Our World Wide Church Family
The World Methodist Council is made up of 80 Methodist, Wesleyan and related Uniting and United Churches representing over 80 million members in 138 countries1. To find a member church in your area please use the A-to-Z guide located below. To view a member church’s contact details, click the blue arrow button. * denotes churches under the Central and South Europe Central Conference of the United Methodist Church ** denotes churches under the Northern Europe Central Conference of the United Methodist Church
Organized Methodism in Australia, as part of the Foreign Missions under the direction of the British Conference, dates from the appointment of the Rev. Samuel Leigh to New South Wales in 1815. This, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji were constituted “The Australian Wesleyan Methodist Connexion” with an Annual Conference, affiliated to the Parent English Conference, and the first conference was held in Sydney in the year 1855. The New Zealand Church separated from the Australian Conference in 1913 with the union of the Methodist Church of New Zealand and the Primitive Methodist Church of New Zealand and the first conference was held in that year. Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand – historical/informational statement (as at June 2018) The Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand (WMCNZ®) is a dynamic, evangelical expression of Methodism in the South Pacific, living out Wesley’s core gospel convictions in the multicultural, secular context of wider New Zealand society. The first Wesleyan Methodist minister to come to the South Pacific in 1815 was Rev. Samuel Leigh, from England. He visited New Zealand for nine months during 1819. With the support of the new (British) Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, Leigh established the first New Zealand Wesleyan work at Whangaroa (near Kaeo) in 1823. The Wesleydale mission was unsuccessful but was re-established at Mangungu in the Hokianga. Wesleyan missionaries, along with Anglicans, were instrumental in supporting the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi; between the indigenous Maori people and the British Crown. Other branches of British Methodism established themselves in New Zealand; in 1844 the Primitive Methodists, in 1860 the United Free Methodists and in 1877 the Bible Christians. These churches, and the main Wesleyan Methodist Church, were all evangelical in theology. Through a series of church unions, all the different Methodist churches in New Zealand had combined by 1913. During the 1930s and after World War II, the Methodist Church progressively adopted a more intellectual style of ministry training, which included a critical Biblical teaching method, pastoral counselling emphases, and a reduced focus on holiness and evangelical/mission convictions. Pacifism, ecumenism, post-war social turmoil, and an increasingly liberal theological ethos became influential in the church. Many evangelical ministers and lay people were concerned at the pluralism of theology, loss of Wesleyan theological distinctives, and from the 1980s the over-riding bicultural criteria which became the benchmark of mission and decision-making. The rise of the charismatic movement in the 1970s and 1980s saw many Methodists join other denominations. Theological disquiet for evangelicals deepened when the 1997 Methodist Conference approved a homosexual minister into full connexion, and in the process contravened proper decision-making processes. The Wesleyan Methodist Movement was formed to co-ordinate the work of evangelicals who could not live in theological conscience with the 1997 Methodist Conference decision. In July 2000 the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand (WMCNZ®) was formed as a multi-cultural church in the Wesleyan stream to pursue a renewed evangelical missional future. The WMCNZ® was founded as an indigenous church with New Zealand leadership, led by founding National Superintendent Rev Edgar Hornblow. Among decisions made at the first conference was to join the Wesleyan World Fellowship of the international Wesleyan Church. In September 2007 the WMCNZ® was received as a full member of the World Methodist Council. In August 2012 a new South Pacific Regional Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church was inaugurated in Brisbane, Australia, with the constituent national conferences being those of Australia, Bougainville, New Zealand and the Solomon Islands. Rev. Dr Richard Waugh, New Zealand National Superintendent, was appointed the first President. The WMCNZ® undertakes mission in an ethnically diverse New Zealand (population of 4.5m) which is now one of the most secularised English-speaking countries in the world. The WMCNZ® has 28 churches (2018) and three more churches in current planning, with 60 ordained ministers, licensed ministers, and ministry students (of whom many are women, younger people and culturally diverse). A multi-cultural missional ethos is promoted. The WMCNZ® is ecumenically committed, takes an active role in World Methodism, and is a member of National Church Leaders Aotearoa New Zealand, New Zealand Christian Network, and supports many other interdenominational organisations. In conjunction with the Church of the Nazarene and the Salvation Army the WMCNZ® sponsors an annual Wesleyan theological symposium. Methodist Church Nigeria developed from Wesleyan Methodist mission Outreach of Methodist Church in Britain in 1845 and Primitive Methodist Mission via Fernando Po. The merger of the two Methodist Churches formed Methodist Church Nigeria. Methodist Church Nigeria is currently a Connexional Episcopal Church headed by a Prelate. The Conference Area is divided into 16 Archdioceses, 1 Council and 74 Dioceses mostly located in the rural areas. The membership size is about 2 million full members. The Nigeria Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, separated into two halves by the River Benue, is located in the Northeastern part of Nigeria. It attained Conference status in 1992 and has its own resident bishop. The headquarters is in Jalingo, capital of the new Tabara State of Nigeria. The work of Methodism in North Africa was started towards the end of the 19 th century. Initially, there were only a few restrictions on church work in Algeria. The Methodist Church owned church buildings, children’s homes and clinics. But when the country became independent in 1962, the situation markedly changed. First, many local Christians left the country by their own choice. Later many Methodist missionaries were expelled from the country, children’s homes and boarding schools were forced to close, and Church property was nationalized. In 1972, the Methodist Church fused other Protestant denominations to form the Protestant Church of Algeria, and the work was organized as a district of the Annual Conference Switzerland-France-North Africa. Today this district also includes the Methodist presence in Tunis