An interesting date in Methodist history

On this date in 1784 John Wesley chartered the first Methodist Church in America.

After the American Revolutionary war ended in 1783 Wesley struggled with the question of how to bring order to the Methodists in America.  The Anglican Church refused to send priests to the U.S., believing that church separation would eventually force the new country to re-join Britain. 

Wesley believed that the laying on of hands by an Anglican bishop placed priests of the Church of England in apostolic succession.  When the Anglican Church refused to provide spiritual care for these Christians Wesley began to search the scriptures for a solution.  He concluded that the bishops (episcopos) and elders (presbyteros) of the Primitive Church were functionally the same.  He decided that he himself had the authority to ordain priests.  So, he (along with other Church of England priests) ordained Thomas Coke and in turn directed that Coke ordain Francis Asbury when Coke arrived in America.

Wesley also provided a charter for the establishing of Methodist preaching-houses in America.  The Methodists opened the first of these after Coke arrived in this country.

This was not the first Methodist house of worship.  The Methodist movement had been gaining strength for almost two decades under the leadership of Francis Asbury, Philip William Otterbein, Philip & Margaret Embury and Paul & Barbara Heck.  The first Methodist congregation in “the colonies” was Wesley Chapel in New York City, which opened in 1766. It is still an active congregation – John Street United Methodist Church.