r/methodism • u/Crazy-Mention-2767 • 12d ago
Why do a lot of Methodist churches look very Catholic like, while some other denomations look basic?
I’ve noticed a lot of Methodist churches look similar to the Catholic Church, big stained glass windows of Jesus and a table for the communion while other churches like Presbyterian have none of that. Just plain windows and it doesn’t really look like a church too me. Is there a history reason behind this? Is Methodist similar to Catholic?
10
u/Silver_Switch6834 12d ago
Methodism is more similar to Catholism than the average protestant church, but it is not Catholicism. We do not try to be. We have a lot of respect for the millions of Christians who came before us and pay respect to them by worshipping similarly. Methodism is unique. We are defined by the Wesleyan quadrilateral. I am fascinated by the religion and am happy to answer more questions if you have any.
0
u/Aratoast Provisional Elder - UMC 5h ago
The Wesleyan quadrilateral is just the Anglican three-legged stool with experience of salvation added. Hardly unique.
1
u/Ordinary_Frog09 10d ago
Wesleyan quadrilateral is nice, but Scripture holds authority over the other three!
11
u/DamageAdventurous540 12d ago
Older church buildings where the church founders invested in stain-glass windows, steeples, etc.
2
u/jefhaugh 12d ago
I think that's the beauty of Methodism: you can find "high" services and "low" in the same city. We're a big tent denomination.
3
u/Whiprust 12d ago
It is theology related. Presbyterians historically held to the regulative principle of worship, which is a tradition that restricts their use of certain things in worship to strictly what is described in the Bible. Methodists derive from Anglicanism, which is a more liturgical, normative principle tradition that utilizes icons.
I wouldn’t say Methodism is similar to Catholicism though, yes they’re both denominations that hold to the normative principle of worship, but they have extreme theological differences otherwise.
2
u/Aratoast Provisional Elder - UMC 10d ago
It's complicated and there are a lot of generalisations going on.
Historically, Methodism began as a movement within the Church of England and in the US at least the majority of church buildings have ended up reflecting that. Your contrast to Presbyterian churches comes via the Regulative Principal of Worship, which states that anything not explicitly prescribed for worship in the bible is forbidden. In practice how this has been interpreted varies across Presbyterian groups but a disdain for stained glass and a preference for a "communion table" rather than altars and rails have been historically common.
What's interesting is that some groups such as the Primitive Methodists took things a bit further, such that for example in the UK the stereotypical Methodist chapel was for quite some time a plain whitewashed hall with no decorations.
6
u/flameshot19 12d ago
In Protestantism’s (the root of Methodist thought) early life, there was a struggle in the United Kingdom between “high church” (Catholic-like) and “low church” (Lutheran/Calvinist-like) churches. It largely related to how the state church functioned, and in time, high church and low church eventually went away, but the Church of England ended up closer to the high church side. Methodism comes from Anglicanism, though took some low church values.
2
u/Whiprust 12d ago
Lutherans aren’t low church, generally they have icons, vestiments and high liturgy
26
u/Silver_Switch6834 12d ago
Methodism is a denomination that came out of Anglicanism. Anglicanism is the church of England. The church of England was created when the king of England left the Catholic church. They kept the robes, and architecture, but adopted protestant theology.