Methodist Episcopal Church name

[Digitonomy]

Was the Methodist Episcopal Church so named because they were essentially Episcopalians, but with a Wesleyan approach? In the same way one might call himself a Traditionalist Catholic?

Or does the name mean a Methodist Church, which happened to have an episcopal governance structure (presumably there were non-episcopal splinter groups at the time)?

In other words, was Methodist an adjective modifying Episcopal, or was Episcopal an adjective modifying Methodist?

 

[geezerbob]

I believe the church names that appear to be multidenominational usually refer to the denomination first, then the governing setup. The episcopal part has absolutely nothing to do with the Episcopalean Church but is used to describe the structure of their hierarchy, although I don’t know the details. The Catholic Methodist Episcopal one has me stumped, though.

 

[Zooey]

The Methodist Episcopal Church was so named,as Bob says, because it has an episcopal governing set up. It was a forerunner of the United Methodist Church, & we still have, as the word episcopal indicates, bishops.
Some of the smaller Methodist bodies, likethe Free Methodist Church of my childhood, have bishops also.
Others have followed the path of the Congregational Methodist Church, & have no bishops.
Someone in a Congregational Methodist Church can correct me, but I believe that this at least partially stems from the American War Between the States. The churches in the Confederacy were cut off from the northern branch, & some, if not all, adopted the congregational form, where the churches are more independant of central authority. (Like, not surprisingly, perhaps, the Congregational Church).

HTH!!

 

[sandmountainsli]

It does refer to the church structure.
The Methodist Episcopal Church in America broke from the Church of England at the Baltimore Christmas Conference of 1784 which was 3 years before the Protestant Epicsopal Church was founded in the US. Most COE members from the southern colonies/states became Methodists after the war rather than join the new PEC.
The church I attend the First Congregational Methodist Church broke from the Congregational Methodist Church in 1855, the Congregational Methodist broke from Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1852 and the ME, South broke from the ME Church a few years prior to that. We do not have bishops and don’t believe United Methodist bishops to be valid. I believe we are in line with Father Wesley in this belief as he appointed men to oversee the church but never called them “Bishops”.
WP