Quotation from: Great Britain and Her Queen

Written by: Annie E. Keeling


Dr. Bunting volunteered to be tried by the Conference as to the
anonymous charges against him, but no one came forward with proofs to
sustain them. Three ministers, Messrs. Everett, Dunn, and Griffiths,
supposed to be the chief movers of this agitation, refused to be
questioned on the matter, and defying the Conference, were expelled.
Thereafter the agitation was kept up, and caused great disaffection
in the Societies, resulting in the loss we have referred to. The
seceders called themselves "Reformers"; many of them eventually
joined similar bodies of seceders, forming with them the "United
Methodist Free Churches." These in 1857 reported a membership of
41,000, less than half that which was lost to Wesleyan Methodism. But
now they may be congratulated on better success, the statistics for
1896 showing, at home and abroad, a total of nearly 90,000 members,
with 1,622 chapels, 417 ministers, 3,448 local preachers, 1,350
Sunday schools, and 203,712 scholars. It may be noted with pleasure
that the leaders of the movement outlived all hostility to the mother
Church; one of them attended the Ecumenical Conference of 1881, and
took the sacrament with the other delegates.

PREVIOUS GROUP HOME SITE HOME NEXT
Part of the RabbitHoleResearch Project
Change Tag: ~~ 0 ~~