wfn.org | At the roots of Methodism: Wesley landmarks abound in London

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June 8, 1999  News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{320}

NOTE:  This is a regular feature on Methodist history by John Singleton
especially for distribution by United Methodist News Service.

By John Singleton*

With the offices of the British Methodist Recorder newspaper situated in the
heart of John Wesley's London, it is easy for those of us who work there to
lapse into complacency about the roots of Methodism, which are all around
us.

Wesley's Chapel, opened by the founder of Methodism in 1778 and now a place
of pilgrimage by Methodists from all over the world, is only a few minutes'
walk away. And Aldersgate Street, where Wesley had his heart-warming
experience in 1738, is a block that I walk along at least twice a day.

But there are many other lesser-known sites in the area that are also of
historical interest. These include the very road on which the Recorder
stands, Golden Lane. It was here that the first Methodist Sunday school in
London was opened in 1798, seven years after Wesley's death. The premises
were at 74 Golden Lane, only a short distance from the Recorder's current
address of 122.

Today, the area is a mixture of skyscraper apartments, public housing,
street markets, offices and busy traffic. And dominating the skyline is the
Barbican Centre, a huge arts, leisure and residential complex of
international significance. But in Wesley's day, this was said to be an area
riddled with moral and physical decadence. He once concluded that there was
probably no part of London "more deeply sunk, where all is low, none more
degraded, where all is vile - than Golden Lane." It was essentially a maze
of courts, foul-smelling alleys and "inferior places of abode."

How appropriate, therefore, that shortly after Wesley's death, it should be
in this area - at his former house in City Road - that a number of his
friends and colleagues from the Methodist society at Wesley's Chapel should
adopt a plan for the "establishment and support of Sunday schools in the
metropolis." They moved swiftly, for within a matter of weeks of its
adoption, some "suitable premises" had been found in Golden Lane.

In 1798, the attention of the neighborhood was aroused with placards headed,
"Good news for the poor!" In the first month of opening, 110 children were
admitted to the Sunday school. Within a year, 316 scholars were on the
books, and two years later, 600 scholars were fully admitted. For 21 years,
before it moved to another site to the rear of nearby St. Luke's church, the
Golden Lane Sunday school flourished here, a living example of Wesley's
injunction to go "not only where you are needed, but where you are needed
most."

But it is May 24 - Wesley Day, the anniversary of Wesley's crucial
heart-warming experience - that brings home to Methodists who live and work
in this part of London the proximity of the roots of Methodism.

This year, as always, the celebrations started with midday holy communion at
Wesley's Chapel, followed by a service of evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral.
Wesley visited St. Paul's on the afternoon of May 24 when he heard the
anthem, "Out of the Deep Have I Cried Unto Thee." It was here that he
regularly took communion (and also complained that a "considerable part of
the congregation are asleep") and where he went to hear "Mr. Handel's
'Messiah.'"

Following this year's commemorative service, flowers were laid at Wesley's
statue in St. Paul's churchyard, and later, at 7:30 p.m., the focus moved to
nearby Nettleton Court and the "Flame Memorial," which tells of Wesley's
conversion experience and stands near the spot on Aldersgate Street where it
happened. With the voices of the Charles Wesley Hymn Choir rending the night
air, worship moved toward that crucial time of a quarter to 9, when John
Wesley had felt his heart "strangely warmed," having gone "very unwillingly"
to that society in Aldersgate Street.

The time is marked every year by the ringing of a bell at nearby St.
Botolph's church, where a plaque can also be seen on the wall and where
there is a window portraying Wesley's field-preaching in Moorfields.
Following the ringing of the bell and a short silence, the relevant section
from Wesley's journal is read. It is a powerful experience to be there.

# # #

*Singleton is assistant editor of the weekly Methodist Recorder in London.
He can be contacted by e-mail at editorial@methodistrecorder.co.uk.

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