District rider
A circuit rider ( English circuit rider ) was a Methodist minister in the early years of the United States , of which he assigned area for his preaching traveled by horse.
District riders mostly appeared during the settlement phase of the American West between 1790 and 1840 and belonged as preachers to the Methodist Episcopal Church, for example . Their service, which they carried out at great personal sacrifice, was centered around the mission or awakening of the settlers. The preaching precincts were up to 500 miles in extent, so it would take a precinct rider between four and six weeks to complete one round. So-called “classes” were formed from the converts won through this work, in which the spiritual life was henceforth cultivated.
In 1782 there were 82 district riders, 71 of whom were unmarried. Almost half of the 737 district riders between 1784 and 1844 died before the age of 30.
Famous circuit rider were Francis Asbury (1745-1816), one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church , and instrumental in the outbreak of the Second Great Awakening took Peter Cartwright (1785-1872), who reported on his activities in two autobiographies.
The American author Edward Eggleston set a monument to the district riders with his work The Circuit Rider: A Tale of the Heroic Age , in which he processed his own experiences.
literature
- Paulus Scharpff: History of evangelism. Three hundred years of evangelism in Germany, Great Britain and the USA . 2nd edition, Brunnen, Gießen 1980, p. 107 f.
- Edward Eggleston: The Circuit Rider: A Tale of the Heroic Age. ( available online in a version from 1902)
Web links
- Martin Simon: What is a district rider? on bezirksreiter.de (accessed on September 20, 2013)