with its emphasis on social services (assistance for students and immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa), and on a joint service with the Reformed Church. The Christian Church is a tiny minority in North Africa. But encouraged by new awakenings – for instance in the nineties in Kabylia – and against all odds, the Methodists faithfully press on. There are worship services, Bible studies, weddings and baptisms. And the Gospel is not only proclaimed but also put into action, The Northern Europe Central Conference is devided into two Episcopal Areas: The Nordic and Baltic Episcopal area consisting of the United Methodist Churches in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden, and the Eurasia Episcopal Area consisting of United Methodist Churches in Russia, Ukraine and Moldova, and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan). Information on each church is listed separately by country. In Norway, the story of Methodism began with seaman Ole Peter Petersen’s preaching in 1849 and the years ahead. In 1851, O.P. Petersen established the Norwegian-Danish Methodist Church in America. In 1856, Danish-American Christian Willerup was sent to Scandinavia as a superintendent in order to lead the church, which had emerged spontaneously. The first Methodist church was founded during the same year, thereby making the establishment of the Methodist Church in Norway a reality. In 1876 the church in Norway received status as an Annual Conference. There were 29 pastors, 19 congregations and 2,798 members, and the conference got its own superintendent, Martin Hansen.Nepal Methodist Church
New Zealand, Methodist Church
New Zealand is a country with a population of 3,500,000. There are 9,473 Methodist Church members who worship as part of a Methodist Church parish. In addition there is a significant number of Methodist Church members who worship within a cooperative venture where the Methodist Church has combined with the Presbyterian or Anglicans or Church of Christ or Congregational Union congregation of a particular area. The establishment of cooperative ventures has occurred in many regions of the country and particularly in rural areas. These form over half of the parishes for which the Methodist Church of New Zealand is responsible.
At the annual conference in 1983 the church made a conscious decision to work toward becoming a bicultural church. In particular the church made a decision to take seriously the founding document of our nation, the Treaty of Waitangi. The treaty was signed by Maori and Pakeha, and the church’s commitment to the bicultural journey affirms that partnership. For this reason we have adopted practices whereby the voice of the Tangata Whenua (the original people) is heard as equal with the voice of the Tauiwi (the people who came after). One of the outcomes of this recognition of partnership is that our church now seeks to make decisions using as much as possible a consensus process of decision-making.
At the 1989 conference, the following statement of mission was adopted for the people of Aotearoa/New Zealand who are associated with the Methodist tradition, both in Methodist parishes and in cooperative ventures. “Our church’s mission in Aotearoa/New Zealand is to reflect and proclaim the transforming love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ and declared in the scriptures. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve God in the world. The Treaty of Waitangi is the covenant establishing our nation on the basis of power-sharing partnership and will guide how we undertake mission.”
The mission statement becomes the basis on which the mission of the Methodist Church of New Zealand, Te haahi Weteriana o Aotearoa is carried out, and reflects the partnership we seek to embody.New Zealand, Wesleyan Methodist Church
Nigeria, Methodist Church
Nigeria, United Methodist Church
The first foundation for mission in Muri was laid in September, 1906, when the Reverend Dr. C. W. Guinter of the Evangelical church, a forerunner of the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) traveled up the Benue River to Ibi near Wukari. Guinter had come from the United States with four other missionaries to work for Jesus Christ in the Sudan – a region extending across Northern Africa, south of the Sahara.
In 1946, the Evangelical church became part of the newly merged Evangelical United Brethren (EUB). Mean while, the British Methodists were having trouble in staffing and financing their mission work in Nigeria while still recovering from World War II. So in 1947, the British missions on the southern side of the Benue River were merged with those of the EUB on the northern side.
From 1923 until 1954, the EUB Church in Nigeria had been run by the Missionary Council. In 1954, it became the Muri Regional Church Council. The foreign missionaries were brought under the same Church Council as the indigenous Nigerians.
In 1954, the first indigenous leaders were elected. After pastoral training, the first ordinations of Nigerians took place in 1958 and 1964. Four district churches were also created in 1964, two on each side of the river. Today there are 15 districts and 180 charges.
At the United Methodist General Conference it was resolved that the Evangelical United Brethren Church in Nigeria would become part of the West African Central Conference as “Muri Provisional Annual Conference.”
Bishop Arthur F. Kulah of the Liberia Annual Conference was appointed as Itinerant Bishop to Nigeria from 1984 to 1988. In 1989, he was replaced by Bishop Thomas S. Bangura of the Sierra Leone Annual Conference. Finally, in May 1992, Nigeria became a full Annual Conference, and on August 14, Dr. Done Peter Dabale was elected as its first Resident Bishop.
In 1989, the church established its theological seminary at Banyam to prepare students for ministerial work and degree programs at other theological seminaries. The Kakulu Bible Institute in Zing and the Didango Bible School met our demands of evangelists.
An evangelical program in our Church is at work establishing new churches and directing annual workshops and courses for the clergy and evangelists.
The church sponsors programs in agriculture, rural health, rural development, women’s work, youth and aviation. We have been able to work harmoniously both at home and abroad for the success of church growth and development in Nigeria.North Africa, United Methodist Church *
which leads to the fact that over and over people are expressing their interest in the Christian faith.North Katanga United Methodist Church
Northern Europe Central Conference **
Northern Europe Central Conference **
Norway, United Methodist Church **
The membership number has been declining for the last 50 years. The Annual Conference Council has therefore prioritized and recommended tools like Natural Church Development, Alpha and Walk to Emmaus in order to try to turn this development.
1 Based on membership numbers reported by member churches as of June 2018
