April 27 2025

 Last week one of my kids asked me about the different kinds of Methodist churches. I explained about the founder John Wesley and how that tradition was shaped in both the UK and the US. The British Methodists who came to Canada were in general the ones who formed an early Methodist church here and then joined in the United Church of Canada union in 1925. There are also Free Methodists and Wesleyans, both of whom are part of larger North American denominations, with more links to the United States. Churches, particularly Protestant ones, seem to be very susceptible to schisms and splits, and those who were inspired by the faith of John Wesley are no different!

I attended a Wesleyan Church service on Sunday, and was struck by the large proportion of younger adults who were in attendance - not that it was a big congregation, but many of them would be younger than 40.  Besides the later hour and proximity to a university I think the style of music (contemporary praise) and preaching (lots of powerpoints) is what attracts them. From my experience of other evangelical congregations this would likely be the kind of church music that their generation grew up with - a three piece praise band leading choruses, rather than a choir and organist leading hymns. The music was very good quality, though I wasn't really able to sing along because there was no printed music to follow.

One of the things I found interesting about the theology at the Wesleyan Church was an emphasis on being part of a Holiness tradition. The scripture reading was 1 Peter 1, and ended with the imperative to "Be Holy as I am Holy".  The sermon was a reminder that as Christians we have a responsibility to live and to model Christ-like values, therefore we "welcome judgement", by God and even other people of faith. This is a theology I can only take so far before it tends to become too moralistic and condemning for me, but the preacher stopped well before offending anyone. He did say we have to take responsibility for "our sins" and cannot say "Well, that's the way God made me..."  Considering the denomination is not at all affirming of the 2SLGBTIQ+ community, I read between the lines where that message might take a queer listener. I was also struck by the absence of female leadership. Though there were women participating (and the high point of the service for me was a prayer offered by a woman on staff), the three "pastors" who were mentioned in the service were all male. To be clear, there is no real boundary around who can be called a pastor - one doesn't need to be ordained or commissioned by a denomination to use that title, so I was not sure if it was education or gender or recognition that made the difference.

People were very friendly, someone introduced herself to me and invited me back. They are very clear in their call to bring others to Christ, and making the world more holy by their example. We just all have different ways of doing it.