Denominations

Wesleyan Church

Christianity

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Wesleyan Church." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/denominations/wesleyan-church.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Wesleyan Church. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/denominations/wesleyan-church

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-wesleyan-church,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Wesleyan Church},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/denominations/wesleyan-church},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Origin 1968

The Wesleyan Church was formed in 1968 by the merger of two American Holiness denominations, the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Pilgrim Holiness Church. The Wesleyan Methodist Church itself began in 1843 when antislavery Methodists, unable to remain in a Methodist Episcopal Church that tolerated slaveholding, organized a new nonepiscopal body; the Pilgrim Holiness Church formed in 1897 from the union of several independent Holiness associations. Like other Wesleyan Holiness bodies it teaches entire sanctification and, as a condition of membership, historically required abstinence from alcohol and tobacco. Its headquarters are in Fishers, Indiana, and it reports congregations in more than 80 countries.

Facts

Belief

Defining Doctrinal Positionthe subject's own account

Trinitarian: one God in three persons 1Christianity

Position on Marriage

Marriage is held to be monogamous, with remarriage after divorce sanctioned under specified conditions 2

the subject's own accountSection 410 of the Wesleyan Discipline holds that to obtain a divorce on other than scriptural grounds is a sin against God and humanity, and that a redeemed sinner or reclaimed backslider is free to marry in the Lord or to remain unmarried, so remarriage is possible once repentance and forgiveness are in place rather than foreclosed by a prior divorce alone.

Marriage Position Detailthe subject's own account

Discipline section 410, subsection 6, states that to obtain a divorce on other than scriptural grounds is a sin against God and humanity, and that a redeemed sinner or reclaimed backslider is free to marry in the Lord or to remain unmarried. God's plan for human sexuality is that it is to be expressed only in a monogamous lifelong relationship between one man and one woman within the framework of marriage, a covenant union taking priority over every other human relationship, so remarriage after a divorce granted on scriptural grounds, followed by repentance where the divorce was not on such grounds, remains open rather than permanently foreclosed. 2

Position on Sexuality

Same-sex sexual relationships are held contrary to teaching; LGBT individuals are welcomed as members but not ordained, and same-sex unions are not blessed 2

the subject's own accountThe Wesleyan Church's own Discipline, section 410, states that sexual relationships between persons of the same sex are immoral and sinful, while affirming that the grace of God is sufficient to overcome both the practice and the inclination leading to it. The church's own November 2023 statement adds that Wesleyan pastors do not preside over or host a same-sex union, and distinguishes the experience of temptation, which does not by itself disqualify a person from ordination or leadership, from the practice itself, without stating a separate rule for ordinary church membership.

Sexuality Position Detailthe subject's own account

Discipline section 410, subsection 5, states: sexual relationships outside of marriage and sexual relationships between persons of the same sex are immoral and sinful, yet we believe the grace of God sufficient to overcome both the practice of such activity and the inclination leading to its practice. The church's own November 2023 statement adds: Wesleyan pastors do not preside over these unions, nor do we hold them in our churches, and states the mere experience of temptation does not disqualify a person from ordination or leadership, while maintaining the theological conviction that same-sex sexual activity contradicts Scripture and stating the church rejects and repents of the way gay and lesbian neighbors have been mocked, bullied and ostracized. 3

Organisation

Governance

Connexional: congregations bound in a conference with itinerant ministry 1

the subject's own accountDistrict conferences and a General Conference, led by an elected Board of General Superintendents

Ordination

Open to women and men 1

the subject's own accountOrdains both men and women to ministry

Trajectory

Membership Over Time

At its founding merger of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America and the Pilgrim Holiness Church in 1968, the new Wesleyan Church reported 80,990 members, per the denomination's own connectional statistics. 4

Membership Over Time

By 2018, fifty years after the merger, the Wesleyan Church reported 138,190 members in its own connectional statistics, growth of about 71 percent over the intervening half century even as that year's total was itself down 2.0 percent from 2017. 4

Membership Figure As Of

1968-01-01 4

Membership Figure As Of

2018-01-01 4

Basis of the Membership Figure

Church-Reported Rolls 4

Origins

Origin Periodthe subject's own account

1968 1

Place of Originthe subject's own account

United States 1

Founderthe subject's own account

No single founder; formed by the 1968 merger of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, founded 1843 by Orange Scott and fellow abolitionist Methodists, and the Pilgrim Holiness Church, formed 1897 under leaders including Martin Wells Knapp 1

