Methodism in the United States

METHODISM IN THE UNITED STATES There are in the United States sixteen distinct Methodist denominations, all agreeing essentially in doctrine. John Wesley had been conducting his United Societies for more than twenty years before the movement took root in North America.

A

Embury (r 729– 1775), a Wesleyan local preacher, emigrated in 176o from Limer ick to New York. Robert Strawbridge ( 781), a local preacher and native of Ireland, settled in Maryland. In 1766 Embury was stimulated by his relative, Mrs. Barbara Heck, to begin Methodist preaching, and a society was soon formed which grew rapidly. Five years later Francis Asbury was sent over, and was made assistant superintendent. Meanwhile Strawbridge had been preaching with success in Maryland and in Virginia. These "advance agents" of his spiritual propaganda brought with them Wesley's Arminian Theology. They brought also "the means of grace" on which Wesley placed the greatest stress; such as personal testimony in private and public, class and prayer meetings, watch-nights, love feasts, the direct and fervent preaching of the Gospel and the singing of Wesleyan hymns, carried on by means of circuits and stations and exhorters. Wesley appointed Thomas Rankin (c. 1738-1810) superintendent of the entire work in America.

The first American Conference was held in 1773, and consisted of ten preachers, all of whom were born in England or Ireland. Asbury came to America to remain permanently; but Rankin, unable to identify himself with its people, to take the test oaths required in the Revolution, or to sympathize with the colonies, returned to England, as did all the English preachers except As bury. By May 1776 there were 24 preachers and 4,921 members; but in the first year of the Revolution there was a loss of 7 preachers and nearly i,000 members.

The preachers in the South determined upon administration of the sacraments, and a committee was chosen whose members ordained themselves and others. The Northern preachers opposed this step and for several years the Connexion was on the verge of disruption. An agreement was finally made to suspend the

administration until Wesley's desires and judgment should be ascertained. He perceived that the society would disintegrate unless effective measures were speedily taken, and early in 1784 he ordained Thomas Coke (1747-1814), already in orders of the Church of England, as superintendent. Wesley sent Coke to America as his commissioner to establish, for the Methodist Soci ety, a system of Church government, which should include the administration of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper. Wesley also appointed Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury "to be joint super intendents over our brethren in North America." Soon after Coke and his companions arrived they met Asbury and fifteen preachers, and a special conference was called, which opened on the 24th of December, 1784, in the suburbs of Baltimore, Mary land. This convention organized itself into a Methodist Episcopal Church, in which the liturgy sent by Wesley should be read, and the sacraments should be administered and deacons to be ordained by a presbytery using the episcopal form. Coke and Asbury were unanimously elected superintendents, Coke, aided by his clerical companions from England, ordaining Asbury as deacon and elder and formally consecrating him a general superintendent. This con vention adopted the first Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It adopted the existing doctrinal standards, consisting chiefly of Wesley's Sermons and his Notes on the New Testament; also twenty-five of the Articles of Religion of the Church of Eng land, modified so as to eradicate all trace of High Church ritual ism, Anglican or Roman, and the distinctive doctrines of Calvin ism. 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 Boo regular preaching places. Within five years the number of preachers swelled to 227, and the mem bers to 45,949 (white) and 11,682 (coloured).