By Cedric Pulford

[First published June 11, 2003 by Observer News Service. Copyright Pulford Media Ltd. This article may not be reprinted or distributed either electronically or on hard copy without permission]

Britain's Methodist Church and the (Anglican) Church of England have agreed a covenant that puts them on the road to possible union. Cedric Pulford describes how the historic accord has come about in the year when Methodists are celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of their founder, John Wesley. (This article was published before the covenant was agreed by both churches.)

'I'm passionately in favour of our own extinction,' says one of Britain's leading Methodists, Leslie Griffiths.

Griffiths, who is the minister at Wesley's Chapel in London, was referring to the historic vote next month (1 July) when British Methodists will vote on a covenant with the (Anglican) Church of England. It will put the two on the road to possible union after more than two hundred years of separate development.

He does not fear the loss of Methodist identity in a merger with a larger body. 'Look at the Roman Catholic Church, and the variety of approaches it accommodates within itself,' he says.

British Methodists will vote for their 'own extinction' less than a month after tercentenary celebrations for the birth of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He was born at Epworth, eastern England, on 17 June 1703. The old man is likely to have approved, however. As an ordained Anglican priest, he set out with evangelical fervour to reform the Church of England, not to separate from it.

At his death in 1791 aged 87, he left a movement of 72,000 in Britain and 43,000 in the newly born United States. Thereafter, momentum and church politics produced a separate Christian denomination so that Methodism today has about 70 million members worldwide, with the headquarters of the World Methodist Council at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. Over the last 40 years, there has been spectacular growth in the numbers of adherents to Methodism - up 783 per cent in Latin America, 690 per cent in Asia and 450 per cent in Africa.

John Wesley was an itinerant preacher who is estimated to have travelled more than 300,000km (185,000 miles) in his lifetime, much of it on horseback. He often preached several times a day, and wherever he went, he left behind people to organise congregations, known as societies. '

Wesley's achievement was the energy he released in others,' says Griffiths, who is expecting extra visitors this year to Wesley's Chapel - the founder's former London base and where he is buried.

With his younger brother Charles, one of the world's most celebrated hymn writers, Wesley led the 'Evangelical Revival' in England, emphasising the pursuit of holiness and the role of the church in social care. He also proclaimed the importance of extempore worship.

The Methodist movement became immensely influential in the 19th century, helping many in the industrialising cities and impoverished countryside to lead dignified lives in degraded conditions. Social reform in Britain was said to 'owe more to Methodism than to Marx', although the movement's most famous byproduct is the concept of total abstention from alcohol. Although many Methodists today take a more relaxed stand, the Methodist Conference in Britain has recently reaffirmed the ban on selling alcohol on movement property.

Neil Richardson, president-designate of Britain's Methodist Conference, and one of the architects of the Anglican-Methodist covenant, believes Wesley would have approved of the covenant's gradualist approach. 'We'll take a step at a time and see what the Holy Spirit is saying to us,' Richardson explains.

The covenant, which is far short of a merger, proclaims 'the goal of full visible unity' and calls for work 'to overcome the remaining obstacles to the organic unity of our two churches'. But for retired Methodist minister Richard Davison the covenant puts Wesley's legacy in jeopardy. 'When we already have unity in Christ, why do we need union?' asks Davison, who was in active ministry for 39 years.

He is troubled by the Church of England's key belief in the historic episcopate, that priests are ordained by bishops who can trace their authority in an unbroken line back to the first apostles. Even if the doctrine is not used to question Methodist ministerial orders, Davison fears it would inhibit church growth.

'Is God not at work in churches that arise spontaneously without someone who has been ordained through the historic episcopate?' he says.

The covenant, which is expected to pass at the governing Methodist Conference, will also have to clear the Church of England's ruling general synod this summer. Objections from the Anglican side stymied two previous attempts at union. This time, supporters are optimistic and there is a greater ecumenical mood of the wrongfulness of Christian separation. Also, a covenant is not a marriage, but an engagement - and engagements can be broken.

Leslie Griffiths says: 'We've been spurned twice before. We're doing it timidly this time by taking the covenant route.'

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