Wesleyan Methodist Church (United States)

Wesleyan Methodist Church (United States)

The Wesleyan Methodist Church was a Methodist denomination in the United States organized on May 13, 1841. It was composed of ministers and laypeople who withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church because of disagreements regarding slavery, church government, and the doctrine of holiness according to the Discipline of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection (1841), although later editions of the Discipline cite only the first two reasons. The first secessions in 1841 took place in Michigan although the new church group was formalized in Utica, New York. In November 1842, Orange Scott, La Roy Sunderland and J. Horton seceded from the M. E. Church for reasons given in their publication of the "True Wesleyan." The following month Luther Lee and L. C. Matlock followed. The first general conference was held in Utica, NY, in October 1844. Later the name was changed to The Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America.

The Wesleyan Methodist Church merged with the Pilgrim Holiness Church, and became known as the Wesleyan Church. Several conferences in both merging denominations refused to be a part of the merged church over differences about modesty and worldliness (some of the conferences did not permit their members to have television sets, and required the women to have uncut hair). One of the largest conferences which refused to join the merger was the Allegheny Conference with over 100 churches. It became the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection of Churches, and most of the churches are still known as Wesleyan Methodist.