Elijah Warren (c. 1791 - ?) was a Methodist circuit rider.
Warren was accepted on trial as a circuit rider by the 1813 annual conference of the Genesee District. He was sent to the Bridgewater Circuit that year.[1] Here he rode alongside John Hazzard.[2] This was followed in 1814 with an assignment to the Caledonia Circuit and in 1815 with an assignment to the Lyons Circuit. In 1816, Warren volunteered for assignment to the Canadas and was sent to the Niagara Circuit.[1] During his year on the Niagara Circuit, membership in the Methodist Church increased from three hundred seventy two to three hundred ninety six people.[3] In 1817, Warren was assigned to the Thames circuit. That year, membership in the Methodist church on the Thames circuit increased from 160 to 214.[4]
In 1817, Warren married the daughter of preacher Smith Griffin. As a dowry, he received a farm in Grimsby township. At the 1818 Genesee conference, Warren was located, so that he might work his farm. He continued to preach, although he moved away from the teachings of the Methodist church, to the extent that in 1832 he was publicly confronted by James Evans about his preaching of the doctrine of Universalism, and his opposition to temperance.[5]
Notes
editReferences
edit- Carroll, John (1869). Case and his cotemporaries, or, The Canadian itinerants' memorial constituting a biographical history of Methodism in Canada, from its introduction into the Province, till the death of the Rev. Wm. Case in 1855. Vol. II. Toronto: Wesleyan Conference Office.