Evolution of the use of the term ‘circuit’

When the travelling preachers had circuits of hundreds of miles, it would have been virtually impossible for the societies to have any sense of being a single body, or even meeting and knowing one another. But as the number of societies grew and the size of the circuits shrank, a change in what was meant by ‘a circuit’ can be perceived. ¹²⁶

The 1748 Minutes of Conference record the question: ‘Would it not be of use if all the societies were more firmly and closely united together?

The corresponding answer was: ‘Without doubt it would be much to the glory of God, to the ease of the ministers and to the benefit of the societies themselves both in things spiritual and temporal’.¹²⁷ It would seem that the invisible linking of the societies made by the preachers’

travels was no longer sufficient and that some more tangible expression was required. Further, that the amount of administration involved in maintaining the societies needed co-ordination to avoid needless repetition and drawing the preachers away from their core task. The result was that a transition took place. Although the circuit remained a grouping of societies served by one or more itinerants, it changed from being a travelling preacher’s round to being a unit of oversight, ministry and administration in the Connexion.

There is no indication in the Minutes of Conference of a definite transition taking place. Histories do not refer to the transition, usually blurring the progress from one to the other. However, Goodhead went as far as identifying 1749 as the date at which ‘the circuit system was fully established’. ¹²⁸ He seems to have considered that this date represented the shift from circuits as rounds toward circuits as structural

125Letter from John Wesley to Rev. Mr. Walker of Truro quoted in Myles, Life, 280.

126 See Chapter Three: The Development of Circuits.

127“Minutes of Conference, 1748”, in Rack, Works, vol.10, 225-226.

128Goodhead, “A Crown and a Cross”.

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entities. His categorisation of Wesleyan Methodism pre-1749 as a

‘movement’ and post-1749 as an ’organisation’ is a useful way of highlighting the transition. It will be argued in chapter 4.0: The Circuit Quarterly Meeting, that it was the creation of the circuit quarterly meeting, first mentioned in the same 1748 Minutes, which finally established the circuit as a unit of administration and oversight, as opposed to being a round. Goodhead’s 1749 date allowed time for implementation.

Even when the transition had taken place, one gains no strong sense of the circuit at first being regarded as anything other than simply a practical means of connecting the societies. For example, the Plan of Pacification (1795) was a very significant connexional document yet in all its paragraphs, there is no mention of the circuit. ¹²⁹ The whole focus is on the individual societies and the lack of reference to the circuit is quite striking. However, only two years later, the “Address to the Methodist Societies” from the Leeds conference of 1797 is full of references to circuits and quarterly meetings. ¹³⁰ The societies were never autonomous, but now the circuit had become the primary focus and, as a unit of oversight, ministry and administration, established as part of the connexional structure.

Did this development into a more institutional mode mean losing touch with origins? To some degree, the origins themselves helped to bring about the institutional stage. Establishing societies on rounds, a concept which so effectively retained and nurtured converts, also paved the way to an institutional future as the societies were formed into named and settled circuits. However, itinerancy continued to be an essential ingredient in Methodism and in so doing, acted as a strong reminder of origins.

129The Plan of Pacification concerned allowing the administration of the Lord’s Supper in Methodist preaching places, among other matters.

130“Address to the Methodist Societies, Leeds, August 7^th 1797”, in John Beecham, An Essay on the Constitution of Wesleyan Methodism etc…, 2^nd edn., corrected and enlarged (Liverpool, 1829), appendix, 118-120.

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1.10 Conclusion

In investigating the origins of the circuit, a number of points have come to light. One is that scholars’ exhaustive treatments of this early period have proved to be surprisingly vague on structural matters. Another is that the origins of the circuit lie not in being a fully functioning structure imposed by Wesley, but rather in a combination of pragmatism and necessity. It moved from one man’s desire to revive the Church of England through an itinerant preaching ministry, at first on his own and then with lay helpers, which developed into a scheme of rounds or circuits. In an essay of 1906, Elie Halevy wrote that:

…the very organisation that Wesley imposed on the Methodist Society…seems to have been based upon the organisation of the industrial society of the time when Wesley went preaching from town to town…¹³¹

It is not surprising that Halevy made sense of the origins of the circuit by supposing that Wesley utilised familiar secular structures as an ‘instant’

model, especially in view of his particular interest in the social context of the birth of Methodism. But the origins were, as has been shown, very different.

Concerning the practicalities of the early round/circuit system, it has been shown that without the work of the class and other leaders in maintaining the spiritual life of the societies while the preachers travelled their rounds, consolidation and growth would have been far less successful. It can be argued that the unease which later developed among members over the status and power of the travelling preachers, and calls for greater lay participation in decision-making, may have had some roots in the memory of this dependency.

131 Elie Halevy, The Birth of Methodism in England, Bernard Semmel trans. and ed.

(Chicago, 1971). Halevy went on to describe the structure, as he supposed it to be, in some detail. A thorough assessment of this essay can be found in J.D. Walsh, Elie Halevy and the birth of Methodism, transactions of the Royal Historical Society (Fifth Series) (1975), Cambridge Journals Online.

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The period during which the term ‘circuit’ referred to the route travelled by an itinerant Methodist preacher was quite brief. Nevertheless, when the route evolved into a structural entity, the term ‘circuit’ continued, and has remained to this day.

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