Editing United Methodist Church (section)

===Predecessors===
[[File:Old Barratt's Chapel (Methodist), Route 113, Frederica vicinity (Kent County, Delaware).jpg|thumb|[[Barratt's Chapel]], built in 1780, is the oldest Methodist church in the United States built for that purpose. The church was a meeting place of [[Francis Asbury|Asbury]] and [[Thomas Coke (bishop)|Coke]].]]

The English preacher [[Francis Asbury]] arrived in America in 1771. He became a "circuit rider", taking the gospel to the furthest reaches of the new frontier as he had done as a preacher in England .<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.brewinbooks.com/eliza_asbury?search=Hallam|last1=Hallam|first1=David J.A. |title=Eliza Asbury: her cottage and her son|location=Studley, England|year=2003}}{{dead link|date=April 2025}}</ref> The first official organization in the United States occurred in [[Baltimore|Baltimore, Maryland]], in 1784, with the formation of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] at the [[Christmas Conference (Methodism)|Christmas Conference]] with Francis Asbury and [[Thomas Coke (bishop)|Thomas Coke]] as the leaders.<ref name="ARE—Methodists" /><ref name="Greensboro College—Methodists" />

[[File:The Ordination of Bishop Asbury.jpg|thumb|left|The [[ordination]] of Bishop [[Francis Asbury]] by Bishop [[Thomas Coke (bishop)|Thomas Coke]] at the Christmas Conference establishing the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]], 1784]]
Though John Wesley originally wanted the Methodists to stay within the Church of England, the [[American Revolution]] decisively separated the Methodists in the [[Colonial history of the United States|American colonies]] from the life and [[Anglican sacraments|sacraments]] of the English Church. In 1784, after unsuccessful attempts to have the Church of England send a bishop to start a new church in the colonies, Wesley decisively appointed fellow priest [[Thomas Coke (bishop)|Thomas Coke]] as [[Superintendent (ecclesiastical)|Superintendent]] (the equivalent of a [[bishop]]) to organize a separate Methodist Society. Together with Coke, Wesley sent [[The Sunday Service of the Methodists]], Methodism's first liturgical text and the [[Articles of Religion (Methodist)|Articles of Religion]], which were received and adopted by the Baltimore Christmas Conference of 1784, officially establishing the Methodist Episcopal Church. The conference was held at the [[Lovely Lane Methodist Church]], considered the [[mother church]] of American Methodism.<ref>{{cite web |url={{MHT url|id=171}}|title=Lovely Lane Methodist Church|date=November 21, 2008|website=Maryland's National Register Properties|location=Maryland|publisher=Maryland Historical Trust}}</ref>

The new church grew rapidly in the young country as it employed [[Circuit rider (Religious)|circuit riders]], many of whom were [[lay speaker|laymen]], to travel the mostly rural nation by horseback to preach the [[Good news (Christianity)|Gospel]] and to establish churches until there was scarcely any village in the United States without a Methodist presence. With 4,000 circuit riders by 1844, the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] rapidly became the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

[[St. George's United Methodist Church (Philadelphia)|St. George's United Methodist Church]], located at the corner of 4th and New Streets, in the Old City neighborhood of [[Philadelphia]], is the oldest Methodist church in continuous use in the United States, beginning in 1769. The congregation was founded in 1767, meeting initially in a sail loft on Dock Street, and in 1769 it purchased the shell of a building which had been erected in 1763 by a German Reformed congregation. At this time, Methodists had not yet broken away from the Anglican Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church was not founded until 1784.

[[File:Nineteenth Century Methodist Hymnal in Barratt's Chapel Museum, Frederica, Delaware.jpg|thumb|right|19th-century Methodist hymnal, [[Barratt's Chapel]]]]
[[Richard Allen (bishop)|Richard Allen]] and [[Absalom Jones]] became the first [[African Americans]] ordained by the Methodist Church. They were licensed by Saint George's Church in 1784. Three years later, protesting [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]] in worship services, Allen led most of the black members out of St. George's; eventually they founded the [[Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church]] and the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]]. Absalom Jones became an Episcopal priest. In 1836, the church's basement was excavated to make room for a Sunday school. In the 1920s, a court case saved the church from being demolished to make way for the [[Benjamin Franklin Bridge]]. The case resulted in the bridge being relocated. Historic Saint George's welcomes visitors and is home to archives and a museum on Methodism.

In the more than 220 years since 1784, Methodism in the United States, like many other Protestant denominations, has seen a number of divisions and mergers. In 1830, the [[Methodist Protestant Church]] split from the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] over the issue of laity having a voice and vote in the administration of the church, insisting that clergy should not be the only ones to have any determination in how the church was to be operated. In 1844, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church split into two conferences because of tensions over [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] and the power of bishops in the denomination.

The two general conferences, Methodist Episcopal Church (the northern faction) and [[Methodist Episcopal Church, South]] remained separate until 1939. That year, the northern and southern Methodist Episcopal Churches and the majority of the Methodist Protestant Church merged to create [[Methodist Church (USA)|The Methodist Church]]. The uniting conference took place at First Methodist Church (now First United Methodist Church) of [[Marion, Indiana]].