelation as the supreme rule of faith and practice. These evangelical doctrines to which the preachers of the Methodist Church are pledged are contained in Wesley's Notes on the New Testament and the first four volumes of his sermons.
The Notes on the New Testament and the 44 Sermons are not intended to impose a system of formal or speculative theology on Methodist preachers, but to set up standards of preaching and belief which should secure loyalty to the fundamental truths of the gospel of redemption and ensure the continued witness of the Church to the realities of the Christian experience of salvation.
Evangelism
The church is also evangelistic, i.e. concerned with spreading the Christian gospel. Being an evangelistic church is considered an integral part of the Methodist calling. The church offers a course called Everyone an evangelist, reflecting the church's evangelism and growth strategy and its focus on personal testimony.[151][152]