rb65@prism.gatech.edu (Butera, Robert J.) (06/22/91)
If you can answer this without posting, feel free to do so! What is the Wesleyan Church? I've seen a few here in Atlanta and in listings in the newspapers. How does it differ from the United Methodist Church in terms of things like organizational structure, baptism, liturgy, etc? Is it another church that approaches christianity based upon the teachings of Wesley but didn't want to affiliate with the UMC (just as there are various Baptist Conventions)? Just curious. -- Robert J. Butera, Jr. Georgia Tech Research Institute Internet: rb65@prism.gatech.edu "My opinions, not Georgia Tech's" [(using my handy-dandy Dictionary of Christianity in America) The current Wesleyan Church is a merger of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Pilgrim Holiness Church. The Wesleyan Methodist Church was formed before the civil war by people who believed that the main body of Methodists were too tolerant of slavery. Later in the 19th Cent. it was influenced by the holiness movement (if you haven't heard of this, think of it as a brand of pentecostalism) and premillinealism, and had an emphasis on evangelism. When you consider that the United Methodist Church in the late 20th Cent. has become one of the more liberal churches, you can see that the two groups each moved away from the other. --clh]
6500s931@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Huggy Bear) (06/23/91)
In article <Jun.22.00.56.34.1991.6549@athos.rutgers.edu> rb65@prism.gatech.edu (Butera, Robert J.) writes: >it was influenced by the holiness movement (if you haven't heard of >this, think of it as a brand of pentecostalism) and premillinealism, This is little bit misleading. First, Pentecostalism is a brand of the holiness movement, not the other way around. Second, your statement may imply the Wesleyan Church or the holiness movement is Pentecostal which they are not. [Perhaps you'd care to comment on the differences.... --clh]
carroll@cs.washington.edu (Jeff Carroll) (06/25/91)
In article <Jun.22.00.56.34.1991.6549@athos.rutgers.edu> rb65@prism.gatech.edu (Butera, Robert J.) writes: >What is the Wesleyan Church? I've seen a few here in Atlanta and in >listings in the newspapers. How does it differ from the United Methodist >Church in terms of things like organizational structure, baptism, liturgy, >etc? Is it another church that approaches christianity based upon the >teachings of Wesley but didn't want to affiliate with the UMC (just as >there are various Baptist Conventions)? As Mr. Hedrick pointed out, the Wesleyan Church is the descendant of a couple of 19th century Methodist splinter groups. Other Methodist splinter groups include the Primitive Methodists (which, ironically, is today rather closely affiliated with the remnant of the United Brethren that didn't wind up in the UMC), the Free Methodists, and the Church of the Nazarene. The UMC was formed in 1968 as a merger of The Methodist Church (whose post-Civil War reunion took place in 1939), and the Evangelical United Brethren (or EUB), itself the result of the 1945 merger of the Evangelical Association (?) and most of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (which, as indicated above, split over the merger issue). The Wesleyans and Free Methodists publish a common hymnal which contains the liturgies used by both churches; they are similar to the official Order of Service published in the United Methodist hymnal but used by practically no United Methodist congregation today. Whether any of these groups can be said to be truly "Wesleyan" is subject to some debate; certainly the splinter groups are more like Wesley's practice, and more like the British Methodists, than is the UMC. Strong Calvinist influences came to Methodism early, though, in the person of George Whitefield and others, and IMO the most Wesley-like of contemporary personalities is the Rt. Rev. Mr. Michael Marshall, former Anglican bishop of Woolwich (the diocese which John A. T. Robinson once served), who now tours America as an evangelist from his base in St. Louis. -- Jeff Carroll carroll@ssc-vax.boeing.com