Even during the life of John Wesley differences were beginning to arise between members and leaders of the society, both at national and local levels.
These differences, and their potential effect, must have been apparent when our original Trust Deed was drawn up, because, it included an unusual clause to the effect that
‘if after the death of Mr. Wesley there should be two or more conferences the trustees should choose from which conference they would be supplied with preachers, provided that the preachers so appointed should not preach any other doctrine than was contained in Mr. Wesley’s notes on the New Testament, and his four volumes of sermons’.
This clause was to have an important effect on the future of our Chapel.
John Wesley died in 1791, at the age of 88, and, as expected, after his death differences between members of the new church became more open.
The Methodist New Connexion
Shelley Methodist Church