History

Separation or Divergencethe subject's own account

The Wesleyan Methodist Church separated from the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1843 over slaveholding and church government; the Pilgrim Holiness Church formed by the union of independent Holiness associations rather than by separation 1

Date of Separationthe subject's own account

from 1843 1

Practice

Liturgical Languagethe subject's own account

The vernacular 1

Status

Status Todaythe subject's own account

Living tradition, practised today 1

Reach

Adherents Todaythe subject's own account

368,000 1

In Other Languages (3 names)

Learn More

Two Holiness Churches, and the Road to 1968

The Wesleyan Church carries a double inheritance from two separate nineteenth-century American Holiness denominations that eventually recognized how much they had in common. The older of the two, the Wesleyan Methodist Church, was founded in 1843 by Orange Scott and fellow abolitionist Methodist ministers who could no longer remain in a Methodist Episcopal Church that tolerated slaveholding among its members and bishops; they organized a new church that also rejected the episcopacy in favor of elected leadership and lay representation in its governing conferences.

The younger body, the Pilgrim Holiness Church, formed in 1897 out of the merger of several smaller independent Holiness associations, under leaders including the evangelist and hymn writer Martin Wells Knapp, and it grew rapidly through the camp-meeting revivalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Holiness movement. Though the two churches had separate histories and separate general conferences for more than a century, both taught the Wesleyan Holiness doctrine of entire sanctification and shared much of the same theological and cultural world, and by the mid-twentieth century their leaders had begun serious talks toward union.

The 1968 Merger and the Church Today

Formal merger negotiations between the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Pilgrim Holiness Church moved through the 1950s and 1960s, and on June 26, 1968, delegates of both bodies completed the union, forming The Wesleyan Church. The merged denomination retained its predecessors' Wesleyan Holiness doctrine, teaching entire sanctification as a second work of grace, and historically required its members to abstain from alcohol, tobacco, and membership in secret societies, expectations that have relaxed in some respects over subsequent decades.

The Wesleyan Church is governed through a system of district conferences and a General Conference, led by a Board of General Superintendents, and it ordains both men and women to ministry. Its headquarters relocated over the twentieth century from Marion, Indiana, home to its affiliated Indiana Wesleyan University, through Indianapolis in 1987 to its present offices in Fishers, Indiana, since 2004. By 2011 the denomination reported worldwide Sunday attendance of about 475,000 across more than 5,000 congregations in over 80 countries, with total worldwide membership counted at roughly 368,000, a global reach that today reaches well beyond the church's origins among antislavery Methodists in the American Northeast and Holiness revivalists in the Midwest.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Superintendent

This source names Wesleyan Church directly: "the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church both call their chief officers general superintendents today, and every major Methodist body still uses district superintendent for the regional..."

Source The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist ChurchUnited Methodist Churchthe holders' own account

The Wesleyan Church and Homosexuality (wesleyan.org)

This source names Wesleyan Church directly: "Published on The Wesleyan Church's own site, dated November 2023."

Source The Wesleyan Church and Homosexuality (wesleyan.org)the holders' own account

Wesleyan Church (Wikipedia)

This source names Wesleyan Church directly: "community edited article on the Wesleyan Church."

Source Wesleyan Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Articles of Religion hold that there are two sacraments ordained of Christ, and that the other five are not to be counted for sacraments of the Gospel.

Veneration of icons

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Articles name the worshipping and adoration of images and of relics as a fond thing vainly invented.

Veneration of saints and Mary

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Articles name the invocation of saints in the same place, and Methodist prayer is addressed to God alone.

Derived From

Holiness Movement

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Methodism

A Holiness body of Methodist descent.

Source Wesleyan Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Holds Element

A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists

A holiness body descended from the Wesleyan Methodist Connection. It inherits the Wesleyan repertory and its doctrine of entire sanctification, but the 1780 collection is not its hymnal.

Source The English Hymn: A Critical and Historical StudyJ. R. Watson

Held Differently

Temperance

The Wesleyan Church holds temperance as abstinence, a position it has kept from the holiness movement of the nineteenth century.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Rejected Here

The Synod of Dort

The Wesleyan churches refuse the canons of Dort on election and on the limited extent of the atonement, holding that Christ died for all.

Source The Sermons of John WesleyJohn Wesley

Objects and Practices of This Tradition

Advent

Almsgiving / Charity

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Works of mercy stand beside works of piety in the Methodist account of the Christian life, and neither is optional.

