2016 Holiness Series: #1 Introduction to Holiness

            During 2016 I will be doing most of my newsletter articles on the topic of holiness.  Holiness is very important to who we are as United Methodists, at least historically.  I will say more about that in a future article.  This time I want to simply get a definition out on the table.

Holy simply means set apart.  Holiness is a scary word because when we hear the word “holy” we think it means being perfect, or really good, or at least better than we are. While there is a behavioral element to holiness, the true definition of holiness lies elsewhere.  The true definition of holy is sacred or set apart for special use; not common, different.

God is holy.  Holiness begins with God.  God is the only one who is truly holy and he alone is the source of all holiness and he alone makes all things holy.  The Bible says, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.”  The Hebrew word for holy is kadosh and Hebrews has no superlatives, like good, better, best, so repetition in Hebrew is like saying good, better best.  In saying that God is holy we are not just saying that he is morally perfect but also that he is wholly other than us.

God’s stuff and God’s people are holy.  Because God is holy the people and things that belong to God are holy, like the Holy Bible.  Since all things belong to God, in a way, you could say that everything is holy.  However, we talk of the church and its people as being holy in a particular way.  The church and its people belong to God and have been set aside for special use by God, kind of like the good china.  You don’t use the good china just any old time and, when you do use, you are careful with it.  We should treat the things of the church and the people of the church, ourselves and others, with the same kind of care.

Positional Holiness and Practical Holiness:  If you have put you faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you belong to God and are positionally holy, holy by position because you belong to God.  The problem is, however, that we don’t always act like we are holy.  We are not holy practically, in practice.  It is like we are using the good china to eat pizza in the living room while watching football.  Even worse, imagine playing a game of poker, complete with scotch and cigars, on the altar of the church.  That is what it is like when God’s people do not act as if they are holy.  This series is dedicated to helping us understand the doctrine of holiness and begin to live, with God’s help, like the holy people God has created us to be.

2015 UM History Series #12: Methodist Mergers

The United Methodist Church as we know it today is the result of several mergers. 

First, in 1939, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, which you will remember split over the issue of slavery, and the Methodist Protestant Church, which had split off in 1828 over issues of congregational autonomy and the authority of bishops, merged to form, simply, the Methodist Church.

Second, in 1946, the Church of the United Brethren in Christ and the Evangelical Church merged to form the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) Church.  (It is important to remember that “Brethren” and “Evangelical” are used in the names of many different churches.)

Finally, in 1968, the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged to form the United Methodist Church.  On April 23, 1968, at the uniting General Conference in Dallas, Texas, Bishop Reuben H. Mueller from Evangelical United Brethren Church and Bishop Lloyd Christ Wicke from The Methodist Church  joined hands and prayed, "Lord of the Church, we are united in Thee, in Thy Church and now in The United Methodist Church."

As we look to the future the greatest challenges that face us are our continued debate about human sexuality, the continued decline of the Church in America, and our exponential growth in Africa.  However, we have Christ’s promise that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the church. (Matthew 16:18)

2015 UM History Series #11: Methodism, Slavery, and the Civil War

Thomas Jefferson once said that slavery was like “holding a wolf by the ear.  We can neither hold him nor safely let him go.”  Slavery and the conflicts and issues surrounding it have been the darkest part of the American story, and these issues and conflicts have included American Methodism.

Methodism from its very beginning in England was anti-slavery.  In a letter of encouragement to the famous English abolitionist William Wilberforce John Wesley wrote, “Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.”

Early American Methodism had a mixed history with race and slavery.  From the very beginning members of the Methodist Episcopal Church were forbidden to own slaves.  However, this rule was largely ignored in the south where many members and clergy were slave owners.

Meanwhile, particularly in the north, there were black Methodist preachers, including Harry Hosier and Richard Allen.  However, they were not treated as equals.  This led Allen to form the Africa Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church which became independent of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816.  Another black Methodist denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church Zion, was formed in 1821. Blacks who remained in the Methodist Episcopal Church, north and south, often worshiped in segregated churches and were not treated as equals.

The issue of slavery caused a great deal of tension for the church.  Northerners continued to tolerate slaveholding southerners’ violation of church law for the sake of keeping the church together.  Some anti-slavery Methodists, including those who went on to form the Wesleyan Church, left the church due to the church’s unwillingness to take a principled stand.

