Table Of ContentAnglican-Methodist Ecumenism
This book offers a detailed analysis of one of the key episodes of twentieth-
century ecumenism, focusing on the efforts made to reconcile the Church of
England and the Methodist Church of Great Britain in the years since the
First World War.
Drawing on newly available archives as well as on a broad range of
historical, theological, and liturgical expertise, the contributions explore
what was attempted, why success proved elusive, and how the quest for
unity was reconfigured into the twenty-first century. The volume sets
contemporary ecumenical ambitions in historical context, explains the
origins, course, and aftermath of the Anglican–Methodist ‘Conversations’
of 1955–72, retrieves their enduring global legacy, and explores the fraught
nature of the ecumenical quest.
It will be of key interest to scholars with an interest in ecumenism,
Methodist studies, and church history.
Jane Platt is an archivist at the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church
History, where she listed its Anglican–Methodist Union collection. She is
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the author of several books and
articles on church history, and a member of the editorial team of CWAAS
Transactions.
Martin Wellings is Superintendent of the Barnet and Queensbury Circuit
of the Methodist Church. He is an Ecumenical Canon of Christ Church
Cathedral, Oxford, and Chair of the Methodist Church’s Faith and Order
Committee.
Routledge Methodist Studies Series
Series Editor: William Gibson, Director of the Oxford
Centre for Methodism and Church History, Oxford Brookes
University, UK
Methodism remains one of the largest denominations in the USA and is
growing in South America, Africa and Asia (especially in Korea and China).
This series spans Methodist history and theology, exploring its success as a
movement historically and in its global expansion. Books in the series will
look particularly at features within Methodism which attract wide interest,
including: the unique position of the Wesleys; the prominent role of women
and minorities in Methodism; the interaction between Methodism and
politics; the ‘Methodist conscience’ and its motivation for temperance and
pacifist movements; the wide range of Pentecostal, holiness and evangelical
movements; and the interaction of Methodism with different cultures.
Editorial Board:
Ted A. Campbell, Professor of Church History, Perkins School of Theology,
Southern Methodist University, USA
David N. Hempton, Dean, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, USA
Priscilla Pope-Levison, Associate Dean, Perkins School of Theology,
Southern Methodist University, USA
Martin Wellings, Superintendent of the Barnet and Queensbury Circuit
of the Methodist Church, UK and Past President of the World Methodist
Historical Society.
Karen B. Westerfield Tucker, Professor of Worship, Boston University, USA
The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism
Emerging Trends from Everywhere to Everywhere
Edited by David W. Scott and Darryl W. Stephens
The Methodist Church in Poland
Activity and Political Conditions, 1945-1989
Ryszard Michalak
The Monastic Footprint in Post-Reformation Movements
The Cloister of the Soul
Kenneth C. Carveley
Anglican-Methodist Ecumenism
The Search for Church Unity, 1920-2020
Edited by Jane Platt and Martin Wellings
For more information and a full list of titles in the series, please visit: https://
www.routledge.com/Routledge-Methodist-Studies-Series/book-series/
AMETHOD
Anglican-Methodist
Ecumenism
The Search for Church Unity, 1920–2020
Edited by Jane Platt and Martin Wellings
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Jane Platt and Martin Wellings;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Jane Platt and Martin Wellings to be identified as the authors of
the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-62815-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-63447-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-11921-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003119210
Typeset in Sabon
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
List of figures and tables vii
List of contributors viii
Foreword x
Acknowledgements xii
1 Introduction 1
JANE PLATT AND MARTIN WELLINGS
2 The Long View of Anglican–Methodist Unity 11
MARTIN WELLINGS
3 Anglican Ecumenism and the Problems of the
‘Historic Episcopate’ 29
MARK D. CHAPMAN
4 Church, Episcopacy and Ecumenism: Debates about
order, authority and ambiguity in the Anglican–Methodist
Conversations 47
PIPPA CATTERALL
5 The Major Participants and their Actions in the Anglican–
Methodist Conversations: The First Stage 1956–63 83
JOHN LENTON
vi Contents
6 Theology, Providence and Anglican–Methodist Reunion:
The case of Michael Ramsey and E.L. Mascall 101
PETER WEBSTER
7 Evangelical Dissentients and the Defeat of the
Anglican–Methodist Unity Scheme 118
ANDREW ATHERSTONE
