Christmas Pt. 3
Apostolic succession is the belief that the ordination of clergy through bishops connects the ordained in an uninterrupted lineage all the way back to the biblical apostles. In the Anglican church, only bishops had the authority to ordain or appoint clergy. But John Wesley had come to a more Presbyterian understanding of scripture on this matter, and believed that apostolic succession was actually a fable, and that the office of elder (presbyter) was equal to that of bishop (episcopos).
So on September 1, 1784, John Wesley took matters into his own hands and secretly “appointed” Thomas Coke, an Anglican priest, to the role of “Superintendent for America.” Wesley was cautious not to use the word bishop, but that is what the role implied. Wesley then “appointed” lay preachers Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vassey as elders to be sent to the American Methodists.
John intentionally kept Charles out of the loop on all of this, so that Charles did not find out until November by a secondhand account. Charles felt betrayed, angry and disappointed with John’s unilateral decision and wrote several sarcastic poems about the matter. I think my favorite line accuses John of elderly senility: “Yet we at least should spare the weak, his weak Co-equals We, Nor blame an hoary Schismatic, a Saint of Eighty—three!”
Interestingly enough, despite the executive order nature of John Wesley’s ordinations, when the time came to ordain Francis Asbury and appoint him as Superintendent (Bishop) in America, Asbury did not want a position of leadership only handed down from the top. Asbury insisted that the members of the Christmas Conference take a popular vote to approve his position. The politics of the Christmas Conference would be shaped more after the style of American democracy, with checks and balances, than in the way it was born in England by John Wesley’s action.
New Charlie Baber
The Rev. Charlie Baber, author of Wesley Bros cartoon.
Creator of the Wesley Bros cartoon, the Rev. Charlie Baber, a United Methodist deacon, serves at Highland United Methodist Church in Raleigh, N.C. His cartoon appears on United Methodist Insight by special arrangement.