Methodism
Methodist · 1729–1795 · Britain, Ireland, America; worldwide
Wesley's societies for scriptural holiness remained inside the Church of England for half a century; the sacramental needs of post-Revolution America drew Wesley to ordain in 1784, and the Plan of Pacification (1795), after his death, completed the parting in Britain — a separation Wesley himself never sought.
Methodism was formed between 1729 and 1795, as a process rather than a single event. Methodism is a segment of the spine, a drawing convenience rather than a body that ended. Methodism's institutional line runs back through Church of England, Roman Catholicism to the post-apostolic church. No body on this tree is the assembly of Acts 2; where a body claims that, the claim appears in the claimed-lineage layer.
Between the post-apostolic church and Methodism stand 2 divisions along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.
At a glance
- Formed
- Between 1729 and 1795, as a process rather than a single event
- Family
- Methodist
- Region
- Britain, Ireland, America; worldwide
- Key figures
- John Wesley, Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Francis Asbury, Thomas Coke
- Cause tags
- Doctrine, Governance
- Also known as
- Wesleyan movement; The Methodist Connexion
What it was organized out of
- Began as a renewal within Church of England. The grammar's showcase: fifty years as societies inside the parent body before separation.
Bodies organized out of it or separated from it: Methodist Episcopal Church, The Holiness movement, The Salvation Army, United Church of Canada, Church of South India, Church of North India, Church of Pakistan, Uniting Church in Australia, United Church of Christ in Japan.
On the tree
Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2.
Sources
Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-10.