In his latest monthly article Will Alkass reflects on the Methodist Church. The complex of buildings visited by Will and his wife Hannah is situated at 49 City Road, London, EC1Y 1AU. Entrance is free to the Chapel and museum (but there is a fee of £6 for visiting the house).
I have always been fascinated and intrigued by the multitude of different denominations of the Christian faith. One such denomination is Methodism; so during a trip to London in August this year I took the opportunity to learn and discover more about it, and what better way than to visit John Wesley's House, Wesley's Chapel and The Museum of Methodism situated in the crypt of the Chapel. My wife and I made such a visit, which gave us a lot of insight and knowledge and which I thought would be good to share with others.
John Wesley is widely credited as the founder of Methodism along with others, including his brother Charles Wesley (1707 – 1788) and George Whitfield (1714 - 1770).
Who was John Wesley?
John Wesley (1703 – 1791) was an ordained priest of the Church of England and in fact never intended to start a new denomination; instead, he wanted to reform the Church of England through a renewed interest in spiritual disciplines. He also criticised other aspects of the Anglican Church and this led to his efforts being rejected by the church and eventually to his banning from preaching in Anglican churches, upon which he resorted to travelling the length and breadth of the country and abroad, preaching in the open air and in homes.
Wesley's early teaching was along the lines that “A Christian is one who lives according to the method laid down in the Bible”. However, to his opponents this was a point of disagreement as they believed that this was too legalistic and too rigid an approach to the Christian way of life. He organised pastors and evangelists to travel and proclaim the Gospel to all the people, with special emphasis on the poor, the marginalised and the outcast. However, appointing unordained preachers was one more major issue of disagreement with the established Anglican Church.
What helped the fledgling movement to grow rapidly, in spite of early persecution and opposition, was the fact that later in the 18th Century the nation was experiencing difficult times with food shortages and with much political, industrial and social unrest (which was exacerbated by what was happening in France following the 1789 revolution and by subsequent fears of the prospect of invasion by Napoleon!)
Wesley was also a social reformer, an activist, an author and a philosopher. Apart from his deep religious beliefs, he was also interested in science, medicine, history and mythology. He helped the poor, he set up schools and he arranged for the first free medical dispensary in London. He also campaigned against the transatlantic slave trade and was in contact with anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce (1759 – 1833).
In 1778 he constructed in fine Georgian architecture, his first purpose-built chapel and his adjoining home in London. During winter months he used the house as his London base and for the rest of the year he would travel on horseback or on foot preaching and doing his other work: he is said to have covered 250,000 miles! When Wesley was not in residence his house would still be full of life and occupied by travelling preachers, friends and his housekeeper. Today, the house is furnished in much the same way as it was nearly two hundred and fifty years ago.
Before the Chapel was built, Wesley leased an old cannon foundry near to his London Headquarters. The “Foundery”, as it was called, served for 40 years as a place for preaching, education and the care of sick, poor and elderly people: "The Foundery" in fact marks the beginning of the Methodist movement.
At the age of 48 John Wesley married a widow with four children but the marriage did not last and they separated after seven years. Wesley died at the age of 87 and is buried in the Chapel.
He is commemorated on 24 May in the Church of England and on 3 March in The Calendar of Saints of the Episcopal Church.
There are now more than 80 million adherents to Methodism in 138 countries in the four corners of the world.
Hymn-singing and Methodism
Hymn-singing plays a very important part in Methodist churches; at a time when only psalms were sung in the Anglican Church, John and Charles Wesley became aware of the potential power of hymns in expressing faith and binding the community together. On the way to visiting Georgia John Wesley had learnt from his Moravian companions the value of hymn-singing as a corporate expression of faith. He translated hymns from the German and published "The Charlestown Hymn-Book", the first of many collections, while in America.
Charles Wesley, with his poetic talents, took on the task of writing many more hymns and collections, many of which can currently be found in hymn books in churches across the country. Hymn-singing found favour with the worshippers as it rings true with the spiritual nature of the Methodist belief. The most important and first official hymn book which was published in 1780, is “A collection of Hymns For The Use of The People Called Methodists”. This replaced many previous smaller books and contained 525 hymns, many written by Charles Wesley along with some by his brother John.
As Methodist worship increasingly took place in dedicated buildings, the use of keyboard instruments such as organs developed to accompany the congregational singing. However more recently, and in keeping with youths' forward-looking preferences, the use of more varied musical instruments such as guitars and drums are used in some churches. Hymn-singing remains an essential part of the worship, regardless of which instruments accompany the hymns.
So what exactly are the differences between the Church of England and the Methodist Church?
Anglicanism originated in the16th century with the Church of England's separation from the Roman Catholic Church, emphasizing a middle path between Protestantism and Catholicism.
Methodism on the other hand, as founded by John Wesley in the 18th century, emerged from Anglicanism, focusing on personal faith, holiness and social activism. Thus both share Protestant roots but differ in their approach to theology, worship, communion and church governance.
So what is Social Holiness?
In 18th Century Britain, Wesley saw a gap between Christian ideals and the needs of people. This led him to develop the idea of “Social Holiness”, a necessary way of expressing personal faith as a means of building a better world and catering for the daily and mundane concerns of the people. For example, his first headquarters in London included not just a place of worship but also a clinic, a school and space for the elderly. Today, Methodist social holiness takes many different forms ranging from providing education and healthcare to lobbying governments: William Booth was a Methodist pastor when he founded the Salvation Army in the 1860s.
The Methodist Church is traditionally known as non-conformist because it does not conform to the rules and authority of the established Church of England. However, after a couple of failed attempts to find a common ground and understanding, a covenant between the two churches was signed in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II in 2018 during a conference held jointly by representatives of these two major churches in England with the aim of getting closer together. The proposals that were accepted aimed to enable a new depth of communion and understanding between the two churches, leading to an enhanced common mission and unity.
There are many different types of Methodists, possibly more than 200, differing not only in name but also in the details of their worship practices, each with their own beliefs and traditions. Hence, to try to answer the above question, apart from being outside the scope of this article, is a bit difficult and can't be answered briefly!
