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AMERICAN METHODISM A COMPACT HISTORY Copyright © 2010, 2012 by Abingdon Press All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechan- ical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, P.O. Box 801, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202-0801, or e-mailed to [email protected]. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Richey, Russell E. American Methodism : a compact history / Russell E. Richey, Kenneth E. Rowe, Jean Miller Schmidt. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-4267-4227-9 (book - pbk. / trade pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Methodist Church—United States— History. 2. United Methodist Church (U.S.)—History. I. Rowe, Kenneth E. II. Schmidt, Jean Mill- er. III. Title. BX8235.R525 2012 287.0973—dc23 2012026991 All scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA © Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. Contents Preface ................................................................................................vii Methodist History in a Digital Age Using This Narrative with the Two MEA Volumes Complementary United Methodist Resources Introduction: Spontaneous Beginnings: 1760–68 ...................................1 Conversionist Religion Colonial Awakenings Otterbein and Boehm Wesleyan Initiatives Spontaneity and Order Chapter I: Revolutionary Methodism: 1769–84 ....................................9 Pilmore and Boardman Order(s) Liberty Conferencing Discipline Tensions and Controversies as Revolution Looms Collaborators, Loyalists, Pacifists, Persecuted, Patriots Americanization A First Schism Slavery and Revival Awaiting Wesleyan Directives Provisioning an American Church Planting an American Church Chapter II: Reforming the Continent and Spreading Scriptural Holiness: 1792–1816 ...........................................27 The Christmas Conference Otterbein in Baltimore Race, Gender, and Gentility Bishops and Conference Multiple Conferences and the Council General Conference Republican, Primitive, and African Methodists Denominationalism United Brethren and Evangelical Association Annual Conferences and General Conference (MEC) Spirituality: In the Home and in Camp Meetings Racializing the Church A New Day Dawns © Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. iii Chapter III: Print, Nurture, Missions: 1816–50s .................................47 Which Wesley to Emulate? Apologetics and the Course of Study Book Agents A Print Church Parsonages and Pastoring Sunday Worship, the Sunday School, and the Sunday School Union Missionary Societies A New Connectionalism Holiness Promoted Collegiate Enterprise Theological Seminaries and Brush Colleges Chapter IV: Connectional Strains and Contests: 1816–50s...................65 Racial Divisions German Methodisms Women’s Ministries Native American Missions Colonization and Mission to the Slaves German, Spanish, and International Missions Democratic and Anti-Episcopacy Divisions A New Church Chapter V: Methodism and Slavery: 1830–60s .....................................81 Sectionalized Methodism Methodist Abolition and an Antislavery Church General Conference 1844 Methodist Episcopal Church, South MEC vs. MECS Further Division over Slavery Chapter VI: A Methodist Civil War: 1860–65 .....................................93 Methodist Confederacy Military Defeat and Moral Victory Northern Methodist Patriotism Ministry in the Army Mobilizing Methodist Women New Caring Institutions African American Conferences National Churches Chapter VII: Reconstructions: 1866–84 ............................................107 Looking Back and Looking Forward Lay Rights in Episcopal Methodism Denominational Accountability Women’s Organizational Revolution Seminaries Women in Seminary and in the Pulpit Foreign and Home Missions Southern African American Methodisms “Fraternal” Relations among Methodists Local Methodism © Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. iv Chapter VIII: Rethinking Mission(s): 1884–1939 .............................127 Reordering Foreign Missions Lay Ministries at Home Korean Missions and Asian American Methodists Deaconess Movements Hospitals Social Christianity MFSS and the Social Creed Rethinking Missions Chapter IX: Methodism Conflicted: 1884–1939 .................................145 Laity Rights for Women Conflicts over Holiness A Methodist Social Gospel Drying up America Red Scare Liberalism and Fundamentalism MECS Women and Racial Reform Women’s Ordination: Another Round Worship and