Nellie and I got to spend a couple of days in London on our way to South Africa. We learned a lot about our Methodist roots in visiting and worshiping with the fine folks at Wesley's Chapel on Sunday, July 31, 2011. The church was packed and with people of all shapes and colors. Noticeable is the number of Africans that are now a part of the church. There was an American community choir made up of all faiths that sang; the senior pastor baptized his grandson (actually he played the grandpa role and let his associate do the actual baptism), and there was a Commendation for the soul of a young man brutally murdered earlier that week. The young man was African and his family was there all wearing the same garments, both women and men.
We toured the house after refreshments. It seems to be a Methodist tradition that the South Africans have learned and come to love - that of immediately after worship of serving tea, coffee and pastries. Everyone is welcome and invited and we may have been the strange ones in not taking part in eating. We walked down to the museum and toured it and guess-timating the time of the tour joined the tour upstairs. The chapel itself is a marvel of architecture. The main beams holding the structure were once ship masts that were donated to the building effort. These have long been replaced with modern support beams and the original ship masts now take up a place near the entrance of the chapel. The pews are solid and built with dividers that keep each row from being one long row and the most interesting thing about each pew is that at the end of each near the aisle there is a slat that slides out as needed to provide yet another seat for an overflow crowd. Amazing!
Wesley's house is considered a Level 1 home. That is to say it was among that period's most beautiful and strongly made. The woman giving us the tour stressed that at no time did John Wesley live alone in that house. There were usually at least 36 or so that lived there at any one time. Among these were visits by his brother and sisters, lay preachers of the Methodist movement, those who had lost their homes and needed a place to stay, etc. Everyone was literally welcomed and cared for in his home. There was however, a rule; if you stay the night you had to be at 5:30 a.m. worship led by John himself in the Chapel. No exceptions! Most were very thankful to be housed there and to be in the presence of Mister Wesley so they were there. There was one who had the most trouble getting up. The tour guide asked us who it might be. I wanted to answer Charles Wesley, thinking the younger brother would think he was exempt from being there, but it turns out, of course, that when Charles was there he was the organist. The rascal? Mister Thomas Coke. Yes, one of the original American superintendents, later known as bishop Thomas Coke, the Coke of Cokesbury fame. That made me chuckle and this morning I awoke thinking about Rev. Coke. I don't know his age, for he lived a long time and he worked very hard. He crossed the "pond" between England and American some 18 times and that was no small feat. He then turned his ministry towards India and other parts and it was on one of those voyages that he died and his remains were buried at sea. When the Revolutionary War broke out Thomas Coke returned to England. He did return during the war but returned again to Great Britain.
The 'Sbury in Cokesbury was for young Francis Asbury, who, unlike Thomas Coke, was not a part of the Church of England. Thomas Coke left his ministry as a part of the established church to work under the supervision of John Wesley. Francis, on the other hand, was ordained by John Wesley at the age of 24 and sent to America with Rev. Coke, to be a superintendent as well over the work among the Methodists in America. It was Rev. Asbury that first called himself Bishop to distinguish himself as supervisor over this important work. Rev. Asbury stayed in America during the war and moved amongst those fighting and those caught in the middle of the fighting, preaching and praying, and being the church while this war raged on. When it was over and the new nation of the United States was formed, it was Francis Asbury that called upon the newly-elected President, Mr. George Washington, to pray for him and for the country; a tradition that continued for many years (and may still be in effect) through the visit and prayer by several United Methodist Bishops with newly-elected Presidents.
Two different men, with two different and fruitful ministries. It was said about both of them that they had a zeal for the Lord and the Lord's work. Both were open to the leading of God and they served in different places and served as leaders in each setting, doing what they could for the good of the Lord.
May it be said of you and me, that we too, never lost our zeal for the Lord and that we were open to the Lord's leading to different places as leaders; bold to take charge and lead the way to bigger and better things for the people of God!
