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growing feeling in favour of union. Canada and Australasia led the way, for in these countries the Methodist Church was undivided, and the sentiment was greatly strengthened by the formation in the United Kingdom of the United Methodist Church in 1907.

See A New History of Methodism, ed. W. J. Townsend, H. B. Workman, George Eayrs (2 vols., London, 1909).  (J. A. V.*) 

Denomination.	Ministers.	Lay Preachers.	Church Members and  Probationers.	Sunday Schools.	Officers and Teachers.	Sunday Scholars.	Churches, &c.
Wesleyan Methodists:—  Great Britain.	2,454	19,826	520,868	7,589	132,186	987,953	8,606[1]
Ireland	246	621	29,531	353	2,557	25,969	414[2]
Foreign Missions	617	4,965	143,467	1,754	7,651	91,113	3,502
French Conference	35	89	1,675	70[3]	142	1,996	127
South African Conference	253	5,797	117,146	788	2,893	39,329	3,930
Primitive Methodists	1,178	16,158	212,168	4,155	59,557	465,531	5,148
United Methodist Church	891	6,183	186,905	2,404	43,169	323,675	3,188
Wesleyan Reform Union	21	527	8,489	181	2,762	22,312	196
Independent Methodist Churches	424	—	9,442	153	3,041	27,219	156
Australasian Methodist Church	975	4,576	150,751	3,973	24,322	231,553	6,418
United States:—  Methodist Episcopal[4]	19,421	14,743	3,376,888	34,619	361,667	3,068,248	29,765
Union American Methodist Episcopal	138	—	18,500	—	—	—	255
African Methodist Episcopal	6,070	15,885	850,000	—	—	—	6,815
African Union Methodist Protestant	200	750	4,000	350	900	2,770	125
African Methodist Episcopal Zion.	3,912	1,520	578,310	2,034	14,404	122,467	3,241
Methodist Protestant	1,551	1,135	183,894	2,034	16,680	126,031	2,242
Wesleyan Methodist	524	—	19,064	465	—	18,344	598
Methodist Episcopal (South)	6,978	4,800	1,673,892	14,892	111,137	1,084,238	15,496
Congregational Methodist	415	—	24,000	—	—	—	425
Congregational Methodist (coloured)	5	—	319	—	—	—	5
New Congregational Methodist	238	—	4,022	—	—	—	417
Zion Union Apostolic	30	—	2,346	—	—	—	32
Coloured Methodist Episcopal	2,673	2,786	219,739	4,007	7,098	79,876	2,619
Primitive Methodist	72	138	7,013	108	—	11,754	104
Free Methodist	1,126	1,299	31,435	1,175	7,376	40,660	1,117
Independent Methodist	8	—	2,569	—	—	—	15
Evangelistic Missionary	92	27	5,014	—	—	1,200	47
Canadian Methodist Church	2,384	3,809	329,904	3,556	35,323	305,649	3,789
Japan Methodist Church[5]	47	35	4,083	121	544	11,136	28
Totals	52,978	105,669	8,715,434	84,781	833,409	7,089,023	98,820

 

Methodism in the United States

There are in the United States sixteen distinct Methodist denominations, all agreeing essentially in doctrine. John Wesley had been conducting his United Societies for more than twenty years before the movement took root in North America.

A.—Episcopal Methodist Churches.

Philip Embury (1729–1775), a Wesleyan local preacher, emigrated in 1760 from Limerick to New York. Robert Strawbridge (?–1781), a local preacher and native of Ireland, settled in Maryland. In 1766 Embury was stimulated by his relative, Mrs Barbara Heck, to begin Methodist preaching, and a society was soon formed, which grew rapidly. Embury was reinforced by the arrival of Thomas Webb (1724–1796), an English local preacher and a captain in the British army. Webb and Thomas Taylor, a layman of superior ability, appealed to Wesley to send over missionaries, and the 26th annual British Conference, held in 1768, sent to the society in New York, £50 and furnished passage money for two missionaries, Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor (1739–1825). Three years later Francis Asbury was sent over, and was made assistant superintendent. Meanwhile Strawbridge had been preaching with success in Maryland and in Virginia.

These “advance agents” of this spiritual propaganda brought with them Wesley’s Arminian Theology. They brought also “the means of grace” on which Wesley placed the greatest stress; such as personal testimony in private and public, class and prayer meetings, watch-nights, love-feasts, the direct and fervent preaching of the Gospel and the singing of Wesleyan hymns, carried on by means of circuits and stations, exhorters, local and travelling preachers, and the organization of local societies with class leaders, stewards and trustees. The intention was to make American Methodism a facsimile of that in England, subject to Wesley and the British Conference—a society and not a Church. Pilmoor and others objected to Asbury’s strict discipline, and Wesley, hearing of the disagreement, in 1773 appointed Thomas Rankin (c. 1738–1810) superintendent of the entire work of Methodism in America.

The First American Conference.—The first American Conference was held in 1773, and consisted of ten preachers, all of whom were born in England or Ireland. Asbury came to America to remain permanently; but Rankin, unable to identify himself with its people, to take the test oaths required in the Revolution, or to sympathize with the colonies, returned to England, as did all the English preachers except Asbury. By May 1776 there were 24 preachers and 4921 members; but in the first year of the Revolution there was a loss of 7 preachers and nearly 1000 members. The next year saw extensive revivals, in sections removed from the seat of war, which added more than 2600 to the number of members.

The preachers in the South determined upon administration of the sacraments, and a committee was chosen whose members ordained themselves and others. The Northern preachers opposed this step and for several years the Connexion was on the verge of disruption. An agreement was finally made to suspend the administration until Wesley’s desires and judgment could be ascertained. He perceived that the society would disintegrate unless effective measures were speedily taken, and, aided by two presbyters of the Church of England, early in 1784 he ordained Thomas Coke (1747–1814), already a presbyter of that Church, as superintendent. He likewise ordained two of his lay preachers as deacons and elders, to accompany Coke, whom Wesley sent to America as his commissioner to establish, for the Methodist Society, a system of Church government, which should include the administration of Baptism and of the Lord’s Supper. Coke

1. Seating accommodation, 2,374,425.
2. Other preaching-places, 1561.
3. Sunday and Thursday Schools.
4. Methodism is also represented in several European countries by Conferences and Missions affiliated to the Methodist Episcopal Church of America, and their membership is included in the figures given above. The 1908 returns are: Bulgaria, 546 members; Denmark, 3771; Finland and St Petersburg, 1367; France, 221; Italy, 3669; North Germany, 12,886; Norway, 60545 South Germany, 11,808; Sweden, 15,430; Switzerland, 9419.
5. Western inference only.