The Methodist Protestant Church (MPC) is a regional Methodist Christian denomination in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It was formed in 1828 by former members of 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. ...

, remaining

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

in doctrine and worship, but adopting congregational governance. A majority of the Methodist Protestants were reunited with their fellow Methodists in 1939, and for that reason, the historic Methodist Protestant Church is regarded as one of the predecessors of the present-day

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelica ...

. The Mississippi MPC delegation to the 1939 Uniting Conference withdrew from the proceedings, and was reorganized to continue as the Methodist Protestant Church in name, doctrine and practice. As of 2008, the MPC consists of 42 churches in the United States, located in

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

and a mission conference in the country of

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wa ...

History

A Methodist reform movement begins

The particular issue which would eventually give rise to the organization of the Methodist Protestant Church was one of Church governance rather than doctrine. Dissatisfaction among some Methodists with regard to the increasingly exclusive power of the clergy, particularly bishops, and the exclusion of laymen from the councils of the Church, including the Annual (regional) and General (national) Conferences.

Establishment

In response to actual and threatened expulsions, a convention was held in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

, November 12, 1828, an initial organization was formed with the provisional name of "The Associated Methodist Churches," temporary Articles of Association adopted, and its first General Conference scheduled for 1830. The intervening time was used to form local churches and organized into annual (regional) conferences. Fourteen Annual Conferences were represented by one hundred and fourteen delegates at the first General Conference, called to order on November 2, 1830. The delegates adopted the permanent name "Methodist Protestant Church" to denote its connection to the reform movement, adopted a Constitution and Discipline reflecting the representative form the reformers had sought within the Methodist Episcopal Church. Unlike the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Protestant Church rejected the use of bishops. In the MEC, the bishops had the power to appoint pastors to local churches. The Methodist Protestant Church appointed pastors by a president of the conference. The conference then affirmed the appointment.

Reunification and organized dissent

After the formation of the Methodist Protestant Church, the

had become further fractured by the corresponding division of the nation during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

. At the conclusion of that military conflict, the corresponding division between Northern and Southern Methodist Episcopal Churches remained. While discussion toward reunification went forward slowly, many of the democratic reforms of church governance were adopted which had led to a separate Methodist Protestant Church. Consequently, the reunification process was broadened to include all three major "streams" of American Methodism, and resulted in a Uniting Convention being convened in 1939 with representatives of the General and Annual Conferences of the three separate bodies as delegates. Some of the original differences between Methodist Protestant Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church remained unresolved. Additionally, many Methodist Protestants objected to liberalization on the part of the Methodist Episcopal Church with respect to the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, the deity of Christ and Wesley's teachings on the work of the Holy Spirit. This opinion was the minority view in most Methodist Protestant Annual Conferences, the Mississippi Conference being the sole exception. The Uniting Convention proceeded to effect the merger, which formed The Methodist Church, which in 1968 merged with the Evangelical United Brethren to form the

. Those who objected to the merger continued as the Methodist Protestant Church.

Notable people

* Daniel Bagley (1818–1905), preacher, educational booster, industrialist * Ancel Henry Bassett (1809–1886), minister, author, editor, historian * John Calvin Broomfield (1872–1950), pastor and bishop * Aubrey Franklin Hess (1874–1935), theologian and educator * Hubert D. Humphreys (1923–2009)) engaged in research on the history of the Methodist Protestant Church * Mary A. Miller (18-- – ?), editor and publisher of Methodist Protestant Church missionary periodicals * James O'Kelly (1735–1826), clergyman * Thomas H. Stockton (1808–1868), Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives * Lula Wardlow (1876–1970), businesswoman, minister, first woman ever elected mayor of a Louisiana community

References

Bibliography

*"A Concise History of the Methodist Protestant Church" by Ancel H. Bassett, published by Wm. McCracken, Jr., Pittsburgh, 1887. *

External links

Denominational website
*
Journal of the Quadrennial Session of the General Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church
' *
Journal of the Annual Session of the North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church
' *
Minutes of the Session of the Michigan Annual Conference, Methodist Protestant Church
' {{Authority control History of Methodism in the United States Religious organizations established in 1828

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

Methodist denominations established in the 19th century United Methodist Church predecessor churches 1828 establishments in the United States