The Methodist Church has never drawn up a formal 'Confession of Faith'. Its doctrinal standards are embodied in the following extract from The Deed of Union, which constitutes the legal basis of the Methodist Church as formed in 1932:

The Methodist Church claims and cherishes its place in the Holy Catholic Church which is the Body of Christ. It rejoices in the inheritance of the Apostolic Faith and loyally accepts the fundamen­tal principles of the historic creeds and of the Protestant Reforma­tion. It ever remembers that in the Providence of God Methodism was raised up to spread Scriptural Holiness through the land by the proclamation of the Evangelical Faith and declares its unfaltering resolve to be true to its Divinely appointed mission.

'The Doctrines of the Evangelical Faith which Methodism has held from the beginning and still holds are based upon the Divine rev­elation recorded in the Holy Scriptures. The Methodist Church acknowledges this revelation as the supreme rule of faith and prac­tice. These Evangelical Doctrines to which the Preachers of the Methodist Church both Ministers and Laymen are pledged are contained in Wesley's Notes on the New Testament and the first four volumes of his Sermons.

'The Notes on the New Testament and the Forty-four Sermons are not intended 'to impose a system of formal or speculative theology on Methodist Preachers, but to set up standards of preaching and belief which should secure loyalty to the fundamental truths of the Gospel of Redemption and ensure the continued witness of the Church to the realities of the Christian experience of salvation.

'Christ's Ministers in the Church are Stewards in the household of God and Shepherds of His flock. Some are called and ordained to this sole occupation and have a principal and directing part in these great duties but they hold no priesthood differing in kind from that which is common to all the Lord's people and they have no exclu­sive title to the preaching of the gospel or the care of souls. The ministries are shared with them by others to whom also the Spirit divides His gifts severally as He wills.

'It is the universal conviction of the Methodist people that the office of the Christian Ministry depends upon the call of God who bestows the gifts of the Spirit, the grace and the fruit which indicate those whom He has chosen.

'Those whom tl)e Methodist Church recognizes as called of God and therefore receives into its Ministry shall be ordained by the imposition of hands as expressive of the Church's recognition of the Minister's personal call.

'The Methodist Church holds the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers and consequently believes that no priesthood exists which belongs exclusively to a particular order or class of men but in the exercise of its corporate life and worship special qualifications for the discharge of special duties are required and thus the principle of representative selection is recognized.

'The Preachers itinerant and lay are examined, tested and approved before they are authorized to minister in holy things. For the sake of Church Order and not because of any priestly virtue inherent in 'the office the Ministers of the Methodist Church are set apart by ordination to the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments.

'The Methodist Church recognizes two Sacraments, namely Bap­tism and the Lord's Supper as of Divine Appointment and of per­petual obligation of which it is the privilege and duty of Members of the Methodist Church to avail themselves.'

Note: The General Conference of the Methodist Church of

Australia agrees in essence with the foregoing, and contains the following in the Laws of the Methodist Church of Australasia, in the edition published under the authority of Presi­dent-General in 1950:

Para 402: The General Conference shall not be empow­ered to:

(a) revoke, alter or change any of the doctrines of the

Church as contained in the first forty-four of the pub­lished sermons of the late Reverend John Wesley and in his Notes on the New Testament, or establish or promulgate any new doctrine contrary thereto;

(b) revoke "The General Rules" issued by the Reverend John Wesley and the Reverend Charles Wesley in the year 1743.

Para 69: (Candidates for the Ministry)

(i) 'A Superintendent nominating a candidate shall certify to the Synod that the candidate has declared he has read the first forty-four of Wesley's published ser­mons, and has consulted Wesley's Notes on the New Testament, and that he assents to the teaching therein set forth, that he has read the book of offices; and, further that he accepts the polity and discipline set forth in the Book of Laws.' "