Alexander Kilham

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Alexander Kilham (born July 20, 1762 in Epworth , Lincolnshire , † December 20, 1798 in Nottingham ) was an English Methodist preacher .

Life

Kilham's parents were Simon and Elizabeth Kilham, the birthplace may be a former farm (now Prospect House) or 79 High Street .

In 1785 he was accepted by John Wesley in the regular travel service and was pastor of a district in Sheffield ; at the same time he became leader and spokesman for the Democratic party in the Methodist movement. He campaigned for free elections for class leaders and stewards as well as for equal rights with preachers at the conference. He also advocated that the ministry should have no official power or pastoral prerogatives, but should only implement the decisions of the majority. And he voted for a complete separation of the Methodists from the Anglican Church . In the controversy that flared up, he wrote many, often provocative, pamphlets, some of them anonymously. Because of these machinations, he was summoned to the Conference in 1796 and expelled. Together with William Thom he founded the association The New Itinerancy (later Methodist New Connexion ) in 1798 , which merged with the United Methodist Church (Great Britain) in 1907 and is now part of the Methodist Church of Great Britain . Church leadership today reflects much of Kilham's ideas.

Kilham and Thom jointly drafted the Out-lines of a constitution; proposed for the examination, amendment and acceptance, of the members of the Methodist New Itinerancy, 1797.

Kilham died in 1798. His second wife, Hannah Kilham b. Spurr (1774-1832), whom he married shortly before his death, became a Quaker and worked as a missionary in the Gambia and Sierra Leone . She created transcriptions for various West African languages.

Works

  • Out-lines of a constitution; proposed for the examination, amendment & acceptance, of the members of the Methodist new itinerancy. 1797.
  • The substance of a sermon, preached at the opening of the Ebenezer Chapel, Leeds, on the 7th of May, 1797, for the use of the Methodists, formerly occupied by the particular Baptists.
  • A defense of the account, published by Alexander Kilham, of his trial before the London conference, 1796: in answer to Messrs. Mather, Pawson, and Benson.
  • A candid examination of The London Methodistical Bull.
  • The hypocrite detected and exposed, 1794.
  • Miscellaneous Pamphlet Collection (Library of Congress)

source

  • An account of the trial of Alexander Kilham, Methodist preacher, before the general conference in London, on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of July, 1796.
  • The life of Alexander Kilham, Methodist preacher, who was expelled from the Conference, or Society of Methodist Preachers, for publicly remonstrating with them for countenancing various corruptions and abuses: to which are added, extracts of letters (in favor of reform) written by a number of preachers to Mr. Kilham, during the time of his undertaking the cause of religious liberty.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Dunstan: Alexander's Daughter. In: Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, May 2008 http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/whs/56-5.pdf
  2. ↑ http://www.oldilkeston.co.uk/the-methodist-new-connexion/
  3. ↑ Republished by Gale ECCO, Print Editions (May 29, 2010), ISBN 978-1-170-50478-9

literature

personal data
SURNAME Kilham, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English Methodist pastor
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH Epworth, Lincolnshire , England
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1798
Place of death Nottingham