Both sides were convinced they were right and both sides attempted to tolerate each other for the sake of an uneasy unity.  This is very similar to our current situation with regard to human sexuality and many feel that we are heading for a church split over this issue.  As we will see tolerance over what both sides believe to be a core moral issue cannot last long. 

All of this came to a head in 1844 when a southern bishop named James O. Andrew acquired slaves through marriage.  Northerners would not tolerate a slave owning bishop and refused to acknowledge Bishop Andrew as long as he continued to hold slaves.  Bishop Andrew and the southern delegates walked out of General Conference and began the process of separating from the church.  A Plan of Separation was approved by both northern and southern delegates and the church separated into the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

This north-south spilt in the church continued throughout and well beyond the Civil War.  During the war southern slaves worshiped in segregated churches of the MECS.  After the war the MECS formed its segregated church into a new denomination called the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (CME) now call the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
            In 1939 the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Methodist Protestant Church (a small group that broke off in 1828 over the authority of bishops) united to form the Methodist Church.  However, one of the compromises that were made between the north and the south was the segregation of black churches and annual conferences into a separate structure known as the Central Conference. (Not to be confused with the current practice of calling regions outside of the United States Central Conferences.)  This practice of official segregation continued until 1968 when the Methodist Church united with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church.  In fact, Iowa had one of the first African American bishops to serve a predominantly white annual conference in Bishop Thomas.

As you can see Methodists have been part of the unfortunate history of America.  We have come a long way and have a long way yet to go to be the people God calls us to be.

2015 UM History Series #10: History of the Evangelical United Brethren Church

            In 1752 a German Reformed pastor named Phillip William Otterbein came to America and served German-speaking German Reformed churches along the Pennsylvania- Maryland border.  In 1774 Otterbein settled in a church in Baltimore where he would remain pastor until his death in 1813.

            Upon arriving in Baltimore Otterbein met and befriended Frances Asbury and the two would remain life-long friends.  Otterbein assisted in Asbury’s consecration as a Methodist bishop as a guest at the Christmas Conference in 1784 and Asbury preached a memorial service for Otterbein.  Otterbein began to organize his church using the Wesleyan small group model which he learned from Asbury.

            In 1767 Otterbein attended a meeting at a barn near Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he heard a Mennonite preacher named Martin Boehm share his testimony of conversion.  When Boehm finished Otterbein rose from his seat and embraced him and said, “Wir Sen Brüder” (We are brethren.)  Boehm would later be expelled from the Mennonite church for his preaching of conversion and association with non-Mennonites.

            Otterbein and Boehm would begin working together to form and oversee a loosely organized evangelical movement, not unlike the Methodist movement, among German-speaking churches in the area.

            In 1798 Otterbein called together a conference of the preachers of the movement and began the process of organizing a new church.  In 1800 the next conference officially organized the Church of the United Brethren in Christ which would later be renamed the United Brethren Church.

            In our own community the former Iowa Juvenile Home was originally Leander-Clark College, a United Brethren College and the recently sold Education Center of Christ UMC was originally Otterbein United Brethren Church.

            Around the same time that Otterbein and Boehm were doing their work, a German-Lutheran pastor, Jacob Albright, had begun another Methodist-like movement among German speakers in Pennsylvania.  This movement would become known as the Evangelical Association and later the Evangelical Church.

            Brethrens, Evangelicals, and Methodists would continue to grow separately, have their own internal struggles and separations, and each become great churches throughout the 19^th century. 

In 1946 the United Brethren Church and the Evangelical Church merged to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church.  And, in 1968 the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged with the Methodist Church to form the United Methodist Church.  That is why it is very important to remember to say “United” when we say Methodist, because it reminds us of a very important part of our history.

Next time we will pick back up with the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church up to and after the Civil War. 

2015 UM History Series #9: “Early Methodism in America and Wesley's Death”

            As we saw in a previous article the history of Methodism in America began with Wesley's own lack-luster ministry in Georgia.  However, as English migration to the Colonies increased, many Methodists were among them.

