ABSTRACT
Concomitant with such optimism was the question of Methodist union: if the denomination’s distinctive principle was no longer distinctive then the question of its continuing separateness needed to be reopened. From the 1830s onwards, the New Connexion sporadically flirted with the idea of union with various other Methodist bodies. Nevertheless, as the original standard-bearer for Methodist reform, it could smugly argue that it was the task of the newer denominations to explain what distinctive principle they espoused that kept them from throwing in their lot with the New Connexion. A more fundamental question concerned the implications of favourable moves that were evident in the parent body. Already in 1847 Cooke, commenting on changes that had allowed Wesleyan laymen onto various committees which served Conference, observed that,
since Lay-men are taken to the very doors of Conference, it can scarcely be expected they will not, ere long, be taken a little further. We hail these advances, and should rejoice to see the day when such further advances will be made in the economy of Wesleyanism, as will annihilate all remaining distinctions, and prepare the way for all the branches of the Methodist family . . . to become identically one . . .57
