METHODIST HISTORY January 2014 Volume LII Number 2

The Rev. Thomas Coke, L.L.D. EDITORIAL BOARD

Russell E. Richey President, Historical Society of The

Morris Davis Drew University

Paula Gilbert Duke University

A. V. Huff Furman University

Cornish Rogers Claremont School of Theology

Ian Straker Howard University

Douglas Strong Seattle Pacific University

Anne Streaty Wimberly Interdenominational Theological Center

Stephen Yale Pacific School of Religion

Charles Yrigoyen, Jr. Lancaster Theological Seminary

Assistant Editors Michelle Merkel-Brunskill Christopher Rodkey Nancy E. Topolewski

Book Review Editor Kevin Newburg

Cover: Image of an engraving found in the Drew Methodist Collection of Drew University, located in Madison, New Jersey. See article on Coke by John A. Vickers on page 68.

METHODIST HISTORY (ISSN 0026-1238) is published quarterly for $25.00 per year to addresses in the U.S. by the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church (GCAH), 36 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ 07940. Printed in the U.S.A. Back issues are available. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to METHODIST HISTORY, P.O. Box 127, Madison, NJ 07940 or email [email protected]. METHODIST HISTORY

Robert J. Williams, Editor

Volume LII January 2014 Number 2

CONTENTS Contributors ...... 66 Editor’s Note ...... 67

Thomas Coke: Man of Letters by John A. Vickers ...... 68

John William Fletcher’s Shaping of in its Approach Beyond Christianity by Patrick Ph. Streiff ...... 78

Methodist Bible Women in Bulgaria and Italy by Paul W. Chilcote and Ulrike Schuler ...... 94

DISCOVERY edited by Kenneth J. Collins ...... 114

American : A Compact History, Denominational History, and an Author’s Response by Russell E. Richey (on behalf of Kenneth E. Rowe and Jean Miller Schmidt) ...... 117

Book Reviews ...... 120

Minutes of the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Historical Society of The United Methodist Church ...... 126

Copyright 2014, General Commission on Archives and History, The United Methodist Church

Methodist History is included in Religious and Theological Abstracts, Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life ATLA Religion Database

Manuscripts submitted for publication and all other correspondence should be addressed to Editor: METHODIST HISTORY, P.O. Box 127, Madison, NJ 07940. Prospective authors are advised to write for guidleines or visit www.gcah.org. CONTRIBUTORS

JOHN A. VICKERS retired as Head of Bognor Regis College and he is an author, indexer, editor, and publisher. He has been a member of the Methodist Archives and History Committee, the Wesley Historical Society Executive Committee, and Archivist for the Southampton Methodist District in . He published the definite editions of the letters and of the journal of Thomas Coke as well as his definitive biography, Thomas Coke, Apostle of Methodism.

PATRICK PH. STREIFF is the of The United Methodist Church of Central and Southern Europe, which comprises the countries Albania, Algeria, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Tunisia. He has been a pastor, and from 1988 he was director of the Centre Méthodiste de Formation Théologique in Lausanne, and from 1992 profes- sor of modern Christian history there. He was elected a bishop in 2005. He has authored Reluctant Saint? A Theological Biography of Fletcher of Madeley (Epworth Press, 2001) and Methodism in Europe in the 19th and 20th Century (Eesti Metodist Kirik, 2003).

PAUL W. CHILCOTE is Academic Dean and Professor of Historical Theology and Wesleyan Studies as Ashland Theological Seminary, Ashland, Ohio. He is the author of 17 books on women in early Methodism, prayer, spirituality, and —having served as president of the Charles Wesley Society.

ULRIKE SCHULER is Professor of Church History, Methodism and Ecumenism at the Reutlingen Theological School and has served on the bilat- eral dialogue between the and the Salvation Army and the bilateral dialogue between The United Methodist Church and the Moravian Church, Northern and Southern Province of the United States of America. She has been president of the World Methodist Historical Society and was a director of the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church.

KENNETH J. COLLINS is Professor of Historical Theology and Wesley Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, and is the au- thor of several books on the life and theology of .

66 Methodist History, 52:2 (January 2014)

EDITOR’S NOTE May 3 will be the 200th anniversary of the death of Thomas Coke on board a ship in the on his way to Ceylon. It is a time to re- member his legacy as one of the architects of the American Methodist movement even though he is overshadowed by and as the driving force for the mission work of the British Methodist Conference. I am pleased that we are able to publish another article by John Vickers on Thomas Coke and by so doing we honor a lifetime of scholarship on this important figure. Vickers’ three major works are Thomas Coke: Apostle of Methodism (Epworth and Abingdon Press, 1968), The Journals of Thomas Coke (Kingswood Books, 2005), and the recently published The Letters of Dr. Thomas Coke, (Kingswood Books, 2013). Dr. Vickers has also lectured widely on Coke and publications include Thomas Coke Revisited (Evesham: Wesley Historical Society, 2010) and Thomas Coke and World Methodism (Bognor Regis: World Methodist Historical Society, British Section, 1976). John Vickers deserves recognition and commendation for his superb scholar- ship and astute analysis of the life and work of Dr. Thomas Coke. There will be a commemorative weekend of events in Coke’s birthplace of Brecon, , May 3-4, 2014, which will include worship, lectures, and receptions to remember this illustrative son of Brecon. I look forward to being present, delivering a lecture on Coke, and participating in worship that will feature Leslie Griffiths, Superintendent minister of Wesley’s Chapel, London, and Bishop Thomas Bickerton of the Pittsburgh Area of The United Methodist Church, USA, as preachers. A seven-day tour of sites related to Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke has been organized for May 2-9, 2014. Information is available at www.janetredlertravelandtourism.com. The other two essays were delivered to the working group on Wesley and Historical Studies at the Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies in August, 2012. Future issues will include other essays from this working group. Appreciation is expressed to the writers’ willingness to revise and edit their presentations for publication. Several corrections were made to the printed version of “Charles Wesley’s Hymns in Languages of Continental Europe After 1945” by S T Kimbrough, Jr., that was in Methodist History, 51:1&2 (October 2012 & January 2013), pages 73-88, for the online version available through www.gcah.org. I regret those errors. The sentence on page 76 should read, “The early collections titled Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739, 1740, 1742), bearing both John’s and Charles’s names are well represented, as well as the 1749 volume with that title that was edited only by Charles.” Robert Williams

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