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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (352
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Note 351 by UMNS on Sept. 26, 1997 at 16:04 Eastern (4800 characters).

CONTACT:	Linda Bloom				   539(10-71B){351}				New York (212) 870-3803			
Sept. 26, 1997
 
British "manse" becomes
Charles Wesley Center

A UMNS News feature
by Kathleen LaCamera*

BRISTOL, England -- When the Rev. Nigel Collinson took up his first
appointment as the assistant chaplain at the local university in Bristol, he
and his wife Lorna moved into the manse (as the British call their parsonages)
at No. 4 Charles Street.
	Thirty-three years later, Collinson, a former president of the British
Methodist Conference, was back in Bristol -- along with Methodists from around
the world -- to open the new Charles Wesley Heritage Center at No. 4 Charles
Street.
	The house had been home to Charles Wesley and Sarah "Sally" Gwynne and their
children from 1749-1771.
	The opening was a "sentimental journey for Collinson, who remembered that he
and his wife occasionally would hear a knock and find visitors at the door. 
At that time, the house -- located a quarter mile from John Wesley's "New
Room" --  had two simple museum rooms on the ground floor.  A room at the top
of the house, thought to have been Wesley's study, served as Collinson's own
study as well.   
	"People have had the vision for a long time to do something with the house,
but it has taken 30 years to realize that vision" he said.  "It is in places
like this that we are able to recover our collective memory and our sense of
history."  
	Many of Charles Wesley's 7,000 hymns were written in Bristol and the center
will include authentically-restored rooms as well as displays of hymn
manuscripts and copies of hymn books from the many countries where Wesley's
hymns are still sung and enjoyed.  
	But the center will be more than just a museum according to its new director,
the Rev. Lorna Khoo.
	Through special conferences, retreats, displays and mission work, she said,
it will be a place where Wesleyan hymns and spirituality can be rediscovered
and reclaimed in a way that can inspire and encourage a global church.
	Khoo, who is working on a doctorate on Wesleyan Eucharistic Spirituality at
Westminster College, Oxford, is no stranger to being part of a new
"pioneering" ministry.  During her 18 years as a Methodist pastor in Singapore
she started a new church, a Methodist family center and was editor of the
Methodist newspaper.  	With this position, she believes she is returning a
blessing to British Methodists that she first received from a British
missionary, the Rev. Christopher Hulse Smith, when she was a teenager.  During
the opening celebrations for the center, Khoo wore the liturgical robes of her
spiritual mentor and friend who died only a few months ago.  
	"Wearing his bands and gown, I sought to honor him," she explained.
	Khoo hopes the center will become a place where writers, cartoonists,
composers, artists, pastors, what she calls "spiritual formators" will come to
explore Methodism's Wesleyan roots and translate them to ordinary people.  
	Initial funding has come from individuals and charities all over the world,
including Korea, Japan, Africa, France, and the United States. So far,
$274,400 of the initial $429,000 needed to get the center up and running has
been raised.
	Through the efforts of the Revs. James White and S.T. Kimbrough, board
executives, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries will guarantee the
salary of the center's part-time director and provide additional funding for
operational expenses over the next three years.
	However, an additional $429,000 is needed to get the Charles Wesley Heritage
Center on the solid financial footing.  
	The Rev. John Newton, warden at the New Room, said currently the heritage
rooms are only partially furnished and individuals are just beginning to show
interest in sponsoring items of furniture for the music room, parlor and other
parts of the house.  	In cooperation with the New Room and the center, the
Rev. David Rice, City Center minister for Bristol, will have offices next door
at No. 5, ensuring a very specific local mission outreach related to the new
center.
	This dimension of the project pleases Collinson who believes Charles Wesley's
hymns have a strong mission base to them.
      "Both the Wesleys had an appreciation of the global Christ in a global
world," he said. "In a world such as ours they would have been at home."
	The official opening of the Charles Wesley Heritage Center  took place Sept.
15. Beginning in April 1998, it will be open every Saturday.  Until that time
those wishing to visit the center should write to: The Charles Wesley Heritage
Center, 5, Charles Street, Bristol BS1 3NN, United Kingdom. The e-mail address
is 113341.1000@compuserve.com. 
#  #  #
	* LaCamera is a correspondent for United Methodist News Service living in
England.	

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