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Wesleyan Church

Christianity

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Origin 1968

The Wesleyan Church was formed in 1968 by the merger of two American Holiness denominations, the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Pilgrim Holiness Church. The Wesleyan Methodist Church itself began in 1843 when antislavery Methodists, unable to remain in a Methodist Episcopal Church that tolerated slaveholding, organized a new nonepiscopal body; the Pilgrim Holiness Church formed in 1897 from the union of several independent Holiness associations. Like other Wesleyan Holiness bodies it teaches entire sanctification and, as a condition of membership, historically required abstinence from alcohol and tobacco. Its headquarters are in Fishers, Indiana, and it reports congregations in more than 80 countries.

Facts
Belief
Defining Doctrinal PositionSourced to the subject's own account
Trinitarian: one God in three persons 1Tradition: Christianity
Position on Marriage
Marriage is held to be monogamous, with remarriage after divorce sanctioned under specified conditions 2
Sourced to the subject's own accountSection 410 of the Wesleyan Discipline holds that to obtain a divorce on other than scriptural grounds is a sin against God and humanity, and that a redeemed sinner or reclaimed backslider is free to marry in the Lord or to remain unmarried, so remarriage is possible once repentance and forgiveness are in place rather than foreclosed by a prior divorce alone.
Marriage Position DetailSourced to the subject's own account
Discipline section 410, subsection 6, states that to obtain a divorce on other than scriptural grounds is a sin against God and humanity, and that a redeemed sinner or reclaimed backslider is free to marry in the Lord or to remain unmarried. God's plan for human sexuality is that it is to be expressed only in a monogamous lifelong relationship between one man and one woman within the framework of marriage, a covenant union taking priority over every other human relationship, so remarriage after a divorce granted on scriptural grounds, followed by repentance where the divorce was not on such grounds, remains open rather than permanently foreclosed. 2
Position on Sexuality
Same-sex sexual relationships are held contrary to teaching; LGBT individuals are welcomed as members but not ordained, and same-sex unions are not blessed 2
Sourced to the subject's own accountThe Wesleyan Church's own Discipline, section 410, states that sexual relationships between persons of the same sex are immoral and sinful, while affirming that the grace of God is sufficient to overcome both the practice and the inclination leading to it. The church's own November 2023 statement adds that Wesleyan pastors do not preside over or host a same-sex union, and distinguishes the experience of temptation, which does not by itself disqualify a person from ordination or leadership, from the practice itself, without stating a separate rule for ordinary church membership.
Sexuality Position DetailSourced to the subject's own account
Discipline section 410, subsection 5, states: sexual relationships outside of marriage and sexual relationships between persons of the same sex are immoral and sinful, yet we believe the grace of God sufficient to overcome both the practice of such activity and the inclination leading to its practice. The church's own November 2023 statement adds: Wesleyan pastors do not preside over these unions, nor do we hold them in our churches, and states the mere experience of temptation does not disqualify a person from ordination or leadership, while maintaining the theological conviction that same-sex sexual activity contradicts Scripture and stating the church rejects and repents of the way gay and lesbian neighbors have been mocked, bullied and ostracized. 3
Organisation
Governance
Connexional: congregations bound in a conference with itinerant ministry 1
Sourced to the subject's own accountDistrict conferences and a General Conference, led by an elected Board of General Superintendents
Ordination
Open to women and men 1
Sourced to the subject's own accountOrdains both men and women to ministry
Trajectory
Membership Over Time
At its founding merger of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America and the Pilgrim Holiness Church in 1968, the new Wesleyan Church reported 80,990 members, per the denomination's own connectional statistics. 4
Membership Over Time
By 2018, fifty years after the merger, the Wesleyan Church reported 138,190 members in its own connectional statistics, growth of about 71 percent over the intervening half century even as that year's total was itself down 2.0 percent from 2017. 4
Membership Figure As Of
1968-01-01 4
Membership Figure As Of
2018-01-01 4
Basis of the Membership Figure
Church-Reported Rolls 4
Origins
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account
1968 1
Place of OriginSourced to the subject's own account
United States 1
FounderSourced to the subject's own account
No single founder; formed by the 1968 merger of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, founded 1843 by Orange Scott and fellow abolitionist Methodists, and the Pilgrim Holiness Church, formed 1897 under leaders including Martin Wells Knapp 1
History
Separation or DivergenceSourced to the subject's own account
The Wesleyan Methodist Church separated from the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1843 over slaveholding and church government; the Pilgrim Holiness Church formed by the union of independent Holiness associations rather than by separation 1
Date of SeparationSourced to the subject's own account
from 1843 1
Practice
Liturgical LanguageSourced to the subject's own account
The vernacular 1
Status
Status TodaySourced to the subject's own account
Living tradition, practised today 1
Reach
Adherents TodaySourced to the subject's own account
368,000 1
In Other Languages (3 names)
  • Γουεσλεϊανή Εκκλησία
  • Iglesia Wesleyana
  • Wesleyanska kyrkan
Learn More
Two Holiness Churches, and the Road to 1968

