| Wesleyan Methodist Church | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Protestant |
| Theology | Wesleyan |
| Governance | Connexionalism |
| Region | Great Britain |
| Founder | John Wesley |
| Origin | 1730s (Evangelical Revival) |
| Independence | 1790s |
| Branched from | Church of England |
| Separations | Methodist New Connexion (1797) |
| Merged into | Methodist Church of Great Britain |
| Defunct | 1932 (Methodist Union) |
| Other name(s) | Wesleyan Methodist Connexion |
The Wesleyan Methodist Church (also named the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion) was the majority Methodist movement in England following its split from the Church of England after the death of John Wesley and the appearance of parallel Methodist movements.
The word Wesleyan in the title differentiated it from the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists (who were a majority of the Methodists in Wales) and from the Primitive Methodist movement, which separated from the Wesleyans in 1807.[1] The Wesleyan Methodist Church followed John and Charles Wesley in holding to an Arminian theology, in contrast to the Calvinism held by George Whitefield, by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon (founder of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion), and by Howell Harris and Daniel Rowland, the pioneers of Welsh Methodism. Its Conference was also the legal successor to John Wesley as holder of the property of the original Methodist societies.[2]