Methodist History
Methodist Archive Local History
John Wesley and his brother Charles were
part of a large family. Their father was a Anglican Rector in Epworth,
Lincolnshire. Their mother was from a Puritan background and both these
influences affected their sons.
Both brothers went to Oxford University where John became not just a student, but also a Fellow of Lincoln College. A small group of students held regular meetings for Bible study and prayer, a daily service of Communion and they did acts of charitable service. This earned them the nickname 'The Holy Club' or 'Methodists' for their methodical approach. John and his brother were the natural leaders of 'The Holy Club'. They saw Methodism as a religious society within the Church of England rather than a separate Church.
John and Charles became priests in the Church of England. John went to Georgia to work among the pioneers and well established settlers; he returned home after a less than satisfactory ministry there. He met a Moravian called Peter Bohler, and attended a Moravian service on 24 May 1738.
"In the evening I went unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther and preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter to nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine and saved me from the law of sin and death."
Charles had a similar experience a few days earlier and the change in the two men was considerable. The Methodist Revival began when George Whitfield, a Calvinist preacher, invited John Wesley to preach in the open air. John continued to do this for the rest of his life. He was not only a good preacher but a genius at organisation. He organised people into classes of between 5 and 10 people, the classes meeting together each week.
John encouraged people to attend the services of Holy Communion at the parish church on Sundays, as well as attending the Methodist preaching service and the weekly society classes.
However, the Church of England was not prepared for this. It put John's activities down to 'enthusiasm' and would not co-operate. This eventually forced him to ordain ministers himself and, with Charles, made Methodism a church instead of a religious society within the Church of England.
Not content with this, John Wesley was a great social reformer. He campaigned against the slave trade, pioneered proper education and was involved in care for the poor and in prison reform. For John this was a natural way of expressing the gospel of love.
The Methodist societies as they were called grew at a fast rate. Some way of keeping in touch and organising them was needed and John held what became an annual conference of Methodist preachers.
In 1784 John Wesley made provision for the continuance as a corporate body after his death of the Yearly Conference of the People called Methodists. He nominated 100 people and declared them to be its members and laid down the method by which their successors were to be appointed.
After his death the leadership passed to the Methodist Conference, and instead of one person exercising leadership for a length of time, the President of the Conference became for the year of office the representative of the Conference and leading minister of the church. During the nineteenth century there were many factions in the church. Gradually most of these were re-united, the last union being in 1932.
It was in 1749 that John Wesley first visited and preached in Rochdale. This was at the invitation of John Bennett of Derbyshire at whose invitation he came. He had reported the existence of "a little society" here in 1746.
The record in John Wesley’s Journal for 18th October 1749 says " I rode, at the desire of J Bennett, to Rochdale in Lancashire. As soon as ever we entered the town, we found the streets lined, on both sides, with multitudes of people, shouting, cursing, blaspheming and gnashing upon us with their teeth. Perceiving it would not be practical to preach abroad, I went into a large room open to the street, and called aloud ‘Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.’ The word of God prevailed over the fierceness of man, none opposed or interrupted, and there was a remarkable change in the behaviour of the people as we afterwards went through the town."
About 1760 the Society grew stronger and a room was used in Waterside near the river at the centre of the town where the Town Hall is now. From here it moved to a room in Temple Court, Off Blackwater Street and then in 1770 to a new Chapel in Toad Lane were the original Co-op store now stands.
In 1782 the Sunday School was set up alongside the Church and in 1793 the premises in Toad Lane were vacated and a newly erected Methodist Chapel was set up in Union Street.
To raise money for the Sunday School annual services called "Sings" or "Charity Sermons" started in 1785 or 1986
In 1795 the Rochdale Circuit was first set up. Previously Rochdale Methodism was in the Keighley Circuit, the Manchester Circuit and the Oldham Circuit. When first set up the Rochdale Methodist Circuit included Bacup, Heywood and Littleborough.