As I've said before , I am not alarmed by the prospect that the United Methodist Church will split. Parting ways with pew partners is a very Protestant -- and, although we might not like to admit it, a very Methodist -- thing to do. The early Methodist movement was not monolithic, and of course Methodism in America was born by splitting from the Church of England. As far as loyal Anglicans were concerned, John Wesley lamented schism so loudly and roundly because he he was constantly promoting it. In their view, the good Reverend protested too much. Or as Ryan Nicholas Danker has has put it , Wesley's self-identification with the high church " was reciprocated by a continuing flood of obloquy from actual high churchmen." Methodism in America, meanwhile, has seen an abundance of splits . Only the hubris of the mainline leads United Methodists to judge all these splits unfavorably. Who's to say that African Methodist Episcopalians, or Wesleyans, or
Life & Death, Faith & Doubt, Here & There