James O'Kelly (1735 – October 16, 1826) was an American clergyman during the
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The Second Great Awakening, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, sparked a number of reform movements. R ...
and an important figure in the early history of
Methodism
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
in America. He was also known for his outspoken views on
abolitionism
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The Britis ...
Appointed as a Methodist circuit rider in 1777, he organized preaching circuits on the frontier in central and southeastern North Carolina during the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
. He continued his affiliation with the
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. ...
from its formal organization in 1784 at the
Christmas Conference
The Christmas Conference was an historic founding conference of the newly independent Methodists within the United States held just after the American Revolution at Lovely Lane Chapel in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1784.
Prior to the revolution, ...
, when he was ordained an elder. Well regarded as a preacher, he successfully supervised pastors in several regions of Virginia and North Carolina.
O'Kelly, who favored the congregationalist system of church polity, came to oppose the church's system of centralized episcopal authority, which he believed infringed on the freedom of preachers. At the 1792 General Conference of the Methodist Church, he introduced a resolution to allow clergy to appeal to the Conference if they believed their assignments from the bishop to be unsatisfactory. After several days of debate, the resolution was defeated.
In protest, O'Kelly withdrew from the denomination and with his supporters founded the Republican Methodist Church, later known simply as the Christian Church, or "Connection". The O'Kelly-led schism is recognized as the first schism of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Some of its members also became involved in the related Stone-Campbell movement. O'Kelly later published his position in a tract entitled ''The Author's Apology for Protesting against the Methodist Episcopal Government'' (1798). In this piece O'Kelly claims that the Methodist Bishops Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke were not elected to the episcopacy by the Conference. O'Kelly is answered in 1800 by
Nicholas Snethen
Nicholas Snethen (November 15, 1769 – May 30, 1845) was an American farmer, itinerant preacher, minister, and church leader.
He served as chaplain of the US House of Representatives and was a founder of the Methodist Protestant Church in the ...
. Snethen accuses O'Kelly of propagating "notorious falsehoods." O'Kelly, not one to let the argument rest, responds with his ''A Vindication of an Apology.''
The Christian Connection or Christian Church, as it was later more commonly known, merged with the
Congregational churches
Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs it ...
in 1931 to form the
Congregational Christian Churches
The Congregational Christian Churches were a Protestant Christian denomination that operated in the U.S. from 1931 through 1957. On the latter date, most of its churches joined the Evangelical and Reformed Church in a merger to become the United ...
. In 1957, a majority of churches from this association merged with the
Evangelical and Reformed Church
The Evangelical and Reformed Church (E&R) was a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. It was formed in 1934 by the merger of the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) with the Evangelical Synod of North America (ESNA). A ...
, developed by German Americans from their historic immigrant traditions, to form the present
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximatel ...
O'Kelly's Chapel
O'Kelly's Chapel is a historic chapel located near Farrington, North Carolina, Farrington, Chatham County, North Carolina. Named after Reverend James O'Kelly, it was built about 1900. It is a modest one-room rural chapel with Gothic Revival archi ...
, built about 1900 and named after him, was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1985.
See also
* Methodist Protestant Church – an 1828 schism in the Methodist Episcopal Church over similar issues that had led to O'Kelly's exit
*
Methodist New Connexion
The Methodist New Connexion, also known as Kilhamite Methodism, was a Protestant nonconformist church. It was formed in 1797 by secession from the Wesleyan Methodists, and merged in 1907 with the Bible Christian Church and the United Methodist F ...
in Britain.
*Moore, M. H. ''Pioneers of Methodism in North Carolina and Virginia'', 1884.
*Kilgore, Charles Franklin. ''The James O'Kelly Schism in the Methodist Episcopal Church'', 1963.
External links
* , at ''The Restoration Movement Pages'',
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Memorial University of Newfoundland, also known as Memorial University or MUN (), is a public university in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, based in St. John's, with satellite campuses in Corner Brook, elsewhere in Newfoundland and ...