From the early days of his evangelism, John Wesley had organised his converts into local societies, which were then grouped into circuits and the whole set-up governed by an annual conference of all his preachers over which he presided. The first Conference was in 1744, not long after his own conversion in 1738. However in 1784 Wesley had this conference legally constituted and recognised at law and it consisted of 100 preachers known as 'The Legal Hundred.' This was meant to ensure the sound continuance of the church after Wesley's death.
The conference following John Wesley's death decided that henceforth the Wesleyan Movement, or the Wesleyan Methodist Church as it was now regarding itself, should not be governed by one central autocratic figure, occupying Wesley's shoes as it were, but by an annual conference presided over by a different minister each year. To facilitate administration between conferences, circuits were grouped into districts with regular committee meetings chaired by local pastors or ministers. This whole somewhat elaborate structure became known as the Methodist Connexion and has remained the general pattern of the Methodist Church right to this present day in the 21st century.
However, following Wesley's death, things were far from plain sailing. The first serious split from the parent body occurred when one of Wesley's trusted helpers, a certain Alexander Kilham, challenged the conference to openly repudiate any allegiance to the Church of England and to allow the lay people, democratically, to have more say in the running of the church. Such was his fervour that in 1796 he was expelled from the Connexion and together with some friends Kilham took away 5,000 members to form what became known as the Methodist New Connexion. This break-away group grew in size and eventually spawned a certain William Booth who became the founder of the Salvation Army! Alexander Kilham was born before his time, as eventually almost all his reforms were incorporated in the parent body.
As the new century unfolded the early evangelical zeal of the Wesley's cooled somewhat and the Wesleyans became more refined and dignified in their religion and there was amongst some leading lights a desire to emulate the solemnity and autocracy of the Church of England. Some of Wesley's senior helpers or itinerant preachers and their successors hankered for more power in the Church. An ordained ministry was clearly emerging - after all the Legal Hundred were all ministers - and, while many lay people were glad to accept this clerical development, there were others who fiercely wanted a more democratic arrangement. So the stage was set for much sad conflict within Methodism leading to further secessions during the first half of the 19th century.
Not for the first time did imports from America stir up the pot. Lorenzo Dow, an eccentric American evangelist, visiting Britain in 1805, preached extensively in South Lancashire and East Cheshire using the open-air camp meeting to bring sinners to the penitent seat. Hugh Bourne a carpenter, and William Clowes a potter, both Methodist members, found their evangelical conversions re-ignited at one of Dow's camp meetings. With Dow's help they decided to organise some camp meetings themselves, notably at Mow Cop in Staffordshire. Needless to say crowds of people gathered at this revivalist meeting with many conversions taking place - a throwback to the early days of the Wesley's field preaching.
After numerous warning's by the local Wesleyan Circuit, first Hugh Bourne in 1808 and then William Clowes in 1810 were both expelled from membership. Nothing daunted, Bourne and Clowes supported by scores of converts set up a society in Tunstall., Later a chapel was built and the Primitive Methodist Church was founded. After a slow start the 'Prims', as they were known, had by 1850 recorded a membership of 104,762, with 519 travelling preachers, 8,524 local preachers and 5,170 Connexional and rented chapels. This is a startling indication of the way these fiery offshoots of the parent body took root and flourished.
Another Methodist local preacher who hailed from Cornwall was William O'Bryan. He, becoming dissatisfied with the complacent Wesleyan tradition, decided to strike out on his own conducting revivalist type meetings first in Newquay and then in the Bodmin Moor area. Before long, surrounded by his converts and supported by break-away members from other churches, O'Bryan founded a new Methodist-style church with its first conference held at his house in Launceston in 1819. After various different names the followers of O'Bryan became known as The Bible Christians and spread from Cornwall to Kent and even as far, eventually, as Northumberland.
It doesn't take much imagination to see that the early decades of the 19th century were extremely divisive and turbulent for Methodism. Besides rival groups, being led by strong-minded individualists who rebelled at what they saw as spiritual torpor or clerical domination, there were bitter disputes within Wesleyan Methodism that fomented distress and division.
