Hi, I’m Dr. Luther Oconer and welcome to United Methodist History, Lecture 5, where I’ll talk about the beginning of American Methodism and this lecture will be divided into four important time periods from 1760-1790. As we have shown in the previous lecture, Methodism had already begun to get its feet planted in England. And within the next 30 years, given its aggressive evangelism and discipleship cultivated within a growing network of preachers, societies, chapels, and circuits, it has taken England by storm. However, despite British Methodists continued missionary advance in their country, that same zeal did to not overflow to the other side of the Atlantic. The truth is Methodism was nowhere to be found in the British colonies in North America. As you can see on this chart…Methodism was nowhere to be found. You see that there were the more established churches (and I mean official state churches) from Europe like the Anglicans, Catholics, Dutch Reformed, and German Churches (like the Lutheran and German Reformed). And then you also have the sect type of churches which escaped persecution in their country of origins and found a haven in the colonies, like the Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Mennonites, Quakers, and Sandemanians. By the way, if in case you're wondering about who the Sandemanians were, they were actually a small sect that originated in Scotland and founded by John Glass and later was spread in England and North America by his son-in-law, Robert Sandeman, hence they were called Sandemanians. Anyhow, what’s also interesting to note here is as you look at the charts from each of the colonies, only about 20% of the population actually were churched. Again, Methodists were nowhere to be found at this period. So it took thirty years (since leaving Georgia in 1737) before Wesley began to include the North American colonies in his missionary plan. Why did he wait so long? Was he turned off by bad experience in Georgia? Probably not. Wesley actually kept in close touch with the revival in North America after his return to England in 1738. In fact, 1) He reprinted Jonathan Edwards’ Narrative of the Late Work of God at and near Northampton in New England in 1744; which he even reprinted many times. 2) He corresponded with American Evangelicals, both Anglicans, and Presbyterians on a number of occasions. But at the same time, Wesley did seem to have practiced a “hands-off” policy regarding the American colonies. And what were the reasons behind that? 1. He channeled his concern for the colonies through his younger colleague in the revival, George Whitefield. Whitefield was more dramatic as preacher than his tutor John Wesley but much less methodical. His forte was oratory not organization. Even though they differed on doctrine and practice, as we out found in Lectures 2 and 3, they maintained respect for each other. Whitefield visited the North American colonies seven times between 1739 and 1770. 2. Money, actually, the lack of it. In the 1740s and 1750s Methodism was growing rapidly in England, building chapels, going in debt. Premature extension into the American colonies, where so many evangelical preachers were working, may have seemed risky and unwise. 3. But the most serious reason was the outbreak of Britain’s Seven Years War (1754-1771) with France over control of North America. Americans call this war the French and Indian War. The power of France in North America was broken in 1761, but the war lingered on until 1771. However, here’s the thing, what Wesley could not control, was the migration of many of his followers to the colonies once the war was over. Beginning in the early 1760s, increasing numbers of Methodist layfolk begin to arrive in the colonies, part of a general exodus of communities escaping England’s, and especially Ireland’s, deteriorating economy. Therefore, with the migration of Methodists from England and Ireland, the earliest Methodist societies would emerge in the three seaport cities of Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia. Let’s begin with Baltimore. Methodist work here was first begun by Irish immigrant and local preacher Robert Strawbridge. The Strawbridges—Robert, his wife Elizabeth (also a devout Methodist), and a niece and nephew arrived sometime in 1760 or 1761 and settled in Frederick County in Maryland. Robert set out on a wide preaching circuit through Frederick, Baltimore, and Harford counties and to the edge of the Eastern Shore. His wife was also involved in some evangelistic activities by exhorting the surrounding families and converting farmer John Evans and forming a Methodist class. Preachers converted by Robert Strawbridge include African Americans like Jacob Toogood, one of the first known black Methodist preachers in America, and white leaders and preachers William Watters and Freeborn Garrettson. Garrettson even became a bishop later. You need to understand that his ministry was really unofficial since it was not sanctioned by Wesley. Nevertheless, with the encouragement of and a possible ordination by a German Reformed preacher in connection with William Otterbein, one of the founders of the United Brethren, Strawbridge expanded his powers by baptizing and conducting the Lord’s Supper. Again, even though he was not ordained in the Methodist ministry. In 1774, just 14 or 13 years after the Strawbridge’s arrival, Methodists in Baltimore opened Lovely Lane Meeting House in Baltimore, which became the site for the birth of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1784. The second port where Methodism also emerged was New York. About 1766, Barbara and Paul Heck and Margaret and Philip Embury along with the Hecks’ two African-American servants, John Lawrence and Betty, begin Methodist meetings in New York City at the home of Philip Embury. The Hecks and Emburys were children of German refugees who had been living in Ireland and who joined the Methodists there. Their parents left the Palatinate region of Germany due to hardships early in the 18th Century. Philip Embury had been a Methodist lay preacher in County Limerick in Ireland. Due to economic hardships, the Hecks and Emburys left Ireland for New York in 1760. The services soon outgrew the Embury home, and the Methodist Society began meeting in rented facilities; first on Barrack Street and then at “The Old Rigging Loft” on Horse and Cart Street (now William Street). It was called “rigging loft” because the upper story of the building was sometimes used to rig sails for ships. Philip Embury was soon joined in the pulpit by Captain