United Methodist Church commemorates 100 years

The Methodist Church Logo

Rochdale Town Hall hosts a Bolton and Rochdale Methodist District Celebration of Past, Present and Future at 6.30pm on Sunday 14 October. The District Service, led by Rev David King (Chairman of Bolton and Rochdale District), with the Rev Carl Howarth (Superintendent Minister, Rochdale and Littleborough Circuit) preaching, commemorates 100 years since the formation of the United Methodist Church, 300 years since birth of Charles Wesley, 200 years of Primitive Methodism and 150 years since formation of the United Methodist Free Church.

Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley was born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, into the large family of Samuel and Susanna Wesley (of about nineteen children, three sons and seven daughters survived). Both parents were devout and strongminded people.

Samuel had been raised in a Dissenting academy, but became a high church Anglican and was Rector of the parish at Epworth. He was a man of faith and spoke of ‘the inward witness' as ‘the strongest proof of Christianity.'

Susanna Wesley raised and educated her enormous family with great competence and discipline – the children had 6 hours of home schooling a day. She also found time, during one of Samuel's absences, to set up a Sunday afternoon house group in the rectory kitchen, which eventually attracted 200 people.

Samuel had a turbulent relationship with his flock and when in 1709 the rectory was destroyed by fire, some speculated that disgruntled parishioners might have been responsible.

Primitive Methodism

The Primitive Methodists were a major offshoot of the principal stream of Methodism - the Wesleyan Methodists - in 19th Century Britain.

In the early decades of the 19th century there was a growing body of opinion among the Wesleyans that their Connexion was moving in directions which were a distortion of, not to say a betrayal of, what John Wesley had brought to birth in the 18th century.

Eventually a Methodist preacher called Hugh Bourne became the catalyst for a breakaway, to form the Primitive Methodists. Probably 'primitive' was used to clarify their self-understanding that they were the true guardians of the original, or primitive, form of Methodism.

By the end of the 19th century these two streams of Methodism realised they had more in common than they might have supposed. So conversations began which led to their being the two principal partners in the union to form the present-day Methodist Church in 1932.

The Methodist Church today

The Methodist Church is the third-largest Christian church serving Great Britain, with nearly 300,000 members and regular contact with over 800,000 people. It has over 6,000 churches in Great Britain, and also maintains links with other Methodist churches totalling a worldwide membership of 70 million. Its activities, both alone and with ecumenical and secular partners, are based on four aims known as Our Calling:

• To increase awareness of God's presence and to celebrate God's love
• To help people to grow and learn as Christians through mutual support and care
• To be a good neighbour to people in need and to challenge injustice
• To make more followers of Jesus Christ.