Sacraments of the Methodist Church

Throughout its more than 250-year history, the Methodist Church has placed great significance on its observation of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Indeed, owing to the frequency and fervor with which John and Charles Wesley and their small society, the "Holy Club" organized by Charles at Oxford in 1728 (Bowmer (b), 24), celebrated the Lord's Supper, the group was known to some as Sacramentarians (Parris, 18; many others). The Anglican Church in John Wesley's time practiced the observance of the Lord's Supper on a quarterly frequency (if not less often); the Holy Club partook of the elements at least monthly. It is believed by some that Wesley himself took communion on average once every five days, and perhaps even daily at the times of church festivals (Parris, 18; Spivey, 190).

Despite the significant difference, Wesley, an ordained minister of the Anglican Church, never intended his efforts to be the foundation of a separate church. The early form of Methodist observance of the Lord's Supper was conducted according to the church's Book of Common Prayer, along with Wesley's "Abridgement" (Bowmer (a), 13). This link continues to be preserved in modern Methodism with the communion table being placed adjacent to the altar and communicants approaching and kneeling at the rail to receive the elements.

Wesleyan doctrine holds that the Lord's Supper is "a real means of grace in which 'all the benefits of His Passion' are, by faith effectively conveye

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n it, Felton examines the practices of Wesley himself, as well as the chronological refinement of the theology in America. The two dominant issues which emerge in American Methodism are those of infant baptism and adult re-baptism. Goodloe's examination of Christian baptism in apostolic times depicts it as analogous to the Jewish rite of circumcision. As circumcision was the symbolic act linking Jews to the Kingdom of God, so baptism links Christian believers with that Kingdom (100-101; see also Parris, 38). Goodloe cites the seventeenth Article of Religion which declares that "Christians are distinguished from others that are not baptized" (101). As Felton examines Wesley's approach to baptism, he recognizes a gradual evolution in Wesleyan thought and practice, as it was tempered by the combination of the truths of Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. In this, older (mis)understandings were replaced with deeper insights. Some have attributed to this a measure of inconsistency or theological shift; others understand it to be the result of an expanding vision which accompanies the normal life experience (13). Indeed, both Parris and Felton recognize that the whole issue of baptism for Wesley was not of prime

Category: Philosophy - S