To Learn of Our Incredible Heritage
By Caryl Griffin
Director, Wesley Institute
The John Wesley Heritage Tour in England, John Wesley: Life, Legend, Legacy, Oct. 13-22 brought much more than 6 CEUs to the 20 participants who made the trip from Holston Conference. Twelve were clergy, five were new ordinands who received a special grant for the trip, and eight were laypersons.
An important highlight for us was seeing ecumenical outreach ministry in the slums of London at Brixton Methodist Church, reaching out to the children of drug addicts and prostitutes in a multicultural, ecumenical preschool. In fact, Katie Nelson, high school student and the youngest member of our tour, initiated an offering from our tour group for this important ministry and collected more than $150 (in equivalent U.S. dollars) for the mission.
Another poignant moment was celebrating Holy Communion in The Foundery Chapel at City Road Chapel – sitting on the original benches of the first building of John Wesley's ministry (perhaps even sitting where Susanna Wesley sat), while hearing the devotional on John Wesley's Sermon, Means of Grace, presented by Cynthia Thompson. We felt firsthand the Communion of Saints.
On each day of our trip a clergyperson from our tour group gave a devotional on one of John Wesley’s sermons coordinated with key sites along the way. We could see how Wesley grew in his faith and changed in his thinking from his Oxford days of piety and service, past his Aldersgate experience of being “strangely warmed,” feeling his reluctance become passion in his outdoor preaching to the everyday people, and watching Wesley’s doubt become the seeds of faith and courage.
During the course of the journey, we learned facts and dynamics of John Wesley's life in the context of English society of oppression and potential revolution, and we saw firsthand how today’s England Methodist churches are living out peace and justice activities in their daily lives and pluralistic communities – much more than our churches in the U.S. We noticed that in England where there is no separation of church and state, the society is much more secular (fewer British are church members) and the church is more politically active in contrast to America’s separation of church and state where the church is more secularized and less politically active, yet a larger percentage of the population are church members.
What I learned:
- John Wesley was the same size I am, yet he was a giant of a man and truly a man of God striving to his last breath to go on to perfection
- United Kingdom Methodist Church has a very different organizational structure than the United Methodist Church in America:
- There are “presidents” rather than Bishops in Ireland or England, each elected by their peers for a year at a time.
- In rural areas there are clusters of churches coordinated and supervised by an ordained clergy, called the “superintendent,” while lay preachers preach in many of these churches on Sunday. The clergy “superintendent” rotates his/her responsibilities to the different churches, baptizing infants and new members and serving communion. The lay preachers are under the supervision of the clergyperson.
- There is a new formalized covenant between the Methodist Church and the Church of England (Mother to the Episcopal denomination) to work together in communities all across England to provide services to the poor.
In the course of our short ten days, we saw the key places of John Wesley’s life events: where he was birthed, baptized, saved from the burning (of the parsonage), educated, preached, was banned, ministered, was strangely warmed, perfected, and then died. We celebrated his legacy, discovered his catholic spirit, felt his living presence, and were challenged to return in renewed hope and love to live our own ministries in the Spirit.
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