Warm-hearted faith, hymns by the hundred, an open communion table, and small groups where honesty is expected.
John and Charles Wesley set out to renew the Church of England and ended up starting something. Methodism keeps prayer-book bones with a revival heart, and has always looked outward — to the poor, the sick, the prisoner.
Read the storyA service
A hymn, a call to worship, and prayer that is often partly extempore.
Readings and a sermon aimed at the heart as much as the head.
Another hymn, prayers for others, the offering, and communion on many Sundays.
A closing hymn — Methodists tend to sing more than they say.
The room
A plain table below the pulpit, with bread and often non-alcoholic wine, and a rail people kneel at.
The table is open — you don't have to be a member, only willing. That openness is a deliberate Methodist conviction.
Seen in · Chapels and churches
A raised pulpit at the centre of the front wall, with the Bible open on it.
Preaching built Methodism — often outdoors, often to people no church had bothered with. The furniture still says so.
Seen in · Most Methodist chapels
A large hymn book, much of it written by Charles Wesley, sung with real volume.
Methodists learn their theology by singing it. Ask one what they believe and they may well quote a verse.
Seen in · Every service
Words
I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will. Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you. I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. Amen.
Prayed together at the start of each year — the most Methodist prayer there is.
Lord, let me do all the good I can, by all the means I can, in all the ways I can, to all the people I can, for as long as ever I can. Amen.
Lord, I come to your table not because I am worthy, but because you invited me. Feed me here, and send me out kinder than I came. Amen.
Language
A small group meeting weekly to ask honestly how your soul is doing.
A New Year service renewing your promises to God.
A trained lay person who preaches — not ordained, fully trusted.
A cluster of churches sharing ministers.
Wesley's hope that love can genuinely grow to fill a life.
Communion offered to anyone who wishes to receive.
The year
Keeps the main seasons — Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost — more lightly than Catholic or Anglican churches, plus Covenant Sunday in January and harvest in autumn.
The colours, the clothing and the furnishings in more detail.
Illustrations are artist's impressions, drawn to show the usual pattern. Every church varies.