Do Methodists Believe in Saints?1
United Methodists believe in saints, but not in the same manner as the Roman Catholic Church. We recognize Matthew, Paul, John, Luke and other early followers of Jesus as saints, and countless numbers of United Methodist churches are named after these saints. We also recognize and celebrate All Saints' Day (November 4) and "all the saints who from their labors rest."
However, our denomination does not have any system whereby people are elected to sainthood. We do not pray to saints, nor do we believe they serve as mediators to God. United Methodists call people "saints" because they exemplified the Christian life. In this sense, every Christian can be considered a saint.
United Methodist believe "... there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human who gave himself a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:5-6a).
John Wesley believed we have much to learn from the saints, but he did not encourage anyone to worship them. Wesley's focus was entirely on the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
1 “Do United Methodists Believe in Saints?” by the Rev. J. Richard Peck, UMC 101, http://www.umc.org/.
Seven Truths of Life!
1. Life would be perfect if anger had a mute button, mistake had a back button, hard times had a fast forward button, and good times had a pause button.
2. The difference between Einstein and Karunanidhi is that Einstein believed everything is relative while Karunanidhi believes relatives are everything.
3. A bird asked a bee, “You work so hard to make honey and people steal it. Don't you feel bad?” The bee replied, “I don't feel bad since they can never steal my art of making honey.”
4. What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
5. A tongue weighs practically nothing, but few people can hold it.
6. The happiness of our life depends upon the quality of our thought, but the quality of our thought depends on the people we have in our life.
7. We get a lot of unconditional love when we are born and lots of unconditional respect when we die. We just have to manage the time in between.