""We have not tried to encompass all the facts or to narrate all the happenings which have often been surveyed in accessible historical studies. It would be our hope that we have selected such salient features as enable the story of Methodism to be considered within an ecumenical perspective."" -- From the Preface

""This volume, constituted on the same lines as its predecessor, consists of substantial essays on those features of Methodism in Great Britain, from the death of Wesley to the middle of the nineteenth century, which seem to us to be the most significant for its own history and the most important from an ecumenical standpoint."" -- From the Preface

""This third volume of A History of the Methodist Church in Great Britain, which began to be published in 1965, and took another step forward in 1978, brings the story of British Methodism to the event which was intended to conclude the whole work, that is, to the consummations of Methodist Union in 1932. Some chapters, however, advance beyond that event, since the description of some of the processes then in train could not be abruptly curtailed without historical injustice."" -- From the Preface

""With this volume the publication of A History of the Methodist Church in Great Britain comes to its appointed end. The project of writing it was initiated by the Methodist Conference of 1953, and the lapse of time since then has made it possible to include at appropriate points the results of the continuing research into the origins and nature of Methodism; but 'the chance and changes of this mortal life', which are bound to impinge on the progress of so complex an enterprise, together with the heavy involvement of all the contributors in ecclesiastical, ecumenical and academic affairs,...

""This book is in two parts. In the first I try to set out my reasons for being a Protestant; in the second are my reasons for rejecting Roman Catholicism. I make here a personal profession of faith, which binds nobody but myself. But it may be that the reasons for which I must be Protestant and cannot be a Roman Catholic will be of interest to to other Protestants who wish to be surer of their faith, and to those people who are attracted by some parts of Roman Catholic doctrine. I even dare to hope that some who have embraced the Roman Catholic faith will read what I have written, with their...

During the last three quarters of a century, the rate and character of change in all human affairs have been phenomenal. How has the Christian church in its various forms reacted the this series of revolutions--revolutions which have often vitally affected its own ways of thinking, its styles of life, and its worship? In particular, how has it responded to the idea of visible Christian unity, which long lay dormant, but now has taken fire in the lives of millions of its members? This book seeks to answer these and similar questions. It gives what is at many points an ""inside story"" of the...