Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
As a district, the London South Methodist District was led by a chairman, who was a member of the Connexional leadership team and was appointed by the bishop for a period of 6 years to act as evangelical leader and district administrator. As administrative unities, districts hold a twice yearly synod, which sets direct policy and defines the boundaries of the district. It also holds a ministerial synod for presbyters and deacons, giving the opportunity for ministerial training. As governor of a number of circuits, the district's purpose is to advance the mission of the church by enabling circuits to work together and support each other as well as to link the Connnexion and circuits, especially in training and to approve applications for grant aid to circuits.
The Methodist Church in Britain began to surface during the 1730s as a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment and its attack on religion. The first London Circuit began in 1765, with districts coming into existence in 1791. The Religious Census of 1851 shows that the Wesleyan Methodist and Primitive Methodist areas had extended from Kensington to Poplar, as well as South of the river from Greenwich to Lambeth and Camberwell. Between 1873 and 1932, the districts and circuits within the London and Middlesex areas were divided between the various different factions of the Methodist Church: the Wesleyan, Primitive and United Methodists. Each faction operated differently until 1932, when the three groups were finally united as the Methodist Church. After this unification, six London districts were created: the London North-East, London North, London North-West, London South-West, London South and the London South East. These were changed in 1957 to four districts (London North-East, London North-West, London South-West, and London South-East), until 2006 when all the Methodist districts in Greater London were merged into one, large London District. The areas which were not part of Greater London were distributed into the appropriate South-England districts of: South-East, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex.
http://www.methodistlondon.org.uk/londondistrictmap2010.pdf
http://www.aberdeenmethodist.org.uk/AbriefhistoryofMethodism.pdf