Methodist Episcopalian

Methodist Episcopal Church
Classification	Protestant
Orientation	Methodism
Polity	Connectionalism (modified episcopal polity)
Origin	December 1784 Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Separated from	Church of England
Separations	Republican Methodist Church (1792) African Methodist Episcopal Church (1816) African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (1821) Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada (1828) Methodist Protestant Church (1828) Wesleyan Methodist Church (1841) Pilgrim Holiness Church (1897) Kentucky Mountain Holiness Association (1925)
Merged into	Methodist Church (USA) (1939)

The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from 1784 until 1939, after which time it merged with other Methodist churches to form what eventually became the present-day United Methodist Church.

The church's origins lie in the First Great Awakening when Methodism emerged as an evangelical revival movement within the Church of England that stressed the necessity of being born again and the possibility of attaining Christian perfection. By the 1760s, Methodism had spread to the Thirteen Colonies, and Methodist societies were formed under the oversight of John Wesley. As in England, American Methodists remained affiliated with the Church of England, but this state of affairs became untenable after the American Revolution. In response, Wesley ordained the first Methodist elders for America in 1784. Under the leadership of its first bishops, Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury, the Methodist Episcopal Church adopted episcopal polity and an itinerant model of ministry that saw circuit riders provide for the religious needs of a widespread and mobile population.

Early Methodism was countercultural in that it was anti-elitist and anti-slavery, appealing especially to African Americans and women. While critics derided Methodists as fanatics, the Methodist Episcopal Church continued to grow, especially during the Second Great Awakening in which Methodist revivalism and camp meetings left its imprint on American culture. In the early 19th century, the MEC became the largest and most influential religious denomination in the United States. With growth came greater institutionalization and respectability, and this led some within the church to complain that Methodism was losing its vitality and commitment to Wesleyan teachings, such as the belief in Christian perfection and opposition to slavery.

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