At this point the name of Jabez Bunting comes to mind - he was three times President of the Wesleyan Conference - a traditionalist and autocrat who was set out to assert his authority throughout the whole Connexion. An example of this was the famous Leeds Organ Case of 1827. The minister, supported by the trustees of Brunswick Chapel Leeds, wanted to install an organ to lead Sabbath worship. Many members including some prominent local preachers objected on the grounds that artificial music in church was of the devil and thus dishonouring to God. A church meeting turned down the idea, but the minister and his supporters referred the matter to Jabez Bunting who immediately over-ruled the church meeting and the offending organ was installed. It was then said that the new organ cost one thousand pounds and one thousand members.
Other bitter disputes followed. In 1834 Samuel Warren, a leading minister in the Connexion was head of a committee to explore the possibility of setting up an Institution for the training of young ministers. Then Jabez Bunting as President of Conference stepped in and over-ruled many of Warren's plans. Samuel Warren, naturally irritated, challenged Bunting's authority and for his labours was rebuked, then suspended and finally expelled. He took with him a thousand members to form the Wesleyan Methodist Association.
But the most serious division took place in 1849 following the publication within Wesleyan Methodism of the notorious Fly Sheets. Largely as the result of the heavy-handed administration of the circuits and societies by the central Conference led by Bunting and others, a series of anonymous circulars or Fly Sheets were sent to all Wesleyan Methodist Ministers denouncing Bunting and his secretarial colleagues and calling for reform of the church. Many ministers whilst agreeing with the argument, never-the-less deplored the method employed. Eventually three ministers - James Everett, Samuel Dunn and William Griffith were accused of the outrage. Their expulsion aroused much sympathy in the Connexion and this time the Wesleyans lost 100,000 members and a major rival denomination was formed which eventually took the name of The Wesleyan Reform Union.
During this first half of the 19th century there were other less serious secessions, but the overall picture is one of bitter conflict and loss of membership in sharp contrast to the golden years of the Wesley ascendancy. However after 1850 the tide turned with a return of local revivalist movements and a spate of new chapel building particularly in rural areas as well the growing urban conurbations in the wake of the industrial revolution.
Following the Reform Act of 1832 which extended the franchise there emerged the beginning of a middle class of artisans, craftsmen and managers who began to make their presence felt in areas of social welfare and especially education. Undoubtedly the Wesleyan revival of the 18th century and the efforts of the revivalist groups of the 19th century, like the Prims and the Bible Christians touched very strongly the working classes and later formed the breeding ground of the Trades Unions. But the parent body of Wesleyan Methodism, whilst no longer trying to court Anglican traditions and now standing for teetotalism, preferring a hearty and warm fellowship was now the epitome of sober, prudent, conscientious and dignified living. Small wonder that some erstwhile simple labouring folk, through the offices of Wesleyanism, became wealthy captains of industry.
So it is not really surprising that as the 19th century unfolded the ancient restrictions against Protestant Dissent, which now included Methodism should be lifted and that eventually (1870) Non-conformists should be allowed to receive degrees from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
It is a popular theory that the 18th century upsurge of Methodism saved this country from a bloody revolution such as overtook the French. Probably other factors, such as the failure of the Chartist Movement were as important, but there is little doubt that the evangelism of the Wesley's and their successors helped to create a climate of moral stability and social compassion which helped to neutralise wilder, revolutionary tendencies.
After all the divisions of the earlier part of the century a new spirit of co-operation and ecumenism prevailed at the turn of the 20th century. In 1907 three major sections of the Methodist Church came together - the United Methodist Free Churches, the Bible Christians and the Methodist New Connexion all united to form the United Methodist Church. Then in 1932 the United Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Methodist Church united to form The Methodist Church.
In more recent times, during the 1960's there was an elaborate scheme to re-unite The Methodist Church with its original parent body The Church of England. This scheme was rejected by a rare alliance of the Evangelical and High Church wings of the Church of England. However much local co-operation has taken place over succeeding decades and no doubt some eventual union will take place. This would warm the hearts of the Wesley brothers, who in spite of everything still considered themselves worthy members of the Established Church until their dying days.
Later we need to consider the spread of Methodism beyond these Islands and also to review some of the distinctive beliefs of the Methodist Church over the years and not least its addiction to lively hymn singing.
Douglas Graham