            In the late 1760s Methodist lay preachers began Methodist societies.  Phillip Embury began a society in New York, Thomas Webb, also a British Army Captain, began one in Philadelphia, and Robert Strawbridge started one in Maryland.  Soon, Wesley found that the Methodist work in America was not as organized and regulated as he might have liked and so in 1770 he sent some his English preachers, including Francis Asbury, to put things in better order. 

            The Methodist work in America continued to grow until the Revolution.  The Revolution, and American independence which followed it, was a huge challenge for Methodism.  First of all, Wesley was opposed to American independence and wrote to American Methodists encouraging them to remain loyal to England, thankfully, they did not listen and yet remained Methodists.

            After the Revolution most of the Anglican ministers fled America leaving the Methodists, who, if you will remember, attended the Anglican Church to receive the sacraments, without sacramental ministry.  This prompted Wesley to take to the bold step of ordaining Thomas Coke as a "superintendent" of the Methodist work in America and send him with instructions to ordain Asbury as a superintendent.  Coke and Asbury (this is where the name Cokesbury comes from) were to organize a separate Methodist Church in America and to ordain other elders for sacramental ministry. (Methodists in England remained part of the Church of England until after Wesley's death.)

            On December 24th 1784 Coke and Asbury called the Methodist preachers to Baltimore for what has become known as the "Christmas Conference."  At the Christmas Conference a new independent church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was formed.  Asbury insisted that he and Coke be elected by the Conference and they took the title bishop, rather than superintendent.

            Meanwhile, back in England, Wesley was growing old.  On March 2nd 1791, John Wesley died.  His last words were, "Best of all God is with us, farewell."  When he died, John Wesley had only six pounds to his name, he had always lived simply and generously.  Per his instructions, they were given to the poor men who served as his pall bearers.

            Methodism in America and England continued to grow as separate churches after Wesley's death.  We will continue the story of the Methodist Episcopal Church in two months.  But next month we need to pick up with the story of some other folks who make up the history of the United Methodist Church.  Next month we will tell the story of the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

2015 UM History Series #8: “Wesley’s Ministry”

            As we saw last time, John Wesley’s first open air sermon was preached in 1739.  Over the next 50 years John Wesley would ride over 250,000 miles all over England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland and preach over 40,000 sermons, usually preaching at least twice a day.  Wesley preached in churches, (when he was allowed) market squares, open fields, meeting halls, private homes, and later, in Methodist meeting houses.

            But Wesley did more than just preach, he was also a prolific writer.  He compiled a “Christian Library” from the writings of the early church and the devotional classics of his time which runs 30 volumes in the most recent edition.  He published his sermons, excerpts from his journal, a set of notes on the New Testament, and a magazine called The Arminian.  He even published a natural health book entitled The Primitive Physick.  You can access almost everything Wesley ever wrote, in addition to much more about Wesleyan theology, for free online at The Wesley Center Online at http://wesley.nnu.edu/.

            In addition to preaching and writing, Wesley had a gift as an organizer.  Everywhere Wesley preached he would organize those who responded to his message into societies.  Originally, these societies were not churches.  Members of the society were expected to attend church on Sunday morning and meet with the society for preaching, singing, and prayer during the week.  Wesley never intended to found a separate church and the Methodists in Britain did not separate from the Church of England until after Wesley’s death.

            The members of the societies were divided into small groups of 12 people, called classes, for Bible study, prayer, support, and accountability.  Those who wished to go deeper could join even smaller groups called bands.  Each society was overseen by stewards.  Occasionally, Methodists in a community would build a meeting house, which was cared for by trustees.

            As the number of societies grew Wesley could not provide for all of the preaching needs by himself.  Wesley did have a few ordained clergy among the Methodist, but they were still not enough.  Finally, Wesley had to make a bold move.  He began to assign lay persons as preachers to the societies, he even eventually allowed women to be “exhorters.”  These preachers would serve a society, or a circuit of societies, or preaching stations, and reported directly to Wesley.  Preachers would also meet together with Wesley in “conferences.”

            Methodist preachers were held to a very high standard.  Not everyone was allowed to preach and preachers who did not hold the doctrine and discipline were dismissed quickly.  Of one preacher Wesley said, “He is a tailor who has made himself a preacher.  I intend to make him a tailor again.”

