Importance of Local Preachers in English Social History
Local preachers have always been required to undergo some form of training and examination - the examination being concerned with their doctrinal orthodoxy as well as with their knowledge of the scriptures and the history and doctrines of the church. Because Methodism had great strength among the lower middle classes and skilled working classes in nineteenth century England, training as a local preacher was one of the ways in which intelligent people who had little chance of formal schooling acquired education and an ability at public speaking. Although the church as an institution was by no means politically radical, many of its members were, and the discipline and eloquence of Methodist local preachers found a ready use in the developing labour movement of the later nineteenth century. Many of the founders of the trade union movement and the Labour Party in Britain were local preachers, perhaps most famously four of the Tolpuddle martyrs, including their leader George Loveless. Local preachers continue to be found in the ranks of the Labour movement: prominent recent examples include George Thomas, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1976 to 1983, and Len Murray, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress from 1973 to 1984.
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