wfn.org | At the Roots of Methodism: Wesley would have liked unity

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July 22, 2002 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-71BP{307}

NOTE: This is a regular feature on Methodist history prepared especially for
distribution by United Methodist News Service. An artist's rendering of John
Wesley is available.

A UMNS Feature
By John Singleton*

The British Methodist Conference and the General Synod of the Church of
England have said "yes" to exploring the possibility of establishing a
covenant with each other. The proposals would commit them to working to
overcome the "remaining obstacles to the organic unity of our two churches,
on the way to full visible unity of Christ's church." 
 
While looking forward to the possibility of a "united, interchangeable
ministry," the covenant proposals also envision closer collaboration in all
areas of witness and service, together with the encouragement of
"Eucharistic hospitality" and greater shared consultation and
decision-making. The process of discussion has become like a pilgrimage for
Methodists and Anglicans in England. In light of the failure of previous
unity efforts between the two churches, it is significant that the proposals
for an Anglican-Methodist Covenant are taking a cautious, step-by-step
approach. 
 
The spirit of collaboration that exists between local churches of the two
denominations would, I am sure, have ensured a great welcome for John Wesley
in Anglican churches, were he with us today. But it wasn't always so. As an
Anglican himself, Wesley never intended to leave the Church of England, let
alone found a new church, but circumstances inexorably propelled the
Methodist movement toward going its own way. For a start, the established
church felt threatened by the strange idea of preaching the Gospel to crowds
of people outside the four walls of a church -- something John and Charles
Wesley and the early Methodist preachers did to great effect. At the same
time, John Wesley never encouraged his followers to leave the Church of
England, and he generally held his meetings at times that did not clash with
church services. 
 
Almost from the start, Wesley met with opposition from many clergymen. When
he returned to his native parish of Epworth, for example -- where he was
born and where his father had once been rector -- he found the pulpit of the
parish church closed to him. Undaunted, he preached instead from his
father's tomb in the graveyard. In fact, wherever he was barred from
pulpits, Wesley preached anywhere he could gain a hearing, be it in the
countryside, on the city streets or at places of industry, such as tin
mines. Some clergy welcomed Wesley into their churches, and a few became his
close allies, but others -- particularly in the early years -- denounced him
from their pulpits and published venomous pamphlets against him.   
 
One archbishop of Canterbury summoned John's brother, Charles, to appear
before him to answer a charge of "irregular conduct," then dismissed the
Methodist with a dire threat of excommunication. 

And once, in Bristol, John Wesley was told by the bishop: "Sir, you have no
business here. You are not commissioned to preach in this diocese. Therefore
I advise you to go hence." Wesley's historic reply was: "My business on
earth is to do what good I can. Wherever, therefore, I think I can do most
good, there I must stay so long as I think so. At present, I think I can do
most good here. Therefore here I stay. As to my preaching here, a
dispensation of the Gospel is committed to me, and woe is me if I preach not
the Gospel ..." Wesley said he had an "indeterminate commission" to preach
the word of God in any part of the Church of England. "I do not, therefore,
conceive that in preaching here by this commission, I break any human law,"
he said. "When I am convinced I do, then it will be time to ask, 'Shall I
obey God or man?'"

Later, the founder of the Methodist movement made an even bolder
declaration, which resonates today throughout the World Methodist movement.
"God commands me to instruct the ignorant, reform the wicked, confirm the
virtuous," he said. "Man forbids me to do this in another's parish; that is,
in effect, not to do so at all, seeing I have now no parish of my own, nor
probably ever shall. Whom, then, shall I hear? God or man? If it be just to
obey man rather than God, judge ye. I look upon all the world as my parish;
thus far, I mean, that in whatever part of it I am, I judge it my bounden
duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear the glad tidings of
salvation."
 
The man who spoke those historic words set before himself the task of
carrying the gospel to every corner of the British Isles. For the rest of
his life, this was his aim; and for 50 years, he bent his energy to this
task. Today, nearly 300 years on, much of the Wesley brothers' legacy is
truly ecumenical and owned by other denominations worldwide that find
inspiration through the hymns of Charles and the evangelical zeal of John. 
 
So would the founder of Methodism have approved of the current unity moves
between the Methodist and Anglican churches in Britain? For Wesley, surely,
it would have been the beginning of a pilgrimage home.
# # #
*Singleton is a writer for the weekly Methodist Recorder newspaper in
London. He also serves as administrator of Methodist churches and projects
in the Tower Hamlets area of East London. He can be contacted by e-mail at
john@towerhamlets.org.

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United Methodist News Service
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