What Do You Think of Methodism?

Just curious to find out what many Anglicans think of Methodism? I know this is kind of a double-edged question because there are so MANY kinds of Methodism, so for the purposes of staying on track, let's just limit it to John Wesley's original Methodism, the Methodist Church of England, and the United Methodist Church. I am not really interested in the holiness movement as a whole since that is a pretty big departure from the sacramental focus Anglicans have.

I am very interested to hear what people have to say!

 

My opinion: schismatics . Others may have other views though.

Also they introduced a very errant theology of regeneration upon faith, and that is totally wrong obviously.

 

The thief on the cross would have disagreed.

The errant theology is baptismal regeneration, a holdover from Roman error.

 

I was United Methodist for a while. I have a generally favorable opinion, although I disagree with the polity and with Welsey's views of sanctification.

The only thing keeping the UMC from going the way of TEC, PCUSA, and ELCA on morality is the size of the Southeastern USA Methodists and the presence of African UMC delegates to General Conference.

 

Or an established, accepted Anglican belief based upon the clear teaching of Scripture.

 

I was a Methodist PK. I remained a Methodist for about 50 years before joining the Episcopal Church. I find the UMC more similar than dissimilar from TEC such that it was an extremely easy transition for me. Granted there may be subtle but significant differences of importance to a theologian, but I venture to say that these are lost on the average lay person in the pew, myself included.

 

I agree. Ironically, the polity is, because of its international connections, bringing it back to Christian orthodoxy on a whole host of issues. If you look at the last two general conventions, it's clear things are going in a positive direction for them as Africans and Asians gain more seats at the convention.

I am curious to find out why you chose to left if you have a favorable opinion?

 

Thank you for sharing your opinion. I am very interested to find out why you left after 50 years of being in the church! Very interesting.

 

Or, more accurately, one of eight allowable and accepted Anglican beliefs on baptism, held mostly by Anglo-Catholics, and based on a faulty interpretation of scripture.

 

Mostly for the reasons I mentioned -- polity and some doctrinal differences, including sanctification.

 

Since this is old ground, I'd be glad to drop it altogether.

 

I have spoken of this in prior threads that may be found here:

http://forums.anglican.net/threads/why-are-you-anglican-episcopalian.72/#post-591

http://forums.anglican.net/threads/i-am-an-anglican-episcopalian-because.860/#post-14867

 

You may be interested to know that tHe Church of England and the Methodist Church of Great Britain are quite close to being in full communion:

http://www.anglican-methodist.org.uk/

The current stumbling blocks seem to me to be (a) the Methodists are waiting for the CofE to remove gender obstacles in the episcopate and (b) the CofE is waiting for the Methodists to decide how they will receive bishops in apostolic succession. We're all waiting to see how (a) pans out, of course. As to (b) the leading runner at present is for presidents of the Methodist Conference to be consecrated bishops, and for all future Methodist minsters to be episcopally ordained.

The Methodist Church of Great Britain is Wesleyan Methodist, of course.

 

I was not aware of this at all. Thank you for sharing with me. I think it is really amazing how the Methodists and the C of E in England could be so similar but the UMC and the Episcopal Church can be so different (from both each other and from the C of E and British Methodists.

 

I read both responses, thank you for sharing! I recently have found myself in a similar situation so I can relate.

 

(Oops! Wrong thread)

 

We have a good relationship with the Methodist Church in my Diocese. Our Diocesan Bishop and the Methodist Chairman work quite closely together. In the village where I live we have several shared services with the Methodists throughout the year. A neighbouring Anglican Parish formed a local ecumenical partnership with the Methodists a few years ago after the Methodist Chapel closed due to declining numbers. They now share worship in the Anglican building.

Our Diocese was a hotbed of Methodism in the 19th century with somewhere in the region of 900 Chapels, many in remote places. Around a quarter remain in use but more are closing. Our Bishop predicts that in the near future we are likely to share more of our churches.

During the 19th century, the relationship between the Methodists and CofE in my Diocese was strained - the Methodists being by far the dominant denomination. A well known CofE Rector of the period was asked if he would be prepared to bury a Methodist in his churchyard to which he replied that he would gladly bury the lot of them!

On a more light hearted note (from our parish magazine) a class of schoolchildren were asked to write an essay on the difference between the Church of England and the Methodist Church, to which one child answered;
"the difference between the Church of England and the Methodist Church is that the Methodist Church has double glazing."

So now you know!

 

The story is great...I wish that the same could be said here in the U.S. but it just isn't the case. I think both the Episcopal Church and the UMC have drifted further to the "liberal" end of the spectrum than their British counterparts. Additionally, many Methodists in the U.S. eventually became (I think) modern non-denomination or Evangelical Christians, whereas in Britain, that movement has never really taken off outside of the Anglican Church (at least at the same rates as here).

 

On that note i've been windering, how does a Methodist service compare to an Anglican one?