was furnished by Wesley with a document setting forth the
grounds on which he had taken this step. Wesley also appointed
Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury “to be joint superintendents
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, Maryland. 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 by superintendents, elders and
deacons, these elders 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. Several elders were
ordained. This convention 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 England, modified so as to eradicate
all trace of High Church ritualism, Anglican or 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 exporters. There were 60 chapels and 800 regular preaching places.
The energy of Asbury, and the position of Coke in the Church of England, his wealth, culture, and preaching power, greatly reinforced the efforts of the preachers. The administration of the sacraments brought peace; and many who would not unite with the “Society” asked admission to the Church. Within five years the number of preachers swelled to 227, and the members to 45,949 (white) and 11,682 (coloured).
To bind the whole body the existing method required the concurrence of each Annual Conference with every proposition. This was inconvenient and occasioned much loss of time; therefore a General Conference was established to meet once in four years. The first was held in 1792, and therein arose a sharp conflict. James O’Kelly (1735–1826), a Presiding Elder in control of a large district, proposed that, when the list of appointments was read in the Conference, if any preacher was not pleased with his assignment he might appeal to the Conference. The motion being lost, O’Kelly and several other preachers seceded. The Conference in 1804 limited the power of the Bishops by forbidding them to appoint any pastor for more than two consecutive years in charge of the same church. As all “travelling preachers” were eligible, Without election, to seats in General Conferences, widespread dissatisfaction prevailed among the distant Conferences. The era of the steamboat and the railway not having arrived, it was possible for two Annual Conferences, adjacent to the seat of the General Conference, to out-vote all others combined. This led to a demand for the substitution of a delegated General Conference, which was conceded by the Conference of 1808 to take effect four years later. The 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 majority to transfer to the Annual Conferences the power of appointing Presiding Elders. The change, though discussed for many years, has not been accomplished.
Several issues had been settled; but one, that of slavery, had to be faced. The storm burst on the Conference of 1844. Bishop James Osgood Andrew (1794–1871), a native of the South, had, by inheritance and 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 Southern members declared that the infliction of such a stigma upon Bishop Andrew would make it impossible for them to maintain the influence of Methodism in the South, and a tentative 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 of 1848 convened it represented 780 travelling preachers and 532,290 members fewer than it had numbered four years before.
After the Civil War the increase in membership was noteworthy. 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 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 1900 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 women presented 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 place, and the words “lay members” were substituted for “laymen” in that 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 property of the Book Concern and its income, the income of the Chartered Fund, and the right of ministers to trial before a 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, 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 sole interpreter of 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 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 denomination and a regard for laws enacted by the supreme body. In the absence of a Bishop the district superintendent represents him, and may transfer any ministers within the 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 works, religious experience, and numerous magazines and papers.
The Board of Foreign Missions carries on extensive operations in China, Japan, Korea, India and Malaysia, Italy, South America and Mexico. It assists the Methodist Churches organized in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Switzerland, and has recently established missions in Russia and France.
The Board of Home Missions and Church Extension supplies the foreign peoples domiciled in the United States with ministers of their own 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 Education, with the aid of a University Senate, assists young people to obtain education, and raises the standard of seminaries, colleges and universities. The Church, in the United States, supports 54 colleges and universities and 10 theological seminaries. The Freedmen’s Aid Society is devoted to the educational needs of the negro race in the United States, in which work it has been very successful.
The Sunday School Union, Epworth League, Methodist Brotherhood, hospitals, homes for the aged, deaconess homes and 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.
