This has been another long day. We started with morning prayers and communion at 7:15 so we were not very lively even though it was just 15 minutes earlier than normal. We loaded up the coach with our sack lunches and headed out to Kingswood School. One of the other pilgrims, Mike, called it the “Hogwarts of the Methodist Church.” It was a beautiful campus filled with stained glass, antique furniture and Wesley statues. Apparently John started the school to help educate the minor’s children who didn’t have access to schools and the children of Methodist preachers. Now it is considered one of the top private schools in the country. They still give preference to Methodist students but no one goes for free anymore. Harry Potter fan’s will recognize their mascot-a griffin.
We then headed over to Bristol to see the first ever Methodist meeting house in the world. It was a humbling experience. We stood where John and Charles Wesley preached. We saw the room where John lived above the meeting house and the shelves where the circuit riders kept their meager belongings. It was inspirational to think that this 18th century building had housed the people with the bravery and drive to change the world as we know it through the Methodist movement. It humbled me to realize that we are not so brave anymore. That we are now what the Church of England was then-complacent and institutional. I was inspired to continue the hard work of trying to create a space of relevance and love in our community.
We ended the tour with Charles and Sally Wesley’s home. They had eight children but only three of them lived to adulthood. Charles tried twice to name son’s after his brother John but both of the boys didn’t survive. Those that did survive were musical geniuses. They made their own contribution to the musical world in ways their father never did. By all accounts, Charles had a happy marriage. What we have discovered in our study and research is that Charles did almost everything before John but then gave John the leadership role. Charles started the Holy Club at Oxford and when John returned to town, made him the leader. Charles had his encounter with the Moravians in London, three days before John did and encouraged John to attend. I wondered if the age difference led Charles to look up to John or if it was his mother’s claim that John was set aside by God for something special after the rectory fire? We will never know but it was wonderful standing in the spaces where these two brother’s changed the world. I worry that we don’t have that single minded purpose anymore and if we even care to change the world.
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