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From:
Subject: Re: [METHODIST] St Peter's in Leeds Yorkshire England
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 06:50:25 -0400


In a message dated 4/5/2004 2:51:52 PM Eastern Standard Time, "Maria  Lima" <> writes:

>
>The Charles Henry that's listed in the IGI was christened at St. Peter's, Leeds, Yorkshire, England.  The BIG question:  is St. Peter's a Methodist church?  If so, then maybe I'm on to the "right" Charles Henry Staley.  

Hi Maria.

The short answer to your question is "No, it isn't". St Peter's is the local parish church and you can find out more about it at http://www.leedsparishchurch.org.uk/.

Another useful site in the Leeds area is http://leedsindexers.co.uk/ which is thoroughly recommended and which carries information about St Peters.

It was not unusual for Methodist men to be baptised in their local parish church. Many careers would be unavailable to them if they were not baptised in the 'Established Church", ie the Church of England. If the parents had hopes of their child serving in the army or the civil service, etc, they would have them baptised in the local parish church, sometimes on the same day as haing them baptised in the Methodist (or other non-conformist) chapel.

Girls were usually thought to have no other career than to marry into a good family and to be able to manage the house. A career outside the confines of a home was not something that would be considered and so it was not so important for them to be baptised in the Established Church, so a baptism in the Non-Conformist Chapel was considered to be the only requirement. Don't blame me for saying this but that was the attitude of the day - don't try to apply the standards and attitudes of today when trying to put yourself back into the past!

Double baptisms are less prevalent today now that Non-conformist churches are acceptable as main-stream churches, and baptism is not something that is enforced to support legal documents, etc. And of course, the concept of a single baptism for the remission of sins is accepted generally across the various Christian churches, so a Methodist baptism is as acceptable to the Anglican Church as it is to the Methodists.

Dave D

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