8 Fighting for Methodism’s Soul: The Voice of Methodism
Association, 1963–72 135
CLAIRE SURRY
9 ‘An Umbrella for all Dissenters’?: The National Liaison
Committee, 1965–82 152
MARTIN WELLINGS
10 Grassroots Methodism and the Anglican–Methodist
Conversations 170
JANE PLATT
11 Anglican–Methodist Relations in the Context
of the British Army 199
PETER HOWSON
12 The Anglican-Methodist Service of Reconciliation and the
Ordinal of 1968 215
PHILLIP TOVEY
13 Developments since 1972 230
DAVID M. CHAPMAN
Index 249
Figures and Tables
Figures
10.1 Donald English visiting Consett when President of
Conference in 1978, OCMCH, DEP/K/PB3/3 172
10.2 Primitive Methodists celebrating the completion of
their church renovations at Raunds, c. 1953 184
12.1 Methodist and Anglican Ordinals 219
12.2 The influence of CSI 1958 on Anglican Ordinals 226
Tables
10.1a. and b. Local voting patterns, 1969 179
10.2 Circuit Voting in Cumbria, 1969 181
10.3 Oxford and Leicester District Circuit Votes, 1969 183
10.4 Question, ‘Do you think that the existence of
the different denominations within the Christian
Church is …?’ Survey of Anglicans and Methodists
in Four Towns, by David B. Clark 188
10.5 Problems involving sharing at Fairhill Church,
Cwmbran, 1971–2 192
10.6 Extract from Brian Dawson, ‘The Past, Present and
Future Strategies of the Church of England Parishes
and Churches in Mid-East Cumbria’ (2001) 193
Contributors
Andrew Atherstone is Latimer Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford,
and a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University
of Oxford. His recent books include, as co-editor, Making Evangelical
History: Faith, Scholarship and the Evangelical Past (2019) and
Transatlantic Charismatic Renewal, c.1950–2000 (2021).
Pippa Catterall is Professor of History and Policy at the University of
Westminster and editor of National Identities. She has written widely
on British political and religious history and is the author of Labour and
the Free Churches 1918–1939: Radicalism, Righteousness and Religion
(2016).
David M. Chapman is Chair of the Bedfordshire, Essex, and Hertfordshire
District of the Methodist Church in Britain. He is a member of the
British Methodist Faith and Order Committee and the World Methodist
Council, where he Co-chairs the Methodist-Roman Catholic International
Commission. His research interests include ecclesiology and ecumenism.
Mark D. Chapman is Professor of the History of Modern Theology at the
University of Oxford and Vice-Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon.
He has written widely on Anglicanism. His books include Anglican
Theology (2012) and The Fantasy of Reunion: Anglicans, Catholics and
Ecumenism, 1833–1882 (2014).
Peter Howson is a Methodist supernumerary presbyter who also holds
Permission to Officiate from the bishop of Salisbury. Much of his min-
istry was spent as an army chaplain, mostly overseas, and invariably
in ecumenical environments. His most recent book, on Britain and the
German Churches in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War,
was published in 2021.
John Lenton, Local Preacher, is the Honorary Librarian of the Wesley
Historical Society Library at Oxford Brookes University. He was
Convener of the British Methodist Church’s Archives and History
Committee 1996–2010. His publications include Harold Roberts (1995),
Contributors ix
John Wesley’s Preachers (2009), and, with others, Women, Preachers,
Methodists (2020).
Jane Platt is an archivist at the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church
History, where she listed its Anglican–Methodist Union collection. She is
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the author of several books and
articles on church history, and a member of the editorial team of CWAAS
Transactions.
Claire Surry completed her master’s degree in history with distinction
at the University of Southampton in 2017. Her dissertation on the
1932 Methodist Union drew on themes of diversity, division, and union
in the context of the post-war evangelical movement. She currently works
in the commercial research industry.
Phillip Tovey is Principal of the Oxford Diocese Local Ministry Programme
and Warden of Readers. He has written extensively on the subject of
Christian Worship and has taught in England and around the globe. He
has had pastoral experience of working in LEPs and fondly remembers
being ‘recognised and regarded’ for a period. Ordination rites are of a
particular interest.
Peter Webster is an independent scholar and consultant based in the UK. He
has published widely on the history of the Church of England in the twen-
tieth century. His study of Michael Ramsey, archbishop of Canterbury,
was published in 2015.
Martin Wellings is Superintendent of the Barnet and Queensbury Circuit
of the Methodist Church. He is an Ecumenical Canon of Christ Church
Cathedral, Oxford, and Chair of the Methodist Church’s Faith and
Order Committee.