Architecture Mission(s) in War and of Peace Reunification and Race Chapter X: Unifications and World Wars: 1939–68 ...........................169 War and a New World Order Holocaust, Japanese Internment, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki Ordering the New Methodist Church Jurisdictions and the Central Jurisdiction Segregated Methodism—Segregated America Progress toward Integration Uniting Methodist Women Full Clergy Rights for Women Youth Ministries The Evangelical United Brethren Church Worship: EUBC and Methodist Cold and Korean Wars Social Activism and Another “Red Scare” Ecumenical Efforts The United Methodist Church Mission Churches Exercise Options Chapter XI: The United Methodist Church: 1968–84 ........................201 Caucus and Commission African Americans in United Methodism Asian American United Methodists Latino/Hispanic United Methodism Native American United Methodism The UMC and the Vietnam War Merger Commissions—Social Principles, Structure, Doctrine New Women’s Organizations© Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. v Chapter XI (contd.) Homosexuality: Cause and Caucus Elder Care Divorce Abortion Good News a Forum for Scriptural Christianity Spirituality and the Language of Praise Chapter XII: From Bicentennial to Century’s End: 1984–2000 ..........235 New Doctrinal Standards Episcopal Initiatives Native American Ministries Latino/Hispanic Ministries Korean American Ministries Abortion Policy Homosexuality Political Theologizing Christian Unity Sacraments, Worship, Hymnody Women Get the Last Word Abbreviations ....................................................................................261 Index .................................................................................................265 © Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. vi Chapter I Revolutionary Methodism: 1769–84 Responding to pleas from the infant Methodist societies in North America (S 1768), John Wesley sent over successive pairs of itinerants. Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmore came in 1769 (S 1769, 1771). Francis Asbury and Richard Wright followed in 1771, Thomas Rankin and George Shadford in 1773, and James Dempster and Martin Rodda in 1774. Preachers coming on their own included John King, Joseph Yearbry, and William Glendenning. Wesley’s itinerants came to bring order to Pietist ferment. Pilmore and Boardman Joseph Pilmore, educated at Wesley’s Kingswood School near Bristol, followed Wesley’s precept and example by keeping a journal, as would Francis Asbury, Thomas Rankin, Thomas Coke, and other preachers. Landing October 22, Pilmore encountered Captain Webb, “a real Methodist,” and discovered the Philadelphia society. Boardman, the senior of the two and Wesley’s assistant for America, preached the next day, “on the call of Abraham to go forth into the Land of Canaan.” Employing biblical self-images, Methodist itinerants imagined themselves as Abrahams or Pauls and so crafted their journals. A more accurate biblical type might have been Ezra or Nehemiah. Itiner- ants rebuilt walls, restored temples, and renewed covenants. Ezra and Nehemiah duties completed the Wesleyan system—preaching in the open air, itinerating on a planned basis, making and meeting appointments, inviting into connection all of any confession who would “flee the wrath to come,” admitting the same as probationers, organizing classes, holding love feasts, maintaining the society’s boundaries, establishing circuits, and cultivating good relations with the churches and their clergy. Implementing the Wesleyan system meant also discerning those who could serve in leadership—steward, class leader, exhorter, local preacher—and appointing them to these key local posts. Two weeks after arriving, Pilmore “read and explained the Rules of the Society to a vast multitude of serious people.” In late November, he cooperated with Webb in acquiring a shell of a building from the “Dutch Presbyterians” (German Reformed), St. George’s (a UMC Heritage Landmark). Ten days later, Pilmore laid out the “Wesleyan” order to the Philadelphia society, distilling the General Rules into eight-point guide- lines for the newly acquired property (H 16) and for “those of every Denomination who being truly convinced of sin, and the danger they are exposed to, earnestly desire to flee from the wrath to come.” In enumerating Methodist rules, insisting that “the Methodist Society was never designed to make a Separation from the Church of England or be looked upon as a Church,” and referencing© deeds Abingdon and Press. plan