Thomas Webb, a British officer (actually he was a lieutenant and not a captain) and a licensed Methodist lay preacher who was converted in Bristol. Here’s a description from Thomas Taylor, the congregation’s lay leader, about Captain Webb, in his letter to Wesley on April 11, 1768: By 1768 the little society of Methodists had outgrown the rigging loft and they purchased a lot on John Street in modern Wall Street area for a meeting house. Embury, who was also a carpenter, designed the first building and supervised construction. The new meeting house was named Wesley Chapel and was dedicated on October 30th, 1768. It was later renamed John Street Methodist Church. Today, this is John Street UMC as it stands today. If you’ll ever visit New York City and go to Wall Street or the World Trade Center, it’s just a walking distance away. Now another port city where Methodist work emerged was Philadelphia. The first “Methodist” to preach in Philadelphia was George Whitefield in 1739 during what became known as the First Great Awakening. After he left the city several of his converts began meeting informally with other like-minded persons over the next two decades led by shoemaker Edward Evans and James Emerson, a recent immigrant from Ireland. When Captain Thomas Webb visited Philadelphia in 1767, he reorganized seven remaining members who “stood fast in the faith for nearly thirty years” into a Methodist society. Evans began to serve as a freelance evangelist in the city. Two years later (1769), when Methodist preachers Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmore arrived from England, they found a society of about a hundred desiring to be in connection with Mr. Wesley. The congregation outgrew its meeting room and began to look for larger quarters. Within a few months, they purchased St. George’s German Reformed Church, unfinished for lack of money and abandoned by that congregation. By the way, the German Reformed Church was the denomination that William Otterbein, one of the founders of the United Brethren in Christ, originally belonged to. So, the Methodists retained the building’s name and Joseph Pilmore, their more or less resident pastor, dedicated St. George’s Methodist Chapel on November 24, 1769. By the way, here are some recent images of St. George UMC, and look I was there, trying to replicate the cover for the Beatles’ Please Please Me album! By the end of the 1760s, Methodism in America consisted of many household meetings but just a handful of societies and preaching houses from New York to northern Maryland. Wesley sends lay preachers, beginning in 1769 The Methodists along the mid-Atlantic coast from New York to Baltimore were beginning to form societies and build preaching houses but had no regular preachers. The New York congregation instructed their lay leader, Thomas Taylor to beg Wesley to send a preacher. So, as you can see, the appeal from the New York Methodists was quite urgent. While Embury and Webb were effective preachers they were still lacking in “many qualifications” necessary for the work. Similarly, that same year, a number of Robert Strawbridge’s followers also sent a “pressing call” to England for preachers. So Wesley eventually heeded the call. On October 24, 1769, the first official missionaries sent by Wesley to North America arrived in the person of Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmore. They landed at Gloucester Point, New Jersey, just six miles south of Philadelphia. Pilmore stayed in Philadelphia while Boardman, on the other hand, traveled north to New York City. In the two cities, they introduced Methodist discipline, including class meetings, love feasts, watch nights, and public readings of Wesley’s General Rules. Two years later, in 1771, Francis Asbury and Richard Wright arrived as “volunteer” preachers. Asbury, then only 26 years old, would in time take leadership of the emerging church. Boardman and Pilmore, however, failed to keep Wesley’s rules, particularly because of their leniency towards Robert Strawbridge’s administration of Holy Communion. Remember the Methodists in America just like in England were a renewal movement and not a church and since their preachers were not ordained, of course. they were not allowed to administer the sacraments. Boardman and Pilmore apparently concluded that Strawbridge’s remote location and the people's lack of access to an Anglican church required him to offer the sacraments to those he served. For Strawbridge's part, he believed that providing sacraments for the people superseded Mr. Wesley’s rule not to administer them. Therefore, in Wesley’s eyes, this was too dangerous and would constitute separation from the Church of England. Also, Asbury complained about the two in addition to them for not venturing outside the cities. Hence, the two pioneering missionaries had to go. In his letter on December 4, 1773, Wesley wrote : On January 2, 1774, Boardman and Pilmore boarded a ship for England. Boardman did not return to America but Pilmore did, in 1786 in Philadelphia, as an Anglican priest. He broke off from Wesley after Wesley allowed the Americans to form their own church in 1784 which was actually ironic given how their positions have reversed on the matter. So, going back to 1773, in order to correct the difficulties with his two pioneering missionaries, Wesley sends Thomas Rankin, a veteran preacher, and a strict disciplinarian, to enforce the discipline, especially the itineracy, and head off a separation from the Church of England. Rankin came to the colonies with extensive itinerant experience and an acerbic impression of Americans. He actually spent a year in Charleston, South Carolina where he worked as a merchant’s agent. Rankin gathered the ten American preachers (among Asbury) for their first conference in America. This happened at St. George’s in Philadelphia on July 14-16, 1773, and an engraving of this event is shown on the screen. As you can see, St. George’s was still unfinished even after four years the Methodists bought the building. Six rules were agreed to during this meeting, which tied the preachers to the authority of Mr. Wesley and specified their rules and doctrines. But here were two of the rules worth mentioning here: Rankin’s brusque manner and lack of sympathy with the colonial cause when war broke out led to strained relations. Rankin returned to England at the end of the second year of the war in 1778. Now, speaking of the war, this now brings us to what happened to the Methodists during the War of Independence. Please go to the next video. Thank you!