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Discipline in Dispute: The Origins and Early History of the Methodist Sacramental Fellowship
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
When the annual Methodist Conference assembled in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 14 July 1936, the retiring President appeared wearing the moderator’s gown presented to the Connexion the previous summer. In his Methodist Recorder column, W. F. Howard wondered: ‘Will the Protestant Truth Society discover some subtle Romeward predilection in this departure from our ancient wont and usage?’, but reassured his readers that ‘It is a simple Geneva gown,… black enough for John Knox himself.’
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References
1 Methodist Recorder (London), 23 July 1936, 25.
2 Vickers, John A. ed., A Dictionary of Methodism in Great Britain and Ireland (Peterborough, 2000), 234–5 Google Scholar; Brake, George Thompson, Policy and Politics in British Methodism 1932–82 (London, 1984), 365–7 Google Scholar; Newton, John, Heart Speaks to Heart (London, 1994), 68–84 Google Scholar; Bowmer, John C., The Lord’s Supper in Methodism 1791–1960 (London, 1961), 49–50.Google Scholar
3 Typed circular, December 1932, MSF archive. I am grateful to the Revd Norman Wallwork for access to the MSF papers in his stewardship. The archive is not catalogued and is only loosely organized into yearly files.
4 Gregory, A. S., The Methodist Sacramental Fellowship (London, 1954), 6–7.Google Scholar
5 T. S. Gregory, ‘Retreat at Sidcup Sept 1932: Suggested Basis of Discussion’, MSF archive.
6 ‘Retreat report, Epsom, May 1933’, MSF archive.
7 Methodist Recorder, 19 September 1935, 12.
8 Wakefield, Gordon S., Methodist Spirituality (Peterborough, 1999), part 3Google Scholar; Randall, Ian M., Evangelical Experiences: a Study in the Spirituality of English Evangelicalism, 1918–39 (Carlisle, 1999), chs 4, 5, and 9Google Scholar; Bebbington, D. W., Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: a History from the 1730s to the 1980s (London, 1989), 203–7 Google Scholar; Wallwork, Norman, ‘Developments in Liturgy and Worship in Twentieth-Century Nonconformity’, in Sell, Alan P. F. and Cross, Anthony R., eds, Protestant Nonconformity in the Twentieth Century (Carlisle, 2003), 102–31.Google Scholar
9 Whitham, A. E., ‘Friendliness in Earnest’, Methodist Recorder, 19 November 1936, 11Google Scholar.
10 ‘Methods of Private Prayer’, MSF archive (undated typescript, filed in 1934 folder).
11 Gregory, ‘Suggested Basis’.
12 ‘Draft Memorandum prepared at the Inception of the Movement’, MSF archive (undated typescript, filed in 1934 folder).
13 Gregory, ‘Suggested Basis’.
14 ‘Draft Memorandum’.
15 Currie, Robert, Methodism Divided: a Study in the Sociology of Ecumenicalism (London, 1968), ch. 8Google Scholar.
16 In Defence of the Methodist Sacramental Fellowship at the Conference of the Methodist Church at Hull, 1938 (Southport, 1938), inside front cover (MSF Pamphlet, no. 7, reporting a speech by J. E. Rattenbury).
17 Wakefield, Gordon S., T. S. Gregory (Emsworth, 2000), 22–3, 30 Google Scholar; Methodist Times and Leader (London) [hereafter: Methodist Times], 28 February 1935, 4. For Whitham, see Whitham, A. E., The Discipline and Culture of the Spiritual Life (London, 1938), 9–10 Google Scholar, and Minutes of the Methodist Conference (London, 1938), 192.
18 Methodist Times, 26 September 1935, 19; 3 October 1935, 18; 10 October 1935, 20; Methodist Recorder, 31 October 1935, 21; 7 November 1935, 23; 14 November 1935, 13; 21 November 1935, 23; 28 November 1935, 26; 5 December 1935, 37.
19 Vidler, Alec, Scenes from a Clerical Life (London, 1977), 57–74 Google Scholar; Barnes, John, Ahead of His Age: Bishop Barnes of Birmingham (London, 1979), chs 5 and 6.Google Scholar
20 Compare Methodist Times, 30 April 1935, 6, with Howard’s own account in a letter to A. S. Gregory, 27 November 1936, MSF archive.
