Global InformationMethodist Church of Great Britain information
| The Methodist Church[1] | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Methodist |
| Theology | Wesleyan |
| Governance | Connexionalism |
| President | Gill Newton[2] |
| Vice-President | Kerry Scarlett[2] |
| Associations | List
|
| Region | Great Britain Channel Islands · Isle of Man · Gibraltar · Malta |
| Headquarters | Methodist Church House, 25 Tavistock Place, London[3] |
| Origin | 1932 (Methodist Union)1 Great Britain |
| Merger of |
|
| Local churches | 4,110 (as of 2019[update])[4] |
| Members | 136,891 (as of 2022[update])[5] |
| Ministers | 3,459 |
| Aid organization | All We Can |
| Official website | methodist |
| 1. The Methodist movement originated in the 18th century | |
The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestant Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodists worldwide.[6] It participates in the World Methodist Council, and the World Council of Churches among other ecumenical associations.
Methodism began primarily through the work of John Wesley, who led an evangelical revival in 18th-century Britain. An Anglican priest, Wesley adopted unconventional and controversial practices, such as open-air preaching, to reach factory labourers and newly urbanised masses uprooted from their traditional village culture at the start of the Industrial Revolution. His preaching centred upon the universality of God's grace for all, the transforming effect of faith on character, and the possibility of perfection in love during this life. He organised the new converts locally and in a "Connexion" across Britain. Following Wesley's death, the Methodist revival became a separate church and ordained its own ministers; it was called a Nonconformist church because it did not conform to the rules of the established Church of England. In the 19th century, the Wesleyan Methodist Church experienced many secessions, with the largest of the offshoots being the Primitive Methodists. The main streams of Methodism were reunited in 1932, forming the Methodist Church as it is today.
Methodist circuits, containing several local churches, are grouped into thirty districts. The supreme governing body of the church is the annual Methodist Conference; it is headed by the president of Conference, a presbyteral minister (currently Gill Newton), supported by a vice-president who can be a local preacher or deacon. The denomination ordains women and openly LGBT ministers.
The Methodist Church is Wesleyan in its theology and practice. It uses the historic creeds and bases its doctrinal standards on Wesley's Notes on the New Testament and his Forty-four Sermons.[7]: 213 Church services can be structured with liturgy taken from a service book—especially for the celebration of Holy Communion—but commonly include free forms of worship.
The 2009 British Social Attitudes Survey found that around 800,000 people, or 1.29 per cent of the British population, identified as Methodist.[8] As of 2022[update], active membership stood at approximately 137,000,[5] representing an 32 per cent decline from the 2014 figure.[9] Methodism is the fourth-largest Christian group in Britain.[10] Around 202,000 people attend a Methodist church service each week, while 490,000 to 500,000 take part in some other form of Methodist activity, such as youth work and community events organised by local churches.[11]
- ^ "Methodist Church Act 1976" (PDF). www.legislation.gov.uk. UK Parliament. p. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 March 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
- ^ a b "The President and Vice-President". Methodist Church in Britain. Archived from the original on 21 February 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2019. This is a live link that will update every year.
- ^ "The Methodist Church has moved". methodist.org.uk. February 2023. Archived from the original on 16 February 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
- ^ Methodism in Numbers – Statistics at a Glance (2020 edition) Archived 24 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Methodist Conference. May 2020.
- ^ a b District Membership Statistics Summary October 2022 Archived 28 December 2023 at the Wayback Machine The Methodist Church of Great Britain. 28 December 2023.
- ^ Yrigoyen, Charles Jr. (25 September 2014). T&T Clark Companion to Methodism. A&C Black. p. 73. ISBN 9780567290779.
British Methodism therefore holds an inescapable chronological priority in the history of world Methodism and it has also often been accorded a courteous priority of esteem, being regard still as the 'mother church' by Methodists from many parts of the globe. The story of the origins and development of Methodism in what is now the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, therefore, is the story, first, of an eighteenth-century movement which gave birth to the whole Methodist enterprise and then of a nineteenth-century church whose influence reached out across the world through the missionary endeavours of the various British Connexions within and beyond the British Empire.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
CPDwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "BSA 2009 Table". Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
- ^ "Methodism in Numbers – Statistics at a Glance" (PDF). methodist.org.uk. The Methodist Conference. July 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- ^ "Methodist Church". World Council of Churches. January 1948. Archived from the original on 11 January 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Piggotwas invoked but never defined (see the help page).