The fiery founder of Methodism, John Wesley, started out to reform the torpid Church of England of the mid-18th century; thanks to Anglican hostility, the evangelical societies he founded grew into a new and separate church. Last week a committee of Anglican and Methodist church leaders announced a plan to bring England's two great religious bodies back together.
The plan is in a report on 16 ecumenical conversations that have been held since 1956 by representatives of the Church of England (9,748,000 Confirmed members) and the Methodist Church (1,081,000 members). Unity requires...