Formation of The Free Methodist Church
With J. W. Redfield and others, he formed the Free Methodist Church of North America at an organizational conference at Pekin, New York in 1860. That same year he founded a magazine, the Earnest Christian. In 1866 he founded Chili Seminary in North Chili, New York, which today is known as Roberts Wesleyan College in his honor. He was general superintendent of the Free Methodist Church from 1860–93. He traveled extensively and was a frequent speaker at Holiness camp meetings.
Roberts was a staunch abolitionist and early Free Methodists derived their name in part from their opposition to slavery. Many of the early Free Methodists were active in the operation of the Underground Railroad. They were highly critical of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from which many of them had come, because it did not boldly denounce slavery.
Another "freedom" Roberts advocated was the practice of using freewill offerings for church support. They were critical of the Methodist practice of pew rentals, which expressed the social prestige of those who rented the most expensive pews. After the separation of the Free Methodists, the Methodist Episcopal Church abolished pew rentals.
Seventeen years after his death, the Methodists returned his ministerial papers to his son, and formally acknowledged that they had wronged him.
Read more about this topic: B. T. Roberts
Famous quotes containing the words formation of the, formation of, formation, free, methodist and/or church:
“That for which Paul lived and died so gloriously; that for which Jesus gave himself to be crucified; the end that animated the thousand martyrs and heroes who have followed his steps, was to redeem us from a formal religion, and teach us to seek our well-being in the formation of the soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial organisation upon the natural organisation of the body.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)
“That for which Paul lived and died so gloriously; that for which Jesus gave himself to be crucified; the end that animated the thousand martyrs and heroes who have followed his steps, was to redeem us from a formal religion, and teach us to seek our well-being in the formation of the soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I wish all men to be free. I wish the material prosperity of the already free which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Kipling, the grandson of a Methodist preacher, reveals the tin-pot evangelist with increasing clarity as youth and its ribaldries pass away and he falls back upon his fundamentals.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“If Jesus, or his likeness, should now visit the earth, what church of the many which now go by his name would he enter? Or, if tempted by curiosity, he should incline to look into all, which do you think would not shut the door in his face?... It seems to me ... that as one who loved peace, taught industry, equality, union, and love, one towards another, Jesus were he alive at this day, would recommend you to come out of your churches of faith, and to gather into schools of knowledge.”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)