Do Methodists believe in saints like the Catholic Church?
Editor’s Note: United Methodist’s do not believe in Saints in the same way that the Catholic Church does. But we can learn from the lives of saints … they have many gifts to give us. Following is an article about John Wesley’s — Methodism’s founder’s — understanding of saints and what that might say to us today. In the Sunday Service, John Wesley’s 1784 abridgement of the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer, he omitted the entire “saints (sanctorial) cycle” of saints’ days. Wesley sensed that, ‘most of the holy days” (so called) were “at present answering no valuable end.” Wesley’s writing, preaching and prayer were strongly focused on Christ, his birth, teaching, cross and resurrection. For that reason, he emphasized the saving and sanctifying grace of the Lord. This does not mean that Wesley did not know of — or believe in — these great heroes of the faith as manifestations of the power of God’s grace at work in real people. Note the above quotation from Wesley. He saw fo
