WESLEYAN CHURCH

:''For the former Wesleyan Methodist Church of Great Britain, see Methodist Church of Great Britain.''
'The Wesleyan Church' is a religious denomination in the United States and Canada associated with the holiness movement that has roots in Methodism and the teachings of John Wesley.

Contents

History

The Church today

Districts in North America

Schools in the United States and Canada

Notes

See also

History

The Wesleyan Church in America (formerly Wesleyan Methodist) was officially formed in 1843 at an organizing conference in Utica, New York, as a group of ministers and laymen splitting from the Methodist Episcopal Church, primarily over their objections to slavery, though they had secondary issues as well. Rev. Orange Scott presided as the meeting formed a federation of churches at first calling themselves the Wesleyan Methodist Connection.(The name was chosen to distinguish themselves from the British Wesleyan Methodists). Other leaders at the founding of the church were LaRoy Sunderland, who had been tried and defrocked for his antislavery writings, Lucious C. Matlack, and Luther Lee, a minister who later operated an Underground Railroad station in Syracuse, New York.
In addition to anti-slavery, the early Wesleyan Methodists championed the rights of women. The Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York hosted the first Women's Rights Convention in 1848, also known as the Seneca Falls Convention. It is commemorated by the Women's Rights National Historical Park in the village today.
Luther Lee, General President in 1856, ordained the very first woman to the Christian ministry in the United States at Oberlin College, Ohio. A Canadian group which merged into the Wesleyan church and mentioned in the next paragraph, ordained the very first woman to the ministry in Canada in the late 1800s. At the General Conference in 1867, a resolution was adopted favoring the right of women to vote (as well as the right of freedmen — blacks). This was 44 years before the U.S. constitution was amended to allow women voting privileges.
In 1966 the denomination merged with the Alliance of Reformed Baptists of Canada and 1968 with the Pilgrim Holiness Church. It spread through revivals emphasizing a deepening experience with God called holiness or sanctification. Heart purity was a central theme. During this period of time, many small churches developed through revivals and the emphasis of sanctification (taught by John Wesley, but not emphasized by many Methodists). As many as 25 or 30 small denominations were formed and eventually merged with other groups to enlarge the church. The church was strong in missionary and revival emphasis. The Wesleyan merger took place in 1968 at Anderson University, Anderson, Indiana.
HISTORY OF WESLEYAN HOLINESS MISSIONS IN THE CARIBBEAN
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Wesleyan Church has missionaries serving in many Caribbean nations. The following will describe briefly some antecedents of Wesleyan missions, and their development in the twentieth century.
FORERUNNERS OF WESLEYAN MISSIONS
Protestantism was introduced to the Caribbean after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 opened the region to the English, Dutch and Danish. In the 1620’s the English occupied St Christophers, Barbados, and Nevis. St Christopher received the first Protestant clergyman, a Calvinist Episcopalian in 1622 followed by clergy in Barbados (1625) and Nevis (1629). Anglicans served colonists and after 1680 began to convert slaves in this early period, demarcating parishes in a few decades. Dissenting Protestants also began to appear in the mid 17th century, English Quakers prominent among them. After its founding in1701 in London, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent missionaries to convert slaves and Indians, but met limited success in the Caribbean due to resistance from planters and Anglican cultural insensitivity. Evangelical Methodists, Baptists and Moravians met with greater success.