The Wesleyan Church carries a double inheritance from two separate nineteenth-century American Holiness denominations that eventually recognized how much they had in common. The older of the two, the Wesleyan Methodist Church, was founded in 1843 by Orange Scott and fellow abolitionist Methodist ministers who could no longer remain in a Methodist Episcopal Church that tolerated slaveholding among its members and bishops; they organized a new church that also rejected the episcopacy in favor of elected leadership and lay representation in its governing conferences.

The younger body, the Pilgrim Holiness Church, formed in 1897 out of the merger of several smaller independent Holiness associations, under leaders including the evangelist and hymn writer Martin Wells Knapp, and it grew rapidly through the camp-meeting revivalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Holiness movement. Though the two churches had separate histories and separate general conferences for more than a century, both taught the Wesleyan Holiness doctrine of entire sanctification and shared much of the same theological and cultural world, and by the mid-twentieth century their leaders had begun serious talks toward union.

The 1968 Merger and the Church Today

Formal merger negotiations between the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Pilgrim Holiness Church moved through the 1950s and 1960s, and on June 26, 1968, delegates of both bodies completed the union, forming The Wesleyan Church. The merged denomination retained its predecessors' Wesleyan Holiness doctrine, teaching entire sanctification as a second work of grace, and historically required its members to abstain from alcohol, tobacco, and membership in secret societies, expectations that have relaxed in some respects over subsequent decades.

The Wesleyan Church is governed through a system of district conferences and a General Conference, led by a Board of General Superintendents, and it ordains both men and women to ministry. Its headquarters relocated over the twentieth century from Marion, Indiana, home to its affiliated Indiana Wesleyan University, through Indianapolis in 1987 to its present offices in Fishers, Indiana, since 2004. By 2011 the denomination reported worldwide Sunday attendance of about 475,000 across more than 5,000 congregations in over 80 countries, with total worldwide membership counted at roughly 368,000, a global reach that today reaches well beyond the church's origins among antislavery Methodists in the American Northeast and Holiness revivalists in the Midwest.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Superintendent, Religious Roles & Titles

This source names Wesleyan Church directly: "the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church both call their chief officers general superintendents today, and every major Methodist body still uses district superintendent for the regional..."

Source The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist ChurchUnited Methodist Churchthe holders' own account
The Wesleyan Church and Homosexuality (wesleyan.org), Sources

This source names Wesleyan Church directly: "Published on The Wesleyan Church's own site, dated November 2023."

Source The Wesleyan Church and Homosexuality (wesleyan.org)the holders' own account
Wesleyan Church (Wikipedia), Sources

This source names Wesleyan Church directly: "community edited article on the Wesleyan Church."

Source Wesleyan Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Belongs to Tradition

Christianity, Religions

Branch Of

Christianity, Religions

Critiqued

Seven Sacraments, Practices

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Articles of Religion hold that there are two sacraments ordained of Christ, and that the other five are not to be counted for sacraments of the Gospel.

Veneration of icons, Practices

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Articles name the worshipping and adoration of images and of relics as a fond thing vainly invented.

Veneration of saints and Mary, Practices

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Articles name the invocation of saints in the same place, and Methodist prayer is addressed to God alone.

Derived From

Holiness Movement, Religious Movements
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Methodism, Denominations

A Holiness body of Methodist descent.

Source Wesleyan Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Holds Element

A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists, Hymns & Liturgical Texts

A holiness body descended from the Wesleyan Methodist Connection. It inherits the Wesleyan repertory and its doctrine of entire sanctification, but the 1780 collection is not its hymnal.

Source The English Hymn: A Critical and Historical StudyJ. R. Watson

Held Differently

Temperance, Virtues

The Wesleyan Church holds temperance as abstinence, a position it has kept from the holiness movement of the nineteenth century.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Rejected Here

The Synod of Dort, Councils and Synods

The Wesleyan churches refuse the canons of Dort on election and on the limited extent of the atonement, holding that Christ died for all.

Source The Sermons of John WesleyJohn Wesley

Objects and Practices of This Tradition

Advent, Holidays & Festivals
Almsgiving / Charity, Practices

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Works of mercy stand beside works of piety in the Methodist account of the Christian life, and neither is optional.

