Wesley's Highest Priority

 A watershed for Methodism was the ordination of Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey as ministers in America: an act of ecclesial disobedience, even while maintaining Methodists communion with the Church of England. What does Wesley's willingness to bend the rules here tell us about his approach to leadership and authority, and about the character of Wesleyan leadership today?

 

Part of the mission of the Methodists was to reform the Church of England from the inside.  Wesley was an Anglican priest; his goal was never to start a new religion, but to bring the Anglican church to a deeper faith. Separating the Methodists from the Anglican church would have been to admit failure of this original mission.

Wesley spent decades working within the Anglican Church; an earlier separation could have solved problems he faced all throughout this time, but he stood opposed to it.  He published and preached against separation; he saw his work to be to renew the Anglican Church.  At the same time, Wesley saw his call to help others to live a holy life in obedience and under the authority of God.  These were two parts of the mission of the Methodist movement.  For decades, Wesley worked to find compromise solutions that would allow both parts of this mission to continue. 

 

After the Revolutionary War in America, the colonies were no longer part of England.  Why should the Church of England send priests?  Wesley saw the Methodist movement in the new United States as a growing and successful enterprise.  He could no longer fulfill both parts of the mission, and he determined (I think) that the second part, to bring people to a holy life, was more important than renewing the Anglican Church that could not or would not serve them. The people needed priests, so he secretly ordained two of them. 

For me, this look at Wesley's mission and experience building Methodism with its original two-pronged mission, brought to light for me Wesley's highest priority, to bring people to God and a life of holiness. That outranked everything else.