Janeen,
JanPro77(a)aol.com wrote:
In reading obituaries on my Morris Family from Grant Co., IN., a few
of them
were members of Pilgrim Holiness Church. Is this church still in existence
and what religion is it? Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, ect...?
There are likely quite a few people more qualified than I to address
this question, so let's just consider this an interim response.
My understanding is that the Pilgrim Holiness Church merged in the
1970's with the Wesleyan Methodist Church to form the now-titled
Wesleyan Church. Recall that about at the same time (+/- a decade)
several other branches of Methodism came together to form the United
Methodist Church. All of these small denominations, and some others
besides, are theological descendants of the Methodist church traditions
founded in the 17th Century by the Wesley brothers (Charles and John).
As such, in general they are considered part of the "holiness" family of
Christian denominations since their teachings emphasize living a life of
holiness in reverent obedience to God's Word.
Theologically, they are very strong on salvation by grace and not by
works, but run a risk of "rules" bound church living. They are, by and
large, on the conservative side of the spectrum, with perhaps the
exception of the United Methodist Church denomination ... today the
largest in the crowd. UMC is (officially) conservative and many local
congregations are in practical deeply conservative, but the national UMC
denominational body is less so, hotly debating the distinctions which
must be drawn between "loving the sinner" and "condemning the sin."
At
present, the former is winning.
Smaller branches of the Methodist movement, e.g., the Wesleyan Church,
seem to have remained more solidly conservative in their denominational
official structures. The Wesleyan Church at about the time of the
merger was headquartered here in Marion, Indiana but since then the
headquarters has moved to Indianapolis.
I invite all list readers to provide necessary corrections.
- Bill
--
J. William Cupp Asst Prof, Computer and Information
Sciences
(765)677-2292 Division of Natural Sciences and
Mathematics
dock at my homeport: Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion,
Indiana
http://www.indwes.edu/Faculty/bcupp
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