Origins of Methodist ministerial training in Ireland

At John Wesley’s first British Conference (1744) the question was asked ‘Can we have a seminary for labourers?’ to which the response was ‘If God spare us till another Conference.’ It was repeated at the second Conference when the reply was ‘Not till God give us a proper tutor’. The question was not asked again during Wesley’s lifetime.

Momentum was initiated in Ireland following the death in 1832 of Abraham Mason, a wealthy Dublin ironmonger, who bequeathed £1,000 to create a theological institution for training young preachers. The Irish Conference sent a delegation to the next British Conference which then appointed a Committee to establish a ‘Literary and Theological Institution’. The first allocation from the Centenary Fund in 1838 was £70,000 to build both at Didsbury (near Manchester) and at Richmond in London.

A resolution was passed by the British Conference that ‘in consideration, among other circumstances, of the bequest of £1,000, the investment of which was offered in part for the annual expenses, the Irish Conference should be entitled to have four students at the Institution when need should so require.’

The system began in 1835 by which some candidates from Ireland were trained at Richmond and Didsbury. It remained so until the Methodist College in Belfast was opened on 18th August 1868. One of its four objectives was ‘to receive students in training for the Methodist ministry.’