As with all early Methodist Preaching Houses our Chapel was built to supplement the parish church, and neither to replace it nor to offer an alternative.
John Wesley himself remained within the Church of England all his life, and regarded his congregations and followers as ‘societies’ within the established church.
It was not until 1787, two years after our chapel was built, that Wesley (who was by then extremely unpopular amongst the Anglican establishment) reluctantly advised that Methodist Preaching Houses should be licensed as Dissenters places of worship.
After preaching Wesley encouraged his listeners to meet together regularly for Christian fellowship, and these groups, helped by a set of rules which he drew up for his ‘societies’, formed the nucleus of the Methodist Church.
Development of Methodism
Shelley Methodist Church
