Ecumenism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Methodists=== There are some members of the [[United Methodist Church]] who oppose ecumenical efforts which are "not grounded in the doctrines of the Church" due to concerns over theological compromise.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.episcopalchurch.org/documents/abrahampaper.pdf|title=United Methodist Evangelicals and Ecumenism|year=2012|publisher=Southern Methodist University|access-date=11 November 2012|author=William J. Abraham|author-link=William J. Abraham}}</ref> For example, an article published in ''Catalyst Online: Contemporary Evangelical Perspectives for United Methodist Seminarians'' stated that false ecumenism might result in the "blurring of theological and confessional differences in the interests of unity".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://catalystresources.org/issues/303balmer.html |publisher=Catalyst Online: Contemporary Evangelical Perspectives for United Methodist Seminarians |year=1998 |title=The Future of American Protestantism |access-date=11 November 2012 |author=Randall Balmer |author-link=Randall Balmer |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415002847/http://catalystresources.org/issues/303balmer.html |archive-date=April 15, 2012 }}</ref> The [[Evangelical Wesleyan Church]], a Methodist connexion in the [[conservative holiness movement]], teaches in its [[Book of Discipline]] that ecumenism with denominations that teach doctrines which contradict [[Wesleyan-Arminian theology]] should be avoided:<ref name="EWC2015">{{cite book |title=Discipline of the Evangelical Wesleyan Church |date=2015 |publisher=[[Evangelical Wesleyan Church]] |page=62-63 |language=English}}</ref> {{quotation|1. The church warns all its members that the doctrine of "eternal security" ("once in grace, always in grace," the absolute final perseverance of the saints,) is not in accord with the teachings of the Scriptures. The Word of God plainly teaches the possibility of apostasy and eternal damnation. The scriptural references, as alleged proofs favoring this doctrine, may be showing to rest upon an assumption in each case that the Word of God will not substance. Therefore, all our people should exercise extreme caution in regard to the "eternal security" movement, whose teachings have been such a detriment to true Scriptural holiness and productive of lives of "sinning religion" in many; especially should they guard against financial support to the same. <br /> 2. We further warn against the modern "unknown tongues" and "commercialized healing" movements. We believe that the Holy Ghost distributes His gifts, "dividing to every man severally as He will," for the purpose of edification; and that it is perilous to teach that any one manifestation of the Spirit is necessary to, or an invariable accompaniment of, any work of divine grace. None of our people should support or affiliate with these movements, for their teachings also have done untold damage to the spread of genuine holiness throughout the world.<ref name="EWC2015"/>}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page