Hobnobbing with some of my fellow Methodist colleagues for our community Good Friday service today, I could not help mourning what could have been had the early Methodists and Episcopalians united early on. In the chaos after the American Revolution, John Wesley set apart Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as “superintendents” to continue to spread the Gospel and set up Methodist Societies in America. However, the American societies, already functionally operating as churches, conferred upon them the title of “bishop.” Coke extended an initial olive branch to Bishops White and Seabury. Seabury’s response is unknown if he had responded, yet Bishop White met with Coke on three other occasions. The exact substance of their conversations is lost to history, aside from speculations by White that Asbury did not seem to care about being a bishop as such, and that Coke seemed more keen on having “official” episcopal authority for the sake of his Methodist flock. All we know is that nothing akin to merger ever happened. Perhaps the same forces were at work that split Methodism from Anglicanism in the U.K. came to the fore earlier in America thanks to the Revolution.
Yet to think of the potential impact in terms of missions, evangelism, even ecumenical endeavors is an exercise worthy of consideration. If we can picture what an alternative past would have looked like, it can help us conceive of a different future we would like to work toward. Jesus was willing to die to bring us back into relationship with himself. How much are we willing to give in striving for a kingdom-focused approach to ministry?
Still an Evangelical in the Episcopal Church 
April 23, 2011 at 9:59 am
I can’t think of a single reason in the basic tenets of doctrine, discipline and worship of either church that justifies our separation. I believe that before independence, all methodists were members of the Anglican churches, and only began to organise a church of their own when it was unclear that there would be an Anglican church in the new country. By the time White got episcopalians to start thinking about their future, the methodists were already organising. White I would expect to be sympathetic to union, Seabury I would not. And since White needed Seabury’s support if there were to be a single Anglican church in the US, he no doubt put Coke on the back burner. Personally I’d rather have had two Anglican churches in the US, one of which included the methodists, but that’s just me.
The Church of England has been exploring reunion with Methodists, and a covenant between them was signed in 2003. Details at http://www.anglican-methodist.org.uk/.
April 23, 2011 at 2:04 pm
What’s odd to me is that we were willing to explore and enter into full communion with ELCA, who have not nearly as substantial a shared history with CofE/TEC, yet nothing similar with the Methodists with whom we do.
In my brain, the Methodists would have been the easiest to open that conversation with.
April 23, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Our new pastoral assistant at St. Andrew’s is the Rev. Dean Byrom, recently retired Senior Pastor of the Coraopolis United Methodist Church. Under license from Bishop Price to preach. Also at St. A’s we have the Rev. Jean Haslett, retired some years ago as Pastor of the Aspinwall United Methodist Church. I’ve invited her a number of times to slip on a pulpit gown, but thus far she’s said she prefers to stay planted in the pew. But all that is simply to say, I also don’t see any impediments other than cultural and customary differences–which really shouldn’t be impediments. I wouldn’t want to serve in the context of pastoral itinerancy, but that’s just me . . . .
May 1, 2011 at 4:54 pm
I’m glad Seabury made the doctrinal stands he did when the first BCP in America was drafted–they weren’t episcopal issues, they were orthodox vs. deist issues, and much closer to what Methodists believed than people like Ben Franklin. I wish people would read Paul Marshall’s book, or at least the Wikipedia article which gets straight where Seabury stood from dependable sources. How he stood on church governance is another issue. I do think he was right that the Episcopal church in the US was best off to start off with consecrated Bishops (although like most people, I think he was wrong to distrust any voice at all from the laity). –Back to the main point of this thread: I know some Episcopalians today who left the Methodist church because they didn’t like the concept of the “heart strangely warmed” and personal conversion, and wouldn’t want to have what they deliberately left behind reinforced in the church they chose instead. Too bad. –Glad St. Andrew’s is open to Methodists.