Arminianism (free will and universal atonement)

Baptism

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Baptismal life

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Baptism is understood as the sign of the new covenant and the beginning of a life of grace to be grown into, not a moment complete in itself.

Christian perfection (entire sanctification)

Christmas

Collect for Purity

Kept in the Wesleyan Church.

Confirmation

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Confirmation is the profession of faith by which a baptised person is received into full membership, and it is not held to be a sacrament.

Connexionalism

Easter

Fasting

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Fasting is one of the means of grace, and Wesley kept the Friday fast himself and pressed it on the societies.

Funeral Rites

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Service of Death and Resurrection is the modern form of the burial office and takes its name from what it is meant to proclaim.

Gloria Patri

Kept in the Wesleyan Church.

Good Friday

Holy Orders

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Ordination is to the orders of deacon and elder. The episcopacy is an office to which an elder is elected and consecrated, not a third order, which is the settled Methodist difference from Anglican practice.

Infant Baptism and Christening

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Infants are baptised, and the service places the congregation under a vow to nurture the child.

Intinction

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Intinction is the ordinary manner of receiving in many congregations, and it follows from the use of unfermented grape juice in a common cup.

Justification by faith alone (sola fide)

Liturgical Colors

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The liturgical colours were retained from the Anglican inheritance and are set out in the modern service books.

Marriage Ceremony

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The marriage service descends from the Prayer Book by way of Wesley's abridgement of it for the American societies.

Observing the Sabbath

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Sunday is kept for public worship, and the General Rules bind members to attend upon the ordinances of God.

Open communion

Pentecost

Prayer

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. Prayer stands among the means of grace Wesley called the works of piety, alongside searching the scriptures, the Lord's Supper and fasting.

Prayer of Humble Access

Kept in the Wesleyan Church.

Salvation by grace

Subscription to a confession of faith

The Anaphora

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Great Thanksgiving is a full anaphora, restored to Methodist worship in the twentieth century after two hundred years in which the Supper was celebrated from a much shorter form.

The Epiclesis

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Great Thanksgiving carries an explicit invocation of the Holy Spirit on the gifts and on the people, which the sixteenth-century English rite did not.

The Fraction

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The breaking of the bread is a distinct action with its own words.

The Grace

Kept in the Wesleyan Church.

The Holy Trinity

The Lord's Prayer

Kept in the Wesleyan Church.

The Mass / Eucharist

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The Lord's Supper is celebrated as a means of grace and Wesley pressed constant communion on the societies, though quarterly celebration became the practice for most of Methodist history for want of ordained ministers.

The ordination of women

The resurrection of Christ

The Second Definite Work of Grace

The Wesleyan Church, formed in 1968 from the Wesleyan Methodist Connection and the Pilgrim Holiness Church, holds entire sanctification as a definite, instantaneous second work of grace subsequent to conversion.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal (1910)

The Wesleyan Methodist Church, this hymnal's own publishing body, is one of the two churches (with the Pilgrim Holiness Church) whose 1968 union formed The Wesleyan Church, the continuing denomination this edge targets.

Source The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal (Hymnary.org)Wesleyan Methodist Publishing Association

The Words of Institution

Kept in the Wesleyan Church. The words of institution stand within the Great Thanksgiving.

Sources

1. Wesleyan Church (Wikipedia)

Wikipedia contributors, WikipediaWhole articleView the Source

2. The Discipline of The Wesleyan Church, Section 410 (discipline.wesleyan.org)

The Wesleyan Church, 2022the stated position on sexuality, the stated position on marriage and both their detailsthe holders' own accountView the Source

3. The Wesleyan Church and Homosexuality (wesleyan.org)

The Wesleyan Church, 2023the sexuality-position detailthe holders' own accountView the Source

4. 2018 TWC Statistics Reinforce Need to Fill the Gospel Gap (The Wesleyan Church)

The Wesleyan Church, The Wesleyan Church (wesleyan.org), 2018View the Source

The Sermons of John Wesley

John Wesley, Abingdon Press, 2013View the Source

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition

F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005View the Source

The English Hymn: A Critical and Historical Study

J. R. Watson, Oxford University Press, 1997

Essays About This Entity (1 essay)

Eleven Bodies Read Temperance as a Wall, Not a Measure
Holds temperance as abstinence, kept from the nineteenth century holiness movement

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