The Sacramental Piety of Early American Methodists: The Fluvanna Conference of 1779 Revisited

There is continuing debate over the place of the sacraments in early American Methodism and the extent to which the Methodists valued them. The Fluvanna Conference of 1779 is key to understanding early American Eucharistic piety. By analysing the American Methodists' writings, a sacramental piety that is primarily ecclesiological is discovered. This piety is congruent with one dimension of John Wesley's Eucharistic theology: that the sacraments are a marker of a true church. The American Methodists in 1779 sought the authority to administer the sacraments so they could have an independent church.