The Separatism of Early Methodist Institutions

A short paper from 1982 makes the case that Methodism began separating from the Church of England well before Wesley ordained Whatcoat and Vasey for America in 1784, or British Methodists separated in 1795. In The Separation from the Church of England, British Methodist Nigel Waterfield envisions separation unfolding in 4 institutional categories.

  • Organization
  • Buildings
  • Liturgy
  • Ministry 

In each case, the Methodists set up institutional structures that competed with those of the Church of England. 

Organization

Wesley organized Methodists organized into societies (1739), classes (1742), conferences (1744) and circuits (1748) that competed with the church’s organization into geographical dioceses and parishes. Wesleyan institutions gained enduring legal status through The Model Deed in 1763 and the Deed of Declaration in 1784/1789. 

Methodists were members of a particular Anglican parish because of where they lived, and many parish members had little contact with the church in their daily lives. They were members of a Methodist society, however, because they had voluntarily chosen to join. Membership carried meaning, and placed significant demands on the lives of the members. Methodists, then, began to identify with the Wesleyan institutions that occupied so much of their time and religious imagination. 

Buildings

Methodists began constructing preaching places in 1739, with the New Room in Bristol. In 1748 they began officially registering their preaching places with the government as Dissenting Meeting Houses in order to gain legal protection under the Act of Toleration (1689). This put the Methodist buildings in the same legal category as those of separatist dissenters like Baptists and Presbyterians. While Wesley sought to minimize the impact of registration by calling his buildings Methodist Chapels, even that name tended to separate Methodists from the Church of England. 

While the chapels were preaching places, not churches, the buildings in fact were religious spaces where people worshipped. Initially, Methodist services did not compete with those held in the nearby parish church, whose services Methodists were encouraged to attend. Nevertheless, the chapels became the primary religious space where Methodists regularly and powerfully encountered God in their meeting together. The chapel could not help but displace the parish church building in the religious affections of Methodists. 

Liturgy

Methodists developed their own liturgical activities, though they might not have used that word to describe them. Waterfield mentions Methodist love feasts, watch nights, preaching services, and hymns. Preaching emphasized Christian Perfection and was filled with emotion. Charles Wesley was a prolific hymn writer. The experience of Methodist worship was palpably distinct from the church’s liturgy, and those attracted to Methodism found it more meaningful. It’s no wonder, then, that the Methodist way of worship displaced the church’s liturgy in the hearts of Methodists and set the stage for institutional separation.

Ministry

While Wesley did not ordain anyone prior to 1784, and then only for service in outside of England, he did appoint full-time, itinerant, lay preachers who answered only to Wesley. The preachers served as traveling evangelists who oversaw and disciplined the Methodist societies as they traveled from place to place. The Methodist preacher, not the parish priest, came to occupy the “religious leader” space in the minds of Methodists. 

Doctrine

In addition to the categories proposed by Waterfield, we should also consider doctrine. Teaching and training are properly institutional matters. Wesley's many publications reinforced the idea that Methodism had distinctive beliefs and practices. Cindy Wesley has argued that Wesley’s sermons served as doctrinal standards, a parallel to the Anglican Book of Homilies. Wesley began publishing his standard sermons in 1746. The Model Deed (1763) required Methodist preachers to teach no doctrine other than that contained in Wesley's sermons and Notes on the New Testament.

Final Separation

Having developed its own organization, religious spaces, liturgy, religious leaders and doctrine, Methodism practically separated from the Church of England well before it legally separated. American Methodism established its existence as an independent church in 1784. By the end of the 18th century, the only thing tenuously holding English Methodists to the Church of England was the matter of Holy Communion. Following Wesley’s death, various Methodist factions staked out different positions on the issue. In 1795, the Plan of Pacification attempted to reconcile these factions, allowing chapels to conduct services of Holy Communion if the trustees and congregational leaders voted to do so, but only traveling preachers in full connection with the Conference were allowed to preside. 

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