by Chris Ritter

A significant question facing the Global Methodist Church’s convening General Conference (September 2024 in Costa Rica) is the ultimate shape of our episcopacy. Having decided in favor of bishops, how will the GMC version compare with its predecessors? Will there be innovations? Should we expect additional imports from other denominations? As we await proposals on the number, function, selection, and assignment of bishops, I thought it might be helpful to review the relevant history. I draw heavily from The Episcopacy in American Methodism by James Kirby (Kingswood Books, Abingdon Press, 2000) and various primary sources.

Strangely Free

In Bristol, September 1784, John Wesley ordained Thomas Coke, an Anglican clergy and lawyer, as a “superintendent” for the work in America with instructions for Coke to further ordain Francis Asbury as co-superintendent. Lay preachers Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey he ordained as missionary presybters. “Offer them Christ” was Wesley’s final admonition as his ordinands embarked on their trans-Atlantic voyage. Over the next years, Wesley would participate in similar ordinations for Scotland, Newfoundland, Ireland, and Antigua.

What was Wesley’s intention in conducting ordinations without the ecclesial authority to do so? With the exodus of English clergy from America, Methodists there called for relief. With only two marks of a Christian church (congregations of the faithful and the preaching of the pure Word of God) the Methodist societies called for the others: Holy orders and the sacraments. (Kirby, 25) Wesley worked hard to find a bishop… any bishop… who might be willing to provide ordination to Methodist lay preachers. Rebuffed repeatedly, Wesley reasoned from scripture that a bishop is simply an elder (presbuteros) with responsibility for a significant segment of the church. As leader of the Methodists, he qualified as a scriptural episkopos.  Apostolic succession, he accepted, flowed through presybters as well as bishops. The fact that there were no Anglican bishops in America exercising competing jurisdiction also encouraged the decision:

As our American brethren are now totally disentangled both from the state and from the English hierarchy, we dare not entangle them again; either with the one or the other. They are now at full liberty simply to follow the Scriptures and the primitive church. And we judge it best that they should stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has so strangely made them free. – John Wesley

Charles Wesley protested his brother’s actions in his own poetic style:

So easily are bishops made by man’s or woman’s whim?
Wesley his hand on Coke hath laid, but who laid hands on him?
Hands upon himself he laid, and took an apostolic chair:
He then ordained his creature Coke, his heir and successor.

Episcopalians now no more with Presbyterians fight,
But give your needless contest o’er, ‘whose ordination’s right?’
It matters not, if both are one, or different in degree,
For lo! Ye see contained in John the whole Presbytery.*

Treasures Old and New

Francis Asbury distinguished himself in American Methodism long before his ordination. He provided key leadership through the trying days of the American Revolution when other emissaries from Wesley had returned home to England. Upon Coke’s arrival, Asbury refused the role suggested by Wesley unless he would be elected by his fellow preachers. A “general conference” (a term coined by Asbury In 1773) was called for Christmas Day 1784 during which Methodism would be organized as a church. Asbury was ordained a deacon, then elder, and, having been elected by the conference, a bishop. Historian Norman Spellman contends that Asbury was primarily responsible for the usage of the title “bishop.” In an angry letter to Asbury, Wesley vehemently objected: “But in one point, my dear brother, I am a little afraid both you and the doctor [Coke] differ from me. I study to be little; you study to be great… Men may call me a knave or a fool, a rascal, a scoundrel, and I am content: But they shall never, by my consent, call me a bishop! For my sake, for God’s sake, for Christ’s sake, put a full end to this.”

Methodism had always been an attempt to recover primitive Christianity in terms of faith, message, and the religion of the heart. Organizing as a church, the Christmas Conference saw an opportunity to recover the apostolic office and turn it loose upon their new nation. Methodist bishops would serve in the mold of Paul: travelling, evangelizing, teaching, and appointing leaders. The concept of an “itinerant” episcopacy was quite a novelty compared to ecclesial practice of the day, and this remains a distinguishing feature of Methodist episcopacy.

If American Methodism was “primitive,” it was also decidedly modern and would adopt a democratic spirit never conceived by Wesley, who designed that the American superintendents would report directly to him. Asbury understood that he needed more than Wesley’s authority in the American context. (Friction undoubtably lingered over Wesley’s opposition to American Independence which included the publication of thirteen Royalist tracts and open letters.) By insisting on election by a plenary conference of Methodist preachers, Asbury shifted Wesley’s authority to that body. Having given power to the conference, the conference returned the favor by bestowing on Asbury a role equivalent to the “Wesley of America.”

“A Heavenly-Minded Little Devil”

Thomas Coke, history’s first Methodist bishop, had limited influence in America. He met with George Washington twice and wrote a letter to him on the subject of slavery. Washington invited Coke to preach before Congress. Portly, energetic, and just barely over five feet tall, Wesley called Coke “the flea” because he seemed always hopping around to a new mission field. He crossed the Atlantic eighteen times and made multiple visits to the West Indies, Europe, and Africa. Having spent his inherited fortune in support of missions and missionaries, Coke was a tireless fundraiser… “A heavenly minded little devil,” as one detractor called him. He was successful in lobbying against laws unfavorable to Methodist missionaries in British colonies. Coke was president of the Methodist conference in Great Britain twice following Wesley’s death. He attempted (unsuccessfully) to persuade them to confer on him the title of bishop he bore in America. At age 67, Coke died in route to Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and was buried at sea in the Indian Ocean. He well earned the title “Father of Methodist Missions.”

The 1787 conference in America limited Bishop Coke’s authority, removing his power to station the preachers. When Wesley attempted to replace Coke with Richard Whatcoat, the conference instead removed the “binding minute” recognizing Wesley’s authority. They also removed Wesley’s name from the list of superintendents. Whatcoat, however, was eventually accepted (1789) and Wesley’s name was returned to the roster of superintendents. But the binding minute acknowledging Wesley’s authority was never restored. The Methodist Episcopal Church was independent and Bishop Asbury was its leader.

A Distinctly Methodist Episcopacy

The 1784 Christmas Conference defined the role of General Superintendents (bishops):

To ordain superintendents, elders, and deacons; to preside as a moderator in our conferences; to fix the appointments of the preachers for the service of circuits; and in the intervals of the Conference, to change, receive, or suspend preachers, as necessity may require; and to receive appeals from the preachers and the people, and decide them.

Over three decades of tireless ministry, Asbury himself defined Methodist episcopacy in ways that no legislation could. Nathan Bangs calculated that Asbury travelled two hundred seventy thousand miles, preached 16,425 sermons, and ordained more than 4,000 ministers. Kirby credits Asbury with “not only the genius to lead, but… the will to govern.” (17) He used the power of appointment to goad preachers out of the comfort of established locations and into the frontier and rural areas where they would find their greatest success. Under Asbury’s leadership, Methodist episcopacy and itineracy were indelibly joined.

Part Two will discuss the shape of the episcopacy that developed under Asbury, leading to the period of Methodism’s most rapid expansion.

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*British Methodists would not follow their American cousins by adopting an episcopal governance. Wesley’s mantle fell there to the whole Methodist Conference. British Methodism was a burgeoning Anglican parachurch movement when Wesley died in 1791. Four years later they formally organized as a church. Kirby argues: “Wesley provided more adequately for the future of the church in America and Scotland than he did for the Methodist Connection in England.” For those who think that bishops are the reason Methodism has fared so poorly recently, we must consider British Methodism which fared even worse without them.