Arguably the Episcopal and Methodist Churches have been America’s historically most influential. Numerous American elites, including many of the Founders, were and are Episcopalian, making it often the de facto “established” church. And Methodism became America’s largest church in the 19th century, creating the evangelical populist ethos that robustly survives today, if now mostly among other denominations.”¨
Like other Mainline denominations, Episcopal and Methodist seminaries succumbed to theological liberalism early in the 20th century, reaching radical crescendos in the 1960s, when both churches began numerically to decline, a decline that continues until this day.
But the two denominations now seem set on different trajectories, as vividly illustrated by very recent events. Last week, the newly formed Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) convened its first provincial assembly, bringing into one denomination an estimated 100,000 regular worshipers and 700 congregations. Most of these Anglicans have left the Episcopal Church since 2003, when Gene Robinson became the first openly homosexual Episcopal bishop.
First, a quibble. Historically, Mark Tooley’s claim that the Episcopal and Methodist churches have been the most influential in America is wildly inaccurate. In colonial times, the big three were the Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and yes Anglicans, And the Baptists have supplanted the Methodists as the largest Protestant group today. But that’s a minor point.
There are many interesting ways that the Wesleyan/Methodist offspring of Anglicanism have evolved a quite different religious culture and organizaztion than the mother church. For example, it’s often humorously or wryly noted that while Episcopal bishops get all dressed in fancy robes and can claim to be part of the historic apostolic succession and are regarded as bishops for life, it’s actually the Methodist bishops who wield far greater power (especially through their prerogative of appointing where all clergy serve). But it’s also highly significant that the UMC, unlike TEC or the AC as a whole, has an ecclesiastical supreme court that can hold wayward ministers, bishops, and whole conferences in check. In those ways, ironically, low church Methodism is closer to Catholic polity structures than the much more liturgical Episcopal Church is.
Whether the UMC will be able to stem the pro-gay tide of moral relativism in our secularized culture remains to be seen. Personally, I doubt that it will avoid splitting, any more than the oldline Presbyterians or Lutherans will. Any “mainline” denomination finds it extremely difficult to resist whatever direction the cultural mainstream goes. But it does look like the UMC will be able to put up stiff resistance significantly longer than the PCUSA or ELCA. However, in the end, the Methodists, like the rest of the historic major Protestant groups, are almost certain to go through the throes of the New Reformation.
And it will be a glorious thing.
David Handy+
Advocate of that New Reformation for ALL the proud old ex-mainline denominations, since they’ve all succombed to theological relativism. They’re just in different stages of the deadly disease.