ABSTRACT
The very Germanic-sounding title which has been given to this chapter may be treated either as an exercise in ecclesiastical whistle-blowing or as a peg on which to hang some assessment of the radical change which has come over a large and relatively uninstitutionalised denomination in a mere two generations. I will try to keep it to the latter, but I don’t mind admitting that many of the changes I shall describe are personally unpalatable. I should also make clear that what I offer here is not an analysis of the causes of the decline of British Methodism, but rather a study of how ecclesiastical decline has been managed.