            Discipline also extend to the members of the societies as well as the preachers.  Members who continued in sin, disobeyed the preacher, stewards, and class leaders, or disrupted the society would be encouraged to amend their ways, but if they did not they would be expelled from the society.  Many times when Wesley would visit a society he found that he would have to expel some of the members.  After one such trip someone asked Wesley if there were any additions to the societies.  Wesley replied, “No, but there were some blessed subtractions.”

            Under Wesley’s direction Methodist built and funded Kingswood school for children of coal miners in Bristol, operated medial dispensaries, clothes closets, food pantries, and a micro loan program, (before anyone else knew what that was) and otherwise provided for those who were poor, sick, and in prison.

            Next time we will talk about Methodism in America and the end of Wesley’s life.

Pastor Brian's Response to the Supreme Court Same-Sex Marriage Decision

This is a statement I read in church on Sunday, June 28th in response to the Supreme Court same-sex marriage decision.

I have prepared the following statement in response to the recent Supreme Court decision about same-sex marriage.  I usually do not comment on issues like this from the pulpit because I know and love many of you who are on both sides of this issue, I want to serve you as your pastor, and I want to focus us on more important, more pressing, and less divisive issues. My purpose in this statement is only to clarify how the Supreme Court decision bears on our life as a church and let you know a little bit about how this issue is unfolding in the United Methodist Church.  I have no desire to debate this issue, especially not from the pulpit in worship.  However, if you will express a desire to have a time to have this discussion, I will make myself available for that.  I will also be posting this statement on my blog and it will be printed in the August newsletter.

Let me begin by stating the official positions of the United Methodist Church.

161B on marriage: We affirm the sanctity of the marriage covenant that is expressed in love, mutual support, personal commitment, and shared fidelity between a man and a woman... We support laws in civil society that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

161F on sexuality: ... The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching. We affirm that God’s grace is available to all. We will seek to live together in Christian community, welcoming, forgiving, and loving one another, as Christ has loved and accepted us. We implore families and churches not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends. We commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons.

304.3 ... The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self- avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.

341.6: Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches.

To the relief of some, and to the disappointment of others, I am compelled to inform you that the recent Supreme Court decision does not, indeed cannot, have any bearing whatsoever on the positions, policies, and practices of the United Methodist Church.

These official positions can only be changed by the action of General Conference which will next meet in May of 2016 in Portland, Oregon.

There are many in the United Methodist Church that support the current position and many who support changing it.  Many have even chosen to directly disobey the policies of the church and this has resulted various disciplinary action for some.

The most recent efforts to change our position have taken the form of what is called "Third Way" or "Agree to Disagree."  This proposal would basically say that United Methodists do not agree about this issue and would allow individual annual conferences to ordain homosexuals, if the so choose, and would allow pastors and local churches to choose wether or not they would allow same-sex weddings.  The Iowa Annual Conference passed a resolution to General Conference, by a slim majority, endorsing the "Third Way."  Remember, however, this only means that the Iowa Annual Conference as officially endorsed the proposal; only General Conference can make these changes.

There is also much talk of splitting the United Methodist Church into two denominations, one "liberal" and one "conservative."

Personally, I am among those who agree with the current official position of the United Methodist Church and I oppose any change in that position.  I, and the churches I serve as pastor, will remain obedient the policy of the United Methodist Church, and, as I said before, the Supreme Court decision has not, and cannot, change that.

In closing, let me say that I know that there are many persons on both sides for whom it is my pleasure and privilege to be your pastor.  I am committed, and I invite you all to be committed, to being in ministry with all persons.  I will continue to love and serve all of you.  These are very difficult times for our society and for the church. I ask all of you, regardless of your position, to be loving and patient, both in person and online, with me, with others, and with the United Methodist Church until God shows us what the future will hold and his will for each of us and for his church.

Apologies for not posting

Dear Readers,
I am sorry for not keeping up with posting on my Methodist History series.  Below you will find parts 5, 6, and 7 of the series which correspond to May, June, and July issues of our church newsletters.  Again, sorry for not keeping up.  Brian.