21 ‘“Orchardism” in the Methodist Church’, Churchman’s Magazine (London) [hereafter Churchman’s], June 1936, 146–50. The agent, A. W. Martin, was detected at, and evicted from, the 1937 conference: Churchman’s, June 1937, 163; Methodist Times, 1 July 1937, 8
22 Nine articles appeared in the Churchman’s between June and December 1936, six in 1937 and five in 1938.
23 ‘Metholay’ [J. Crowlesmith], ‘Roman Catholicism in the Methodist Church: “The Methodist Sacramental Fellowship” ’, Joyful News (London), 11 June 1936, 2.
24 Methodist Recorder, 18 June 1936, 23; Methodist Times, 18 June 1936, 18;Joyful News, 25 June 1936, 2.
25 Methodist Recorder, 3 September 1936, 18; Methodist Times, 3 September 1936, 18; Joyful News, 3 September 1936, 3.
26 Kaye, Elaine and Mackenzie, Ross, W. E. Orchard: a Study in Christian Exploration (Oxford, 1990), 96–100 Google Scholar.
27 Methodist Times, 2 May 1935, 20; 26 September 1935, 18.
28 Ibid., 3 October 1935, 18.
29 Ibid., 10 September 1936, 20; 17 September 1936, 18.
30 In print, Howard called them ‘sentimentalists’ and ‘clanks’: Joyful News, 25 June 1936, 2; in his letter of 27 November 1936 to A. S. Gregory he described one prominent MSF eccentric, E. J. B. Kirtlan, as ‘that uncertified lunatic’: MSF archive.
31 Who’s Who in Methodism 1033 (London, 1933), 296; Methodist Recorder, 6 June 1935, 17.
32 Methodist Times, 1 April 1957, 1.
33 Howard to Gregory, 27 November 1936.
34 Methodist Recorder, 3 October 1935, 11.
35 Methodist Times, 22 October 1936, 18.
36 Joyful News, 8 July 1937, 1.
37 The principal protagonists in this debate were Rattenbury, Jackson and Henry Bett: see, for example, Bett, , The Spirit of Methodism (London, 1937), 64–99 Google Scholar, with critical review by Rattenbury in Methodist Times, 29 July 1937, 9, with debate picked up by Jackson in Methodist Recorder, 3 March 1938, 11 and 31 March 1938, 13, with response by Rattenbury, ibid., 7 April 1938, 23.
38 Methodist Times, 22 October 1936, 18.
39 Robert Bond to A. E. Whitham, 25 May 1937, MSF archive.
40 The language of ‘fellowship’ and ‘experience’ was all-pervasive in Methodist publications of the 1930s. See, for instance, Bett, Spirit of Methodism, 131–47. ‘Metholay’ missed ‘the Methodist fellowship’ when he attended a cathedral service: Joyful News, 8 October 1936, 2.
41 Agenda of Conference 1936 (London, 1936), 5; Methodist Recorder, 23 July 1936, 14. Heap attributed the Hereford memorial to a Local Preacher in a London circuit: Joyful News, 3 September 1936, 3.
42 Agenda of Conference 1937 (London, 1937), 1–9. The circuits and their ministers may be identified from the Minutes of Conference 1936 (London, 1936).
43 Methodist Recorder, 21 July 1938, 28.
44 ‘Methodist Conference Committee of Enquiry: Copy of Statement made by the Revd Dr Rattenbury… 2 June 1938’, MSF archive. One of Rattenbury’s targets was Richard Pyke, who published an article on The Lord’s Supper: Its Significance as a Memorial’, Methodist Recorder, 20 January 1938, 9.
45 Agenda of Conference 1938 (London, 1938), 493–5.
46 Methodist Recorder, 21 July 1938, 19–20, 28; Joyful News, 28 July 1938, 4; Churchman’s, September 1938, 231–3. The MSF published Rattenbury’s speech as a pamphlet, In Defence of the Methodist Sacramental Fellowship (see n. 16 above).
47 Kirtlan died in January 1937: Methodist Times, 14 January 1937, 3. Gordon Wakefield’s judgement that ‘no one could accuse [Rattenbury] of being an encassocked romanizer’ (Methodist Spirituality, 74) underestimates the PTS, but holds good for Methodism.
48 Heap gave favourable notices to PTS publications in Joyful News, but noted as early as 1936 that Conference was ‘in no mood to brook outside interference’: Joyful News, 6 August 1936, 2.