Methodist Reformer & Social Activist
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ColinMethodist Reformer & Social Activist
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ColinHugh Price Hughes (8 February 1847 – 17 November 1902)[1] was a Welsh Protestant
clergyman and religious reformer in the Methodist tradition. He served in multiple leadership
roles in the Wesleyan Methodist Church. He organised the West London Methodist Mission, a
key Methodist organisation today. Recognised as one of the greatest orators of his era, Hughes
also founded and edited an influential newspaper, the Methodist Times in 1885. His editorials
helped convince Methodists to break their longstanding support for the Conservatives and
support the more moralistic Liberal Party, which other Nonconformist Protestants were already
supporting.
Contents
• 1 Biography
• 2 Family
• 3 Associated Activists in Social Change
• 4 References
Biography
Photograph, c. 1880s
Hughes was born in Carmarthen, and was educated at Richmond Theological College and
University College London. His sister was the teacher Elizabeth Phillips Hughes.[2] He married
Katherine Hughes (née Barrett). In 1885, he founded the Methodist Times, and in 1887 he was
appointed Superintendent of the West London Methodist Mission.[3] His wife Katherine
organised and led the innovative Sisters of the People, social work volunteers attached to the
West London Mission.[4] In 1896, he was elected first president of the National Council of
Evangelical Free Churches, an organisation he helped create. In 1898, he was elected President
of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference for a year-long term.[5]
Hughes rose as the leader of the "Forward Movement" in Methodism, which sought to reshape
the Methodist Church as the moral and social conscience of Britain. Later, he extended this idea
to the Nonconformist Free Churches as a whole. He was concerned that the non-Anglican
evangelical tradition had become overly focused on individual salvation, and it was time for
Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Quakers to become churches in a
fuller sense, taking on responsibility for the salvation of society.[6] These ideas were expressed in
his published sermons. In his first book of sermons, entitled Social Christianity, he declared "It is
because the spirit of Christ has not been introduced into public life that Europe is in a perilous
condition today... My wish is to apply Christianity to every aspect of life."[7]
Hughes played a key role in leading Methodists into the Liberal Party coalition, away from the
Conservative leanings of previous Methodist leaders.[8][9] His activism embodied the concept of
the "Nonconformist conscience".[10] As a reformer, Hughes was a leader for temperance and for
the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. He was also a strong advocate for public, non-
sectarian education and international peace. He strongly supported Gladstone's Irish Home Rule
Bills. After the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell was revealed to have committed
adultery with Katherine O'Shea, Hughes declared that English Nonconformists would no longer
support the Irish cause if its leader was a proven adulterer. This threat led Gladstone to state that
he could not remain as Liberal leader if Parnell continued to lead the Nationalists, thus
precipitating the Parnell Split.
He died at his home in London following a stroke.[11]
Family
On 20 August 1873, he married Mary Katherine Howard, daughter of the Rev. Alfred Barrett,
governor of Richmond Theological College; they had two sons and two daughters.[11]
Associated Activists in Social Change
• Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
• Mark Guy Pearse
• Henry Simpson Lunn
• Charles Albert Berry
• Percy William Bunting
• John Greener Hallimond.
According to "A Countess at the Bowery Mission: The Christian Herald And Signs Of Our
Times", 20 December 1899, page 987: "Nine years ago, he [Hallimond] was connected with the
great West London Mission, England, of which Rev. Hugh Price Hughes is Superintendent."
This is repeated in "Great Heart of the Bowery: Leaves from the Life-Story of John G.
Hallimond,late Superintendent of the Bowery Mission," Fleming H. Revell, NY: 1925. In the
biographical foreword by George H. Sandison of Christian Herald, "Nine years before he came
to America he was connected with the great West London Mission, of which Rev. Hugh Price
Hughes was Superintendent" (page 13).
