Methodist Episcopal Church

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St. George's Church in Philadelphia, PA, USA

The Methodist Episcopal Church (English Methodist Episcopal Church ) was in 1784 in the United States was founded. It was thus the first Methodist Church . Until then, Methodism had been an internal revival movement in the Anglican Church .

history

The desire for an independent church arose from the shortage of priests that prevailed in the British colonies before and shortly after the American Revolution (very many priests had returned to England or went to the colonies of today's Canada, which are still loyal to the king), as it was for the residents In the New World it was then difficult to obtain the sacramentsto receive at the Anglican Church. Anglicans who were less influenced by the revival movement strove for an independent episcopal succession in the USA, but in 1784 it was not yet clear whether and how this project would be successful. At the same time, because of the war, the English Methodists, who felt connected to John Wesley and through him also to the Anglican Church, had returned to England and left the field to American patriotic Methodists, whose ties to John Wesley were less close and to the Anglican Church was practically nonexistent, who had a strong sense of independence due to the circumstances of the time. In 1784, for example, John Wesley appointed Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury as superintendents, which established an independent church order . Unlike in England, where such steps were not taken for another century, Wesley felt empowered to take this step, since the separation of the USA from England meant that the authority of the Church of England no longer extended to America.

Virtually all American Churches of the Methodist tradition evolved directly or indirectly from the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Swiss branch of the Methodist Episcopal Church was founded on February 24, 1856 in Lausanne.

In 1939 the Methodist Episcopal Church merged with the Methodist Protestant Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South to form the Methodist Church . This association had 7.7 million members worldwide.

In 1968 the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the Evangelical Methodist Church .

Church structure

See Church Structure of the Methodist and Wesleyan Churches

Teaching

See peculiarities of the Wesleyan tradition .

literature

  • Karl Steckel, C. Ernst summer (ed.): History of the Evangelical Methodist Church. Christian publishing house, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-7675-7496-9
  • Kenneth Cain Kinghorn: The Heritage of American Methodism. Édition du Signe, Strasbourg 1999, ISBN 2-87718-870-1

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Schütz: The Methodist Church in Switzerland. In: Karl Steckel / C. Ernst Sommer (ed.): History of the Evangelical Methodist Church . Christian publishing house, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-7675-7496-9 , p. 123.