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From: Carolyn Hendry <>
Subject: [ONT] RE: Methodist-Episcopal Church
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 21:05:45 -0700


To Interested Listees:

There's been some discussion on the above subject and I can't let this
subject pass me by without comments supporting the Methodist-Episcopal
Church which did exist. If it wern't for the fact that two branches of my
ancestors were Methodist-Episcopal, I'd probably just ignore the subject.
A day or two ago, Leslie ask the list what MEP stood for. I answered back
that perhaps it stood for Methodist-Episcopal. At the time I remembered
seeing a code such as this, or maybe not exactly, on a census index
indicating it stood for Methodist-Episcopal as a religion. Here's some
history that substantiates this church:

The founding of the Methodist Church can be credited to an Anglican
clergyman named John Wesley who, in 1700, was hoping to reform the Church
of England more to his way of thinking...more evangelical, stressing
salvation through faith and work, and a personal religious experience. It
was not his intention to start a new church. John Wesley was also a tutor
at Oxford Univ, and he and his brother, Charles, were leaders of a small
group called the Holy Club. The foundation of this group was strict and
"methodical," hence methodist, in its approach to religious life. John
Wesley tried very hard to achieve religious satisfaction by closely
following the rules of the Church of England. As his movement gained
momentum, he became unwelcome in Anglican Churches because of his
evangelistic vigor. Then, he and his followers began to preach wherever
people would gather to listen, and in 1744 he formed a Methodist
conference. What followed was preachers being sent to America. In 1784,
60 ministers organized the Methodist-Episcopal Church in Baltimore, MD, and
the denomination grew rapidly with circuit riders carrying the religion
further west. (It also existed in Canada, to what degree I don't know.)
Later, there were divisions such as the Methodist-Episcopal Church, South;
and the Methodist Protestant Church. In 1939, they all reunited as the
Methodist Church in the U.S. The Methodist-Episcopal Church of old would
have been far more "liturgical" in it's rite (ceremony), more like the
liturgy of the Anglican Church, than what eventually evolved as the
Methodist Church of today. In Canada, the Methodists, and any
Methodist-Episcopals, organized into the United Church of Canada in 1925.
The Methodist Church my Wilson's worshiped at in Harriston, ON, is an
example.

(Much of the above is extracted from my trusty World Book Encyclopedia,
copyright 1972, used by my children while growing up.)

I visited Harriston a year ago and happened to ask where the Methodist
Church was located since I wanted a picture for my records. (I knew
exactly what it looked like since I have an old postcard that had belonged
to my grandmother, who'd grown up there, showing the new, larger church
when it was dedicated in the early 1900's.) I asked for directions but was
told there was no Methodist Church. While driving up and down some of the
streets, I came upon the church remembering how it looked on the postcard,
but it was now The United Church of Canada. I later found info regarding
this change in a history book on Harriston. I was also surprised to learn
that my Great Aunt Corry and her husband were the first couple to be
married in the "new" ediface.

I've been doing extensive census research on my Wilson and Stewart
ancestors of Ontario and throughout all my findings their religion is noted
as Meth E, sometimes Epis/Meth (or vice versa), which means
Methodist-Episcopal. One of my other lines, Fawkes, from England, who
settled in Pennsylvania, was also Methodist-Episcopal. The 1871 Ontario
Census Index, which is on line, indicates the abbreviation that was
customarily used which is where I saw either MEP or ME and it indicates it
stands for Methodist-Episcopal.

Excuse the above treatise, but in an effort to support the fact the
Methodist-Episcopal Church did, in fact, exist, I felt
obliged to pass this information to the list.

Regards, Carolyn, Wash State

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