While missionaries from the Wesleyan Church in America and Pilgrim Holiness Church did not arrive in the Caribbean until the beginning of the twentieth century, Methodists had already begun missions there in the eighteenth century. Like other evangelicals, the Methodist emphasis on spiritual equality, direct communication with God, and dramatic worship and ritual won many slave converts. Bloom writes, “The first Methodist congregation established outside of England and Ireland was in the Caribbean and its members were slaves. Nathaniel Gilbert, a lawyer influenced by Methodism founder John Wesley, brought his witness to the island of Antigua, where the congregation was born in 1759.” The missionary society there grew rapidly employing blacks lay workers along with Methodist clergy and built a 2,000 seat chapel in 1783. A visit in 1786 by Thomas Coke gave impetus to the growth of Methodism on several islands such that by 1802 Methodists numbered over 14,000 only about 100 of whom were white (Hillerbrand, 2007). The African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in 1794 by Richard Allen in Philadelphia, spread to Haiti and later to Cuba and Jamaica in the 19th century (Commission on Pan Methodist Cooperation and Union, 2006). An ordained Baptist freedman from South Carolina emigrated to Kingston, Jamaica in 1782 and established a baptist church, which rapidly spread in Jamaica and the Bahamas. The Jamaica Assembly passed repressive measures against Methodist and Baptist missionaries, but failed to stem the tide, especially after emancipation in 1833. The churches supported education for former slaves. The Methodist Church of Puerto Rico became autonomous in 1992, and was granted a concordat relationship, assuring full participation and vote at United Methodist General Conference sessions; and in 1976, the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas was recognized as a "Concordat Church." On an ecumenical note, Protestants formed the Caribbean Council of Churches in 1973 and eleven denominations founded the United Theological College of the West Indies in Jamaica to train pastors. Hence, Protestantism now is predominant in the Caribbean region, notwithstanding outposts of Catholicism in Spanish- and French-speaking lands and of Afro-Christian syncretic faiths.
TWENTIETH CENTURY WESLEYAN MISSIONS
Virgin Islands. Following Methodists and others, the Rev. Gibson, a Wesleyan Holiness missionary from the United States of America, arrived on St. Croix around 1900. According to one account, “His preaching was unpopular to the masses. He was mocked and treated with excessive hostility. On one occasion he was beaten in public” (Anonymous, 2007a). Nevertheless, in 1906-1908 he planted two churches on St. Croix. Missionary Rev Fitzroy Joseph planted a holiness church on St Thomas, which was turned over to Christian Mission in the 1930’s, becoming the St Thomas Pilgrim Holiness Church by merger in 1951. It launched a radio ministry to area islands. A superintendent over V.I. churches, Rev. Lynch was appointed, who was succeeded in 1964 by noted Nevisian pastor and church leader Rev. Ira M. Taylor, who after leaving the Caribbean served in active ministry in North American until his retirement in 2005. Pastor Taylor returned in 2007 for their centennial celebration.
Jamaica. A young planter’s daughter studying in Indiana came under the influence of the Missionary Bands of the World (former auxiliary of the Free Methodist Church) and returned to western Jamaica in 1912 to start a ministry (Anonymous, 2007b). Working for decades, American missionaries planted churches, 24 of which in 1958 merged with the Wesleyan Church in America. In 1919 the International Holiness Church (precursor of the Pilgrim Holiness Church) began a mission in Kingston. As more American missionaries arrived, the ministry grew and many churches were begun. The churches continued under American superintendence until 1968, the year of the merger of the Wesleyan Church of America and the Pilgrim Holiness Church. Soon they formed three districts; the first native-born pastor Gersham Gray led one of these.
Trinidad and Tobago. In 1909, a dozen American Pilgrim Holiness Church missionaries arrived in Port of Spain and began to hold tent meetings (Anonymous, 2007c). They gathered converts into a church and they and their successors planted many others over the decades. A mission to Tobago began in 1945. By the end of the century, there were 15 churches in Trinidad and five in Tobago.