2015 UM History Series #7: “The Early Methodist Societies”

            After his Aldersgate experience Wesley began to preach in a whole new way.  His teaching centered on salvation by faith, an assurance of salvation by spiritual experience within the heart, and sanctification, or holiness, by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Wesley believed that one could know that one is saved by having a spiritual experience and that one could lead a sinless life by the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is no surprise then, as we will see later in this series, that both the Charismatic/Pentecostal Movement and the Holiness Movement would come largely out of the Methodist Movement.

            Since Wesley did not have a church of his own, he began preaching these new beliefs as a guest preacher in various Church of England Churches.  As you can imagine, these new beliefs did not set well with proper Church of England folks.  Therefore, Wesley found himself excluded from pulpit after pulpit.

            A major shift in Wesley’s ministry came at the encouragement of a former companion at the Oxford Holy Club, the evangelist George Whitefield.  Whitefield encouraged Wesley to preach outdoors, in public, rather than in the church.  For the very proper, rule-following Wesley this was going to be a major change.  He wrote in his journal, “I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church.”

            On Monday, April 2^nd 1739 in Bristol, England, John Wesley wrote in his journal, “At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about three thousand people.” 

Over the next 50 years John Wesley would ride over 250,000 miles on horseback throughout the British Isles and preach over 40,000 sermons mostly in town squares, open fields, borrowed houses and halls, and later in Methodist meeting houses.

However, John’s message was still not always well received.  Many times Wesley, or his preachers, were pelted with stones and dirt and chased by angry mobs.

In addition to being a great preacher, Wesley was also a great organizer.  When people responded to his preaching, Wesley would organize them into societies and classes.  We will talk more about Methodist organization in England in our next article.  

              

Pastor Brian.                  

2015 UM History Series #6: “From Oxford to Georgia to Aldersgate”

            John Wesley entered Oxford University in 1720.  He completed his master's degree in 1727 and was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1728.  After a brief period of assisting in his father's parish John returned to Oxford in 1729 as a Fellow (a kind of tutor or junior faculty member.)

            Meanwhile, John's younger brother Charles had arrived at Oxford in 1726 and by 1727 had begun to meet with other serious Christian students for intensive Bible study, prayer, support, and accountability.  They would also soon begin collecting money and items for the poor in town and visiting the sick and those in prison. 

            Other students referred to this group as the "Holy Club," "Bible Moths," or "Methodists," due to their methodical practice of Christianity.  Of course the name Methodists would stick. 

            When John returned to Oxford in 1729 he took over leadership of the group.  By 1733 there were 27 “Methodists.”  The group continued to meet even after John and Charles left for Georgia in 1735.

            On October 14^th, 1735 John and Charles set sail for the Georgia Colony becoming the first of the great Reformers to set foot on American soil.  John was to be the priest to the church in Savannah and a missionary to the Native Americans.  Charles was a chaplain to the fort and colony at Fort Frederica.

            Neither found success in their ministries in America.  Their American parishioners found them to be too strict for their tastes.  Charles returned to England on July 26, 1736. 

            John's American experience was more eventful.  John began courting a woman named Sophie Hopkey, the niece of a colonial official.  However, the socially awkward John courted too slowly and Sophie married another man.  A short time later, John refused to serve Communion to Sophie on a technicality.  Sophie's husband and uncle charged John with defamation of her character.  John fled Georgia a wanted man on December 22, 1737 and returned to England as failure in his own eyes.

            During the years at Oxford and his time in America John was a very strict religious man but had not yet had a spiritual awakening or an experience of conversion.  Up until this point in his life John based his religion on, in his words, "Not being as bad as other people."

            Among the Wesley's shipmates on the voyage to America were a group of Moravian Christians from Germany.  Their faith and peace during a storm at sea impressed John and he began to ask them question.  John discovered that the Moravians had a personal faith in Jesus Christ and an assurance of salvation that were entirely foreign to him and for which he deeply longed.

            When he landed back in England John was at the lowest point in his life; he wrote in his journal, "I went to America, to convert the Indians; but oh! who shall convert me?"  It was in this state that John was ripe for the spiritual experience that would change his life forever.  I include below the most famous passage of John Wesley’s journal.  From May 24, 1738 as John describes his experience at a Moravian meeting in London.

