Methodists and the Church of England could merge more than 200 years after they split 

• Leaders said two protestant churches should declare themselves in 'communion'
• It will mean CofE will join forces with institution regarded as working class pillar
• Under the arrangement Methodists will no longer elect a President once a year, but will be led by a President-Bishop 

The Church of England and the Methodist Church are set to merge more than 200 years after their historic split, it was revealed yesterday.

The two greatest protestant churches should declare themselves in ‘communion’ and share each other’s priests and ministers, leaders said.

The deal to repair the rift will mean the CofE – once known as the Tory Party at prayer – will join forces with an institution long regarded as a central pillar of working class culture.

The Labour Party was famously said by one of its leaders ‘to owe more to Methodism than Marx.’

However Methodist churches have lost more than a third of their membership over the past 12 years and it counted just 188,000 regular worshippers last year.

Under the arrangement Methodists will no longer elect a President once a year, but will be led by a President-Bishop.

The President-Bishop will be ordained by a panel of three Anglican bishops, or bishops from some other churches which are recognised by the Church of England.

Methodists, who broke with the CofE in 1795, shortly after the death of their first leader John Wesley, rejected the bishops and dioceses of the established church.

Instead the Methodist ‘connexion’ is made up of ‘circuits’ and ‘districts’ led by ministers, and the church’s conference appoints a President and Vice-President each year.

A document on the merger published by both churches yesterday described these changes as ‘a challenge for the Methodist Church’.

The first President-Bishop is thought likely to be ordained by Anglican bishops other than the Archbishop of Canterbury in order to avoid upsetting Methodist sensitivities.

For the Church of England, joining with Methodists will mean tearing up church laws dating back more than 350 years which say that no-one but an ordained priest can hold office in the CofE.

The ‘full communion’ between the two churches would mean the CofE would have to allow unordained Methodist ministers to conduct services in its churches.

The document published yesterday, Mission and Ministry in Covenant, has been under preparation for 14 years.

In 2010 leading Methodist, the Reverend David Gamble, told the CofE’s parliament, the General Synod, that both churches were struggling to deal with the modern world and added: ‘We are prepared to go out of existence not because we are declining or failing in mission, but for the sake of mission.

‘In other words, we are prepared to be changed and to cease having a separate existence as a church if that will serve the needs of the Kingdom.’

The last major barrier to merger between the two churches disappeared in 2015 when the Church of England appointed its first woman bishop, embracing the sexual equality long upheld by Methodists.

At the CofE Bishop of Coventry, the Right Revd Christopher Cocksworth, said yesterday: ‘The solution is built on the centrality of the historic episcopate and the bishop as minister of ordination.

'The scheme as proposed will enable dioceses, districts and local churches to engage in creative pastoral planning.’

The Bishop of Fulham, the Right Revd Jonathan Baker, who sat on the committee that drew up the merger plan, said: ‘The separation between Anglicans and Methodists in Great Britain is a tear in the fabric of the Body of Christ.

'The proposals in this report are offered as a means of helping to repair that tear.

‘They maintain the catholic, episcopal ordering of the church while at the same time acknowledging the real and effective ministry exercised by minsters in the Methodist Church.’

While the proposals preserve the Church of England’s claim to maintain tradition, they are likely to deter any deeper relations with the Roman Catholic church, which have already met a barrier when the CofE consecrated women bishops.

The Reverend Canon Gareth Powell, Secretary of the Methodist Conference, said: ‘Methodists and Anglicans urgently need a set of proposals to enable the two Churches to move towards fuller communion, sharing more profoundly in mission and ministry.

‘The model of a President-Bishop in these proposals, upholding as it does the centrality of the Conference, is a deeply Methodist way for John Wesley’s people to engage at every level with the Church of England in mutual planning for pastoral oversight and Christian mission.’