Check.Church

Methodist Episcopal Church, South

Methodist · 1844 · Southern United States

The slavery controversy divided the church's 1844 General Conference and the southern conferences organized separately — the era's defining schism, seventeen years before the nation itself divided; both sides argued from scripture, and the node states that plainly.

Methodist Episcopal Church, South was formed in 1844. It ended as a separate body in 1939, entering The Methodist Church (1939). Methodist Episcopal Church, South's institutional line runs back through Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodism, 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 Methodist Episcopal Church, South stand 4 divisions along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.

At a glance

Formed
In 1844
Family
Methodist
Region
Southern United States
Ended
It ended as a separate body in 1939, entering The Methodist Church (1939).
Cause tags
Politics, Doctrine
Also known as
MEC,S

What it separated from

Bodies organized out of it or separated from it: Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Church (1939).

On the tree

Methodist Episcopal Church, South and its institutional line back to the post-apostolic churchAD 33The church at Pentecost: On divine groundThe church at Pentecost: on divine groundtoday1004244314511054153417291784184418701939The post-apostolic church (The spine)The post-apostolicchurchDepartureChurch of the East (Church of the East)Church of the EastChurch of the EastThe conciliar church (The spine)The conciliar churchDepartureThe Chalcedonian church (The spine)The Chalcedonian churchDepartureOriental Orthodoxy (Oriental Orthodox)Oriental OrthodoxyOriental OrthodoxEastern Orthodoxy (Eastern Orthodox)Eastern OrthodoxyEastern OrthodoxRoman Catholicism (Catholic)Roman CatholicismNot gatheredChurch of England (Anglican)Church of EnglandAnglicanMethodism (Methodist)MethodismMethodistMethodist Episcopal Church (Methodist)Methodist EpiscopalChurchMethodistMethodist Episcopal Church, South (Methodist)Methodist EpiscopalChurch, SouthMethodistChristian Methodist Episcopal Church (Methodist)Christian MethodistEpiscopal ChurchMethodistThe Methodist Church (1939) (Methodist)The Methodist Church(1939)Methodist

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. Dashed gray boxes mark the institutional line after the apostles, shown as departure; no line of descent is drawn from Pentecost. A verdict appears on a box once its section is published.

Sources

Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-31.