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

Pastor Brian                   

2015 UM History Series #5: “The English Civil War and the Birth of John Wesley”

            In the last article I described the English Reformation and the tension in England between Protestants and Catholics and between Conformist and Dissenter and Puritan Protestants.  This tension would boil over in what would come to be known as the English Civil War.

            In 1603 Queen Elizabeth I was succeeded by her cousin James I (The King James of the King James Version of the Bible which was first printed in 1611) who was later succeeded by his son Charles I in 1625.  Both James and Charles attempted to increase royal power and decreased the role of Parliament.  Both also suppressed the Puritans and encouraged more Catholic-like theology and practice in the Church of England.  Remember, it was in 1620, during the reign of King James I, that a group of Puritans fled England on the Mayflower.

            Needless to say many people, especially Puritans and members of Parliament, and especially Puritan members of Parliament were unhappy with James and Charles.  In 1642 the English Civil War broke out between the forces of King Charles and the Parliamentary forces under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell.  In 1649 Charles was executed and his son Charles II was eventually exiled to France.

            From 1649 until the restoration of Charles II in 1660 is known as the Commonwealth Period in which England was ruled by Parliament under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell.  During this time Puritanism held sway in the Church of England, dissenters (except for Catholics) were tolerated, and Catholicism and Catholic-style practices were virtually illegal.

            In 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne.  The Church of England returned to more Catholic-style worship, Puritans and Dissenters were once again, along with Roman Catholics, oppressed.

            It was not until 1688 that Dissenters, but not Roman Catholics, were officially allowed to own buildings and hold worship under the Act of Toleration.

            I said all that to set the background for the story of a Church of England priest named Samuel Wesley and his wife Susanna, both of whom came from dissenting backgrounds, and two of their 19 children, John and Charles, who became the founders of the Methodist movement.

            John Wesley (June 28, 1703 – March 2, 1791) and his brother Charles (December 18, 1707 – March 29, 1788) were both born in Epworth, England where their father served as priest in the Church of England.

            John and Charles were given a very strict religious and academic education by their mother, who was a talented theologian and Bible teacher in her own right.  Susanna held a Bible study in her home by inviting others to join in family devotions; a woman leading a group like this beyond her own family would have been a scandal at the time.

            On February 9, 1709, when John was six years old, the Epworth rectory (parsonage) burned down.  Some believe that the fire may have been started by Samuel’s own parishioners because they did not like his preaching!  The rest of the family fled the house but John was rescued unharmed from an upstairs window moments before the roof collapsed.  Susanna said that John was a “brand plucked from the burning.” (Zechariah 3:2)  John’s mother knew that he was destined to do great things for God.

            John and Charles would go on to study for ordination at Oxford University.  It was here that, along with some others, they would start a study, fellowship, and service group called the Holy Club that would become the beginnings of the Methodist movement.  That is where we will pick up our story next time.

2015 UM History Series #4: “The English Reformation”

            In the last article we talked about the Protestant Reformation in Germany and Switzerland.  Around the same time another reformation was starting to take place in England which was very different than the one on the Continent and which has much greater direct bearing on us as Methodists and as Americans.

            It all started because King Henry VIII wanted a divorce from his wife, a Spanish princess, named Catherine of Aragon.  Henry wanted a divorce because Catherine had not provided Henry a male heir, only a daughter named Mary.

            In order to get a divorce Henry would need permission from the Pope; the Pope would not give it.  To make a long story short, Henry had Parliament pass the Act of Supremacy in 1534 which declared the King of England to be the “Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England,” and that the Pope had no political or religious authority in England.  This left the way open for Henry to marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn, who, by the way, also had only a daughter, Elizabeth.  Henry would eventually have Anne executed for treason so that he could marry Jane Seymour who would finally give him a son, Edward.

            One, however, must not think that the English Reformation was merely political.  Many people in England had begun to have the same misgivings about the Roman Catholic Church as had the Reformers in Europe.  Those people, most notably, Thomas Cranmer, who would become Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest bishop in the Church of England, would take this opportunity to try to make some true spiritual and biblical reforms in worship and theology.

            Actual reforms under Henry were very modest.  Worship and theology remained virtually identical.  Priests and bishops were required to pledge loyalty to the King rather than to the Pope.  Those who refused were imprisoned, banished, or executed.  Also, Henry had catholic monasteries disbanded and their land sold to raise money for the crown.

