2010•Oxford University Press eBooksRequires access
The Sacraments
Geoffrey Wainwright
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Abstract
To gain a historical, systematic, and prospective picture of the sacraments in Methodism, this article looks at three stages in the story: (1) the origins of Methodism in eighteenth-century Anglicanism; (2) the subsequent autonomous existence of Methodism as a ‘denomination’ (or family of denominations) claiming a part and place in ‘the Church Universal as the Body of Christ’; and (3) the ecumenical commitment of Methodism to the cause of Christian unity. The third stage is also extended into the twenty-first century, where the sacramental results of Methodist participation in the twentieth-century liturgical movement across the churches are considered.