Arminianism (free will and universal atonement), Beliefs & Restrictions
Baptism, Rituals

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Baptismal life, Practices

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Baptism is understood as the sign of the new covenant and the beginning of a life of grace to be grown into, not a moment complete in itself.

Christian perfection (entire sanctification), Beliefs & Restrictions
Christmas, Holidays & Festivals
Collect for Purity, Prayers

Kept in the Wesleyan Church.

Confirmation, Rituals

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Confirmation is the profession of faith by which a baptised person is received into full membership, and it is not held to be a sacrament.

Connexionalism, Beliefs & Restrictions
Easter, Holidays & Festivals
Fasting, Practices

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Fasting is one of the means of grace, and Wesley kept the Friday fast himself and pressed it on the societies.

Funeral Rites, Rituals

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Service of Death and Resurrection is the modern form of the burial office and takes its name from what it is meant to proclaim.

Gloria Patri, Prayers

Kept in the Wesleyan Church.

Good Friday, Holidays & Festivals
Holy Orders, Rituals

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Ordination is to the orders of deacon and elder. The episcopacy is an office to which an elder is elected and consecrated, not a third order, which is the settled Methodist difference from Anglican practice.

Infant Baptism and Christening, Rituals

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Infants are baptised, and the service places the congregation under a vow to nurture the child.

Intinction, Practices

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Intinction is the ordinary manner of receiving in many congregations, and it follows from the use of unfermented grape juice in a common cup.

Justification by faith alone (sola fide), Beliefs & Restrictions
Liturgical Colors, Practices

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The liturgical colours were retained from the Anglican inheritance and are set out in the modern service books.

Marriage Ceremony, Rituals

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The marriage service descends from the Prayer Book by way of Wesley's abridgement of it for the American societies.

Observing the Sabbath, Practices

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Sunday is kept for public worship, and the General Rules bind members to attend upon the ordinances of God.

Open communion, Beliefs & Restrictions
Pentecost, Holidays & Festivals
Prayer, Practices

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Prayer stands among the means of grace Wesley called the works of piety, alongside searching the scriptures, the Lord's Supper and fasting.

Prayer of Humble Access, Prayers

Kept in the Wesleyan Church.

Salvation by grace, Beliefs & Restrictions
Subscription to a confession of faith, Beliefs & Restrictions
The Anaphora, Rituals

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Great Thanksgiving is a full anaphora, restored to Methodist worship in the twentieth century after two hundred years in which the Supper was celebrated from a much shorter form.

The Epiclesis, Rituals

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Great Thanksgiving carries an explicit invocation of the Holy Spirit on the gifts and on the people, which the sixteenth-century English rite did not.

The Fraction, Rituals

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The breaking of the bread is a distinct action with its own words.

The Grace, Prayers

Kept in the Wesleyan Church.

The Holy Trinity, Beliefs & Restrictions
The Lord's Prayer, Prayers

Kept in the Wesleyan Church.

The Mass / Eucharist, Rituals

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Lord's Supper is celebrated as a means of grace and Wesley pressed constant communion on the societies, though quarterly celebration became the practice for most of Methodist history for want of ordained ministers.

The ordination of women, Beliefs & Restrictions
The resurrection of Christ, Beliefs & Restrictions
The Second Definite Work of Grace, Doctrines

The Wesleyan Church, formed in 1968 from the Wesleyan Methodist Connection and the Pilgrim Holiness Church, holds entire sanctification as a definite, instantaneous second work of grace subsequent to conversion.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal (1910), Musical Works

The Wesleyan Methodist Church, this hymnal's own publishing body, is one of the two churches (with the Pilgrim Holiness Church) whose 1968 union formed The Wesleyan Church, the continuing denomination this edge targets.

Source The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal (Hymnary.org)Wesleyan Methodist Publishing Association
The Words of Institution, Rituals

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The words of institution stand within the Great Thanksgiving.

Sources
1. Wesleyan Church (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, WikipediaWhole articleView the Source
2. The Discipline of The Wesleyan Church, Section 410 (discipline.wesleyan.org)
The Wesleyan Church, 2022the stated position on sexuality, the stated position on marriage and both their detailsthe holders' own accountView the Source
3. The Wesleyan Church and Homosexuality (wesleyan.org)
The Wesleyan Church, 2023the sexuality-position detailthe holders' own accountView the Source
4. 2018 TWC Statistics Reinforce Need to Fill the Gospel Gap (The Wesleyan Church)
The Wesleyan Church, The Wesleyan Church (wesleyan.org), 2018View the Source
The Sermons of John Wesley
John Wesley, Abingdon Press, 2013View the Source
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition
F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005View the Source
The English Hymn: A Critical and Historical Study
J. R. Watson, Oxford University Press, 1997
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