Return to my Societe Pages index
Return to Methodists name list from "Methodism in the Channel Islands" by R.D. Moore (1952)
Pages 91-95
In 1839 the first Aquila Road Chapel was opened. In 1840 a Sunday-school was begun and in the first year enrolled fifty children. Seventeen years later a school building was erected in the rear of the Chapel.
Preaching places and prayer meetings were founded in various parts of the Island and efforts were made from time to time to establish permanent centres of work. By 1886 Aquila Road had been enlarged and redecorated and an organ installed—and this with a membership of only seventy-five. It was courage and foresight indeed, but by this time 'Primitive Methodism in Jersey was now confined to one Church. The work in the country parishes had mainly to be done in French, and it was wisely left to the French Wesleyan Circuit.
Single sentences in the records are often luminous. 1839: 'That the next Quarter Day be held 19th August in Bro. Hartley's room at 4. o'clock in the morning.' (Even Wesley never achieved this!) 1840: 'That we have a service at 5 o'clock on Christmas Day in the morning.' 1863: 'Permission is granted to the Minister to speak for the Church of England Temperance Society.' 1877: 'That Mr Guiton have Note to come on Plan or Prayer Leader as he may prefer.' (Unusual, but a mark of confidence.)
There are references to disciplinary action, sometimes severe, as in 184.1 when twenty-one members were struck off. The most piquant occurs soon afterwards when a lady was expelled because 'she accompanied her husband to the Wesleyans'.
1932 was not only the Centenary, but the year of Methodist Union, and the first Minutes of the United
Church credits Aquila Road with a contribution of 207 members.
Primitive Methodism in Guernsey had never been quite so successful, and at the time of Union the Truchot Street Church was worked by a Probationer Minister under the Jersey Circuit and returned a membership of seventy-one. A year later it was united with the Guernsey English Circuit.
4' The 'New Connexion’ is Invited (1836)
‘18th October 1836. It is decided; the sad and painful business is begun. They had taken Zion Chapel ... . and have let about one hundred sittings. J. Noel, H. Angel, J. Le Page, Junr, J. Barbet, N. de Jersey, J. Morris, Isaac Marquand, P. Brouard, J. Ozanne and J. Catts, all of them Leaders, have left and taken about one hundred English members. In the French Society there is no separation as yet.’This is an extract from a diary which was in the possession of Rev. Matthieu Gallienne, B.A. (it was probably his grandfather's), and it describes the matter from the Wesleyan point of view.
On the following day the Rev. Wm. Cooke arrived in Guernsey and in the afternoon met the seceding group at the house of Mr R. H. Angel (High Street). He had come, at their own invitation, as the representative of the Methodist New Connexion, and after he had fully expounded their system of church government the following resolutions were passed: '1. That we cordially approve of the constitution, government and discipline of the Methodist New Connexion, 2. That we engage to support a Minister, whether married or single, without any dependence upon the funds of the Connexion.'
Mr Cooke was induced to remain over the week-end and on Sunday, 23rd October, began the services in Zion Chapel, which was crowded with hearers. The severed branch had taken root.
But what was the cause of the division? This was not an expulsion, as the original severance had been; it was a voluntary and deliberate withdrawal. It began in the Leaders’ Meeting of the Ebenezer (English Wesleyan Methodist) Society. Twelve members of the meeting had sent (in July) a protest to the President of the Wesleyan Conference that their Superintendent Minister had refused to put the following resolution to the vote in the June (Quarterly Meeting of the Circuit:
Resolution. That this meeting regards the new laws and regulations of the Conference of 1835 embodied in the Special Address to the Wesleyan Methodist Societies, as innovating and unsatisfactory, in as much as: FIRST, they deny to the Leaders' Meeting the right of judging, in conjunction with the Superintendent Preacher, of the proper mode of dealing with a member against whom a violation of scripture law or Methodist rule has been proved, although such mutual judgement has been the long-established usage in our societies, has been found to work well, and is regarded by us, and we feel assured by the people generally, as the most effectual safeguard of purity on the one hand, and the best protection against individual error, partiality, and prejudice on the other. SECONDLY, inasmuch as they invest with the whole pastoral authority the Superintendents of circuits, who are but temporary residents in the places where they are stationed for the time being, although the Local Preachers and Leaders discharge many of the pastoral functions, sustain a corresponding responsibility, and, being intimately acquainted with the people, naturally care for the flocks over which they are overseers. THIRDLY, as they deny to the Quarterly Meetings the right to send any memorial to Conference on matters touching the interests of the Connexion generally; And that entertaining these views respecting the said rules and regulations, we respectfully submit the same to the Conference.Of course, the Superintendent was right in refusing to put such a resolution. At that time he could do no other. A Conference- decision had been taken and could only be challenged and amended through an appeal made by the representatives of the District at the following Conference, who, it must be remembered, were at that time solely ministerial. What he might have done was to give a more judicious hearing to the views and advice of his Leaders' Meeting in the first place.
With the existing constitution of the Conference, such tensions were inevitable, but they cost a grievous price in England a few years later.
In Guernsey, however, the split may have done as much ultimate good as it did immediate harm. It did at least stimulate a new and vigorous evangel which resulted in the establishment of another active Methodist Society and Sunday-school. By August 1859 it had begun to build St Paul's, with seating for 950, a dignified and well- built Methodist Chapel on one of the finest sites in the Island.
This great advance was partly due to successive visits paid to the Island by a young Minister, the Rev. Wm. Booth. He arrived in October 1854 and for nearly a fortnight conducted services which had a profound effect upon the Island. The following year he returned, and he came again in 1860.
A change of policy also had considerable bearing upon the work in the new chapel. In the early days of expansion various efforts were made to establish preaching centres in Mount Row and Delancy (French) and in Rohais and Vale (English). Three other branch causes were opened (French), one at St Sampson's, one in the Rechabites’ Hall (as it was later known), and one in Salem Chapel (Vauvert). Salem was returned to the Bible Christians, all the others were closed, and the work concentrated at St Paul's.
After his visit in 1855 Wm. Booth went on to Jersey in the hope of beginning a New Connexion cause in St Helier. In 1861, he felt the control of the New Connexion Conference too strait for his evangelistic zeal, severed himself from it, and (in 1865) founded the Christian Mission, which in 1878 became the Salvation Army.
Ninety-seven years after the original division the contending parties in Guernsey Methodism were united again.