Other locations. American missionaries began working in Saba in 1903 and Nevis in 1910 (Anonymous, 2007d). Pilgrim Holiness missionaries reached Barbados between 1907 and 1910 building the first church in 1916 and merging with Immanuel Mission in 1923 (Anonymous, 2007e). Nationals began the struggle for church leadership in the depression years of the 1930’s but were not successful until the 1960’s despite strong church growth. Barbadian missionaries were helpful on other islands and the church is now strong. British Methodists also sent missionary to Grand Cayman in 1837 founding a church called Holiness Work (Anonymous, 2007f). The church split in the early 1900’s, with one part eventually becoming the Pilgrim Holiness Church in 1928. Wesleyan mission work in Antigua began in the early 1900’s through revivals held by missionaries from other islands (Anonymous, 2007g). Unfortunately, the church remains under foreign control to this day. Begun from Sunday School work, the Wesleyan Church in St Vincent and the Grenadines dates from 1948 and also has not made a full transition to autonomy. The immigrants from Barbados and elsewhere began the church in Curacao in 1948. The church received government support for salaries and buildings and relied on pastors sent from other islands. Typical of the colonial, pre-civil rights era, we first learn of major involvement of Afro-Caribbean missionaries in 1937, when the Rev. and Mrs. Charles Lynch arrived in St Kitts (Anonymous, 2007d). After successful missionary and pastoral work in the growing Basseterre church, he answered calls to serve in Nevis and St Croix before his death. A Wesleyan Church was not incorporated on St Lucia until 1998. The church in Belize dating from 1992 is still staffed by missionaries.
CONCLUSIONS
Missions to the Caribbean by the Wesleyan Church of America did not begin until the twentieth century, some sixty years after the schisms among Methodists that lead to its formation. Despite opposition to slavery being one of the causes for its founding, there seemed to be little interest in missions to former slaves once slavery was abolished in America and the Caribbean, contrary to the Methodists, Baptists and others. It acquired foreign missions by mergers with independent missionary societies. In contrast, the Pilgrim Holiness Church began mission outreach to the Caribbean in 1900, shortly after its foundation as the International Holiness Union in 1897. Worldwide holiness evangelism was the original purpose of the founders of the Pilgrim Holiness Church in 1922 from predecessors (The Discipline of the Wesleyan Church, 2000). After its merger with the Wesleyan Church in America to form the Wesleyan Church in 1968, this missions emphasis continued, greatly augmenting missions in the new body. In recent decades, growth of Pentacostal mission churches has eclipsed that of other Protestants in the region. Ironically, emigration of West Indians to North America is now producing growth and promoting missions in some urban Wesleyan churches there.
REFERENCES
Anonymous. (2007a) History of the Wesleyan Holiness Churches in the Virgin Islands. http://vikratistos.com/vidh.html
Anonymous. (2007b) History of the Wesleyan Holiness Churches in Jamaica. http://vikratistos.com/jh.html
Anonymous. (2007c) History of the Wesleyan Holiness Churches in Trinidad and Tobago. http://vikratistos.com/tth.html
Anonymous. (2007d) History of the Wesleyan Holiness Churches in St Kitts/Nevis. http://vikratistos.com/knh.html
Anonymous. (2007e) History of the Wesleyan Holiness Churches in Barbados. http://vikratistos.com/bh.html
Anonymous. (2007f) History of the Wesleyan Holiness Churches in Grand Cayman. http://vikratistos.com/gch.html
Anonymous. (2007g) History of the Wesleyan Holiness Churches in Antigua. http://vikratistos.com/ah.html
Bloom L. (2007) UMNS# 134-Methodism has history in Latin America, Caribbean. From NewsDesk Date Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:55:01 –0500
Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation & Union. (2006) A Brief History of
The African Methodist Episcopal Church. http://www.gccuic-umc.org/panmeth/amehistory.htm
Kelly R. D. ed. (2001) The Discipline of the Wesleyan Church 2000. Indianapolis, The Wesleyan Publishing House.
Hillerbrand HJ editor (2007) The Encyclopedia of Protestantism. New York, Routledge. http://www.routledge-ny.com/ref/protestantism/caribbean.pdf
The Nevis Historical and Conservation Society. (2007) Methodist: Births and Baptismal (1825-1894). http://www.nevis-nhcs.org/library&archive.html

