The title of this volume is as old as the Wesleyan movement and apt for the very latest Methodist theological self-designation.  Marks of Methodism points back to John Wesley himself and to his efforts to define the movement. Such marks or hallmarks prescribe a basis for Methodist identity, purpose, and unity. They also serve to differentiate Methodists from other Christians, to sketch the boundaries of our movement, and to mark us off. Marks also invite attention to the conjunction of precept and practice, to the considerable recent affirmation of practices as the traditioning and corporate bearers of Christian faithfulness and witness; and therefore as the ground of theology and doctrine, and to Methodist embodiment of and featuring of traditioning practices long before that became fashionable. These marks point to an understanding of church, a doctrine of the church, an ecclesiology, embedded in the everyday structures, policies, organizations, and patterns of Methodist life. "Provides a candid, yet constructive, proposal for a practical ecclesiology upon which to navigate the Church's continued journey." Dennis M. Campbell is former Dean of the Divinity School and former Professor of Theology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Currently he is Headmaster of Woodberry Forest School in Woodberry Forest Virginia. (2011) Russell E. Richey is Dean Emeritus of Candler School of Theology and the William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Church History Emeritus in Atlanta, Georgia. William B. Lawrence is dean and professor of American Church History at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University (Dallas), where he has served since 2002. Dr. Lawrence is an ordained elder in the North Texas Annual Conference. He is the author of Sundays in New York and Methodism in Recovery , and he has co-edited numerous books, including Connectionalism: Ecclesiology, Mission and Identity Marks of Methodism Theology in Ecclesial Practice By Dennis M. Campbell Abingdon Press Copyright © 2005 The United Methodist Publishing House All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-687-32939-7 Chapter One Connectional 1 BLEST be the dear uniting love, That will not let us part! Our bodies may far off remove, We still are one in heart. 2 Joined in one spirit to our Head, Where he appoints we go; And still in Jesu's footsteps tread, And show his praise below. 3 O may we ever walk in him, And nothing know beside; Nothing desire, nothing esteem, But Jesus crucified. 4 Closer and closer let us cleave To his beloved embrace; Expect his fulness to receive And grace to answer grace. 5 Partakers of the Saviour's grace, The same in mind and heart, Nor joy, nor grief, nor time, nor place, Nor life, nor death can part. 6 But let us hasten to the day Which shall our flesh restore, When death shall all be done away, And bodies part no more! "Connectionalism," to the average United Methodist, suggests machinery—apportionments, boards and agencies, hierarchy, conference headquarters, the church's officialdom, its apparatus. Such a perception is neither inappropriate nor new. The image of Methodism as machine runs deep in our consciousness and our heritage. When Bishops Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke annotated the Discipline and explained the church to American society in 1798, they referred to Methodism as a machine. They insisted on the necessity of preserving "in order and in motion the wheels of the vast machine." Not half a century later George Cookman (then chaplain to the Senate), soon to be lost at sea, drew upon Ezekiel's image of wheels within wheels to interpret Methodism. The great iron wheel in the system is itinerancy , and truly it grinds some of us most tremendously; the brazen wheel , attached and kept in motion by the former, is the local ministry ; the silver wheel , the class leaders ; and golden wheel , the doctrine and discipline of the church , in full and successful operation. Now, sir, it is evident that the entire movement depends upon keeping the great iron wheel of itinerancy constantly and rapidly rolling around. But, to be more specific, and to make an application of this figure to American Methodism. Let us carefully note the admirable and astounding movements of this wonderful machine. You will perceive there are "wheels within wheels." First, there is the great outer wheel of episcopacy, which accomplishes its entire revolution once in four years . To this there are attached twenty-eight smaller wheels , styled annual conferences , moving around once a year ; to these are attached one hundred wheels , designated presiding elders , moving twelve hundred other wheels, termed quarterly conferences , every three months; to these are attached four thousand wheels , styled travelling preachers , moving round once a month , and communicating motion to thirty thousand wheels, called class leaders , moving round