Presbyterian or Methodist ??

[Keith Bateman]

Hi All,

I have Partington rellies in Devon who I know were Methodists - they came from  Old Trafford, South Manchester. The only ones who I can find in the right place at the right time were all married at Morton Green Presbyterian, Eccles.

Now showing my religious (and everything!) ignorance  - could these be the same people - ie are Methodists and Presbyterians the same group??!!

Hope this does not start another Religious War!!!!

Cheers

Keith

[kmo]

Methodists- collective name for non-conformists that followed the preachings of John Wesley.
Presbyterians - one of the groups under the Methodist umbrella.

[trystan]

Keith,

It'll be "Monton Green" not "Morton Green" by the way. I worked in Eccles for a few years.

Trystan

[Little Nell]

Hi Keith,

The short answer is no - Methodists and Presbyterians are not the same.  Presbyterianism began nearly two centuries before Wesley started what was to become known as the methodist church.  The Presbyterians were aiming to bring the established church (ie the Church of England) closer to the Lutheran and Calvinistic forms with no bishops, archdeacons etc.  But they wished to remain within the established church.  They still wished to worship in church.  Methodists began forming themselves into socieites and meeting in members' houses, later building supplementary preaching houses.  Broadly speaking, the protestants of both Scotland and Northern Ireland are members of the Presbyterian church, although you do find the Episcopalians (Anglicans) as well in Scotland.

There is much more to it than this and maybe a google search will find you more detailed explanations.

Hope that helps.
Nell

[Keith Bateman]

Hi,

Thanks for those very quick replies !!
I will now have some midnight reading to do Nell - thanks

Thanks Trystan that might explain why google didn't come up with anything - IGI stated "Morton" -  and they never get anything wrong do they!!!!

Once again this site proves its worth

Cheers
Keith

[trystan]

Keith,

We all "have a go" at helping somebody on RootsChat so we all get there in the end!

Trystan

[Pollynation]

This is a link that i was sent when i was enquiring about my ancestors. They were methodist lay preachers in East Riding Yorkshire.
Hope it helps to explain more.

http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data1/dg/text/method.html

Best wishes
Pauline

[RJ_Paton]

Presbyterian churches were formed in the 16th century and "Methodist's" started appearing about the 18th century.

Presbyterianism is the form of church government in which elders, both lay people and ministers, govern. The name derives from the Greek word presbuteros, or "elder.". (The older name Reformed Churches remains prevalent among groups of continental European origin; "Presbyterian" is generally used by churches of British origin.)

http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/presbyte.htm

http://www.ccel.org/php/disp.php3?authorID=schaff&bookID=encyc12&page=307
gives some details about the life of John Wesley although the claims about his family tree do sound a little fanciful.

[Keith Bateman]

Hi

Done my schoolwork for the day - read lots - understand more than I did about the differences and similarities between the 2 religious groups.
 
Many thanks to Falkyrn & Pollynation for those sites  -  and I thought I was only going to put a few names and dates in my tree !!
It's more interesting finding out how my rellies lived - might also help to work out why they moved around the country as the did - as mine went from Scotland to Devon via Liverpool - all big non-conformists areas.

Cheers
Keith