The Church today

Some of the largest local congregations are Central Wesleyan Church^[1] in Holland, Michigan, Eastern Hills Wesleyan in suburban Buffalo, New York, and Skyline Wesleyan^[2] in suburban San Diego, California. Rev. Orval Butcher founded Skyline in 1954 and was followed by well known leaders in the church in recent years including author John Maxwell and author James Garlow. George Beverly Shea was raised in a Wesleyan parsonage.
The denomination has 1,731 member churches in the United States and Canada and nearly 5,000 worldwide; the Wesleyan Church is active in almost 100 nations. They claim over 411,000 worshippers, including more than 194,000 in North America. "Wesleyan Life" is the official publication of The Wesleyan Church, and the The Wesleyan Church World Headquarters is in Fishers, Indiana, about 10 miles northeast of Indianapolis. The denomination has five colleges in North America, of which Indiana Wesleyan University is the largest and considered the "crown jewel" of the denomination. The church has a weekly international radio broadcast known as The Wesleyan Hour with Dr. Norman Wilson as the speaker for over 30 years. The Wesleyan Church is a member of the Christian Holiness Partnership of 23 denominations, member of the National Association of Evangelicals, and the World Methodist Council. They do not hold membership in the National Council of Churches nor the World Council of Churches.
The church is an evangelical holiness church which believes in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and is Wesleyan-Arminian in doctrine. Local churches are organized into a network of districts with equal representation of clergy and laity at their annual conferences. Each has an elected administrator known as the District Superintendent and has a district board of administration with both lay and clergy serving. National networks are called General Conferences with very strong national leadership and meet every four years. The North American General Conference has three General Superintendents and each of them have about 1/3rd of the church under their administrative control. In 2006, the three General Superintendents are Dr. Earle Wilson (who also serves as one of eight presidents of the Methodist World Council), Dr. Thomas Armiger and Dr. Jerry Pence. General conferences exist in the Philippines, the Caribbean, and North America. Emerging strong groups which could request such status in the future are in Latin America, Japan, Australia, and regions of Africa. Wesleyans rank among the top three or four denominations in per capita giving to charity. The church maintains a website^[3].

Districts in North America

'North Central Region'

East Michigan District - http://www.eastmi.org/

Greater Ohio District - http://www.gowesleyan.org/

Illinois District - http://www.idwc.com/

Indiana Central District - http://www.indianacentral.org/

Indiana North District - http://www.indiananorth.com/ | http://www.indyouth.com/

Indiana South District - http://www.indianasouth.org/

North Michigan District - http://www.nmichwes.org/

West Michigan District - http://www.westmichigandistrict.com/

Wisconsin District - http://www.wisconsindistrict.org/

'Northeastern Region'

Atlantic District - http://www.atlanticdistrict.com/

Central Canada District -

Central New York District - http://www.cnywesleyan.org/ | http://www.cnywesleyanyouth.org/

Chesapeake District -

Eastern New York/New England District - http://www.wesleyan-enyne.org/

Penn-Jersey District - http://penn-jerseydistrict.org/

Western NY District - http://www.wnydistrict.com/

Western PA District -

'Southern Region'

Florida District - http://www.floridawesleyan.com/

Kentucky District - http://www.kywesleyan.org/

North Carolina East District - http://www.nceastwesleyan.org/

North Carolina West District - http://www.ncwestwesleyan.org/

Shenandoah District - http://www.shenandoahdistrict.ws/

South Carolina District - http://www.scwesleyan.org/

South Coastal District - http://www.southcoastal.org/

Tennessee District -

'Western Region'

Colorado-Nebraska District -

Dakota District - http://www.dakotadistrict.com/

Iowa-Minnesota District - http://www.iamndistrict.org/

Kansas District - http://www.kdwc.org/

Northwest District - http://www.nwwesleyan.org/

Pacific Southwest District - http://www.wesleyanpsw.org/

Texas-Louisiana District - http://www.txladistrict.org/

TriState District - http://www.tsdwc.org/

Schools in the United States and Canada

★ Bethany Bible College (New Brunswick)

★ Houghton College (New York)

★ Indiana Wesleyan University (Indiana)

★ Oklahoma Wesleyan University (Oklahoma)

★ Southern Wesleyan University (South Carolina)

Notes

1. [1]
2. [2]
3. [3]

See also

★ Christianity

★ Christian theology

★ Baptists

★ Anglicanism

★ Presbyterianism

★ Methodism

★ Covenant theology

★ Dispensationalism

★ Church history

★ Christian eschatology