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The beginning of the Wesleyan Studies Group (WSG) lie in a roundtable discussion of a paper by Ted Runyon at the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting in 1982. The response to this roundtable led to an approval by the AAR Program Committee for a Consultation on Wesleyan Studies at the 1983 meeting. The quality and quantity of participation by AAR members in this Consultation session led to a proposal for the establishment of the WSG as a regular working group to be renewed in five year segments

WSG's purpose is to seek and promote the critical understanding and appropriation of Wesleyan traditions by understanding the term in the broader Methodist family. The group is to embrace and encourage not only historical and sociological studies but also theological reflection, critique, and extension. As an ecumenically focused group, it is not the property of a single denominational group but serves as a place for Wesleyan scholars to pursue academic concerns and interests.

The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW) was established by the 1972 General conference of The United Methodist Church. Emerging from the social climate of the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women was conceived when a 1968 report presented by the Women's Society of Christian Service, known today as United Methodist Women,requested that a study commission be established to research the involvement, or lack thereof, on women in all aspects of the United Methodist Church. By 1972, a group of fifty women from the Wheadon United Methodist Church in Illinois, which would later become the Women's Caucus, joined the Women's Division in supporting the idea of a new commission that would address the various levels of access that women had to power in the life of the church. All of this coalesced when Thelma Stevens, a Women's Caucus representative, presented a proposal to establish a quadrennial commission that would address the inclusion of women in all levels of decision making in the United Methodist Church.

After the proposal was accepted and ratified the General Conference charged the new commission with the responsibility of fostering awareness of problems and issues related to status and role of women with special focus on full participation in the life of the church at least commensurate with its total membership in the United Methodist Church. In the tradition of the Woman's Division, and other predecessors, the commission continued to accumulate statistics documenting the presence of women in the life of the Methodist Church. The Commission understood itself as an advocate for affirmative action, personnel policies, grievance procedures and as an ally to victims of sexual harassment. Over time, it has sought to eradicate discriminatory language, combat homophobia and provide regional training for those interested in challenging sexism and other forms of oppression.