The Sermons of John Wesley (1872 Edition) – The Standard Sermons
Sermons of John Wesley includes Sermon 98 – On Visiting The Sick, which includes positions on women and references Matthew 25:36 and cites Phoebe.
…six common disciplines or “Rules” found in The Works of John Wesley (1816):
- To meet once a week, at least.
- To come together at the hour appointed, without some extraordinary reason.
- To begin (those of us who are present) exactly at the hour, with singing or prayer.
- To speak each of us in order, freely and plainly, the true state of our souls, with the faults we have committed in thought or deed and the temptations we have felt since our last meeting.
- To end every meeting with prayer suited to the state of each person.
- To desire some person among us to speak his own state first, and then to ask the rest, in order, as many and as searching questions as may be, concerning their state, sins, and temptations.
It has long passed for a maxim with many that “women are only to be seen but not heard”. And accordingly many of them are brought up in such a manner as if they were only designed for agreeable playthings! No, it is the deepest unkindness; it is horrid cruelty; it is mere Turkish barbarity. And I know not how any women of sense and spirit can submit to it.[15]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordination_of_women_in_Methodism
John Wesley’s views on women can be found in his 1786 sermon “On Visiting the Sick” (Sermon 98) [see link above]. In the sermon, he attacks the requirement of submissiveness that was often imposed on women of the time. Previous to this sermon, John Wesley had also removed the word “obey” from the marriage rite he sent to North America in 1784.[16]
At Wikipedia – Ordination of women in Methodism. Extensive info about the many historic and current positions of various Methodist organizations.
Splits and mergers of North American Methodist churches
Global Methodist Church
- https://globalmethodist.org/what-we-believe/
- https://globalmethodist.org/launch-information/
- https://globalmethodist.org/a-new-formula-multiplying-methodism-after-division/
The Evangelical Methodist Church
- The bullets below were extracted from here.
- How and when did the EMC originate? The founders of the EMC left the Methodist church in 1946, seeking to establish a conservative, Bible-believing faith family that is committed to preaching a holiness of heart and life. Click here for more HISTORY
- What are the basic differences between the EMC and the UMC? The polity of the EMC differs significantly, mainly along two lines. First, we do not operate under a clergy appointment system. Each local church calls their own ministers from the pool of denominational approved clergy. And second, as shared before, our local churches own their own properties. We describe our polity as a blended system of congregational and connectional elements. Our structure affords a great degree of freedom for the local church. Each church is empowered to set its own budget; establish its own worship atmosphere; and operate its own set of local ministries. Churches are asked to contribute “Conference Support” equal to 10% of their regular general fund income.
- The Evangelical Methodist Church split from the Methodist Church in 1945 and does ordain women as elders.
About the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification at Wikipedia. See the extract below.
The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ) is a document created and agreed to by the Catholic Church‘s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) and the Lutheran World Federation in 1999 as a result of Catholic–Lutheran dialogue. It states that the churches now share “a common understanding of our justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ.”[1] To the parties involved, this essentially resolves the 500-year-old conflict over the nature of justification which was at the root of the Protestant Reformation. The World Methodist Council adopted the Declaration on 18 July 2006.[2][3] The World Communion of Reformed Churches (representing the “80 million members of Congregational, Presbyterian, Reformed, United, Uniting, and Waldensian churches”), adopted the Declaration in 2017.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Declaration_on_the_Doctrine_of_Justification