            The son of Henry VIII, Edward VI, became king in 1547 at the age of nine.  Young Edward ruled through his uncle who served as Lord Protector.  During Edward’s reign major changes were made to remove all vestiges of Catholicism from English theology and worship.  Edward, however, was a sickly boy who died in 1553 at 15 years old.

            Henry and Catherine’s daughter then became Queen Mary I after her supporters executed Lady Jane Grey, Mary’s cousin, whom Edward had named as successor and who was Queen for only nine days.  Mary returned England to Catholicism.  She is known as “Bloody Mary” because during her reign 283 Protestants were burned at the stake for heresy.

            When Mary died childless in 1558, her half-sister, daughter of Henry and Anne, was crowned Queen Elizabeth I.  Elizabeth led England back into Protestantism, however, in a manner that was less Protestant than her brother Edward, and yet also less Catholic than her father Henry, in theology and worship.  This became known as the via media, or middle road, which remains an important concept within the Church of England and the Anglican tradition throughout the world, including the Anglican and Episcopal churches in this country.

            However, all were not happy with the Elizabethan Settlement, as it was called.  Catholics continued to be suppressed as did “Separatists,” who thought that the Church of England had not gone far enough in its reforms and began to worship on their own.  Meanwhile, within the Church of England two groups began to form: the “Conformists” or “high church” group preferred a more Catholic feeling worship, while the “Puritans” or “low church” group rejected the more Catholic style.

            After Elizabeth this tension between the Puritans and the Conformists, among other things, would lead to English Civil War and the migration of some of the Puritans to New England.  The English Civil War, and the religious climate in England which followed it, would set the stage for the birth of John and Charles Wesley, the founders of the Methodist movement.  We will pick up with those stories next time.

2015 UM History Series – #3: The Reformation

Last time we saw that the Roman Catholic Church had become rich, powerful, and corrupt in Medieval Europe.  Perhaps the greatest corruption of the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages was the sale of indulgences.

According to Roman Catholic doctrine people may be saved and not go to hell when they die, but they still may not be quite good enough to go heaven, so they end up in an in between place called purgatory.  People could get their dead relatives out of purgatory by praying, doing good deeds, or by donating money in exchange for a piece of paper called an indulgence. Lest you think that I am missing a nuance here, a seller of indulgences in Germany named Johann Tetzel sang the jingle, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings the soul from purgatory springs.”

This upset a German monk and Bible scholar named Martin Luther.  Luther became convinced from the Bible, which he believed was the only basis for belief rather than human made tradition, (Sola Scriptura) that we are saved by God’s grace alone (Sola Gratia) through faith alone. (Sola Fide)  In other words, purgatory and indulgences are not in the Bible but were made up by the church; we go to heaven not by giving money, or by anything else we do, but by God’s grace when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

On October 31^st 1517 Luther nailed his “95 Theses” (a list of 95 grievances against the Roman Catholic Church) to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany seeking to open the debate on these issues and reform the church.  It is important to remember that Luther, and the other reformers, for the most part, were not seeking to start a new church but simply to reform the church.

This was not to be, however.  In 1520 the Pope excommunicated Martin Luther and a new church family, which we now know as Lutherans was born.

In 1519 Ulrich Zwingli, a Catholic priest who had come to similar conclusions as Luther, began a reformation in Switzerland.  Many churches in Switzerland became independent from Rome just as the Lutherans in Germany had.  Leadership of the Swiss reformation was later taken over by John Calvin.  What then came to be known as the Calvinist or Reformed Church spread particularly to Holland and later Scotland and is the origin of the Reformed and Presbyterian churches of today.

While Lutherans and Calvinist sought to replace the Catholic Church as the official church in the countries in which they lived, there was another, totally different, way of being Christian emerging in these areas; these people were known as Anabaptists.  Anabaptists, which means re-baptizers, rejected infant baptism in favor of believer’s  baptism and also reject the intermixing of church and state.  Anabaptists are usually pacifists, and some live in intentional communities and practice a plain and simple lifestyle and manner of dress.  Modern Anabaptists include the Amish, the Hutterites, the Mennonites, and many Brethren groups.

There was also a Reformation in England and we will pick that up next time.