This week in Christian history: Queen Elizabeth I excommunicated, first Methodist church chartered

First Methodist church in United States chartered – Feb. 28, 1784

This week marks the anniversary of when the first Methodist church in the United States was officially chartered through the efforts of Methodism founder John Wesley.

An Anglican clergyman, Wesley had not intended for Methodism to become its own denomination. Nevertheless, the movement was growing considerably, with Wesley looking to give it structure, especially after his death.

Wesley secured a deed of declaration for the charter, which, according to Samuel J. Rogal of Methodist History, “provided legal status for Wesley's evangelical religious organization while its founder remained alive.”

“[T]he radical shifts in organization and philosophy that came to Methodism, both in Great Britain and the United States, within five years of John Wesley's death on March 2, 1791 rendered the document practically obsolete for his 19th-century successors,” wrote Rogal in 2006.

“Nonetheless, the Deed remains important to the early history of Methodism, as well as to the consideration of a larger topic, the place and function of legal documents within the history of organized religion.”