Usually whenever I hear "Epworth," it's always in the context of Epworth Forest, one of the 7 campsites for the Indiana Conference Outdoor Ministry - the place where I felt my call to ministry... Where many other pastors and Bishop Coyner felt their calls to ministry. Today, I visited Epworth, where John and Charles Wesley grew up.
Epworth was an isolated place for the most part. It was hard to get to due to heavy flooding. All the towns in that area of the country are up on hills, and when all of the rains came they were all on their own islands. In a very real way, Epworth was in a similar situation to the hollers in the mountains of Kentucky (as far as isolation is concerned). The people were generally not well educated, poverty was certainly not uncommon and a lot of crime (theft particularly) was hard to combat because the king was unable to send in his soldiers to help enforce the law. This isolation was such an issue that one of the Kings actually hired a Swiss architect to come in and design a drainage system for the whole area so that Epworth and the other towns like it would be accessible. This drainage system is still in effect today.
Politically speaking, the citizens of Epworth were not pro-King. Then here comes Samuel Wesley in 1696 to be the Pastor at St. Andrew's Parish Church - who was well educated and very much pro-King being a Torie. Samuel didn't make very many friends in Epworth it seems... On at least 2 separate occasions the towns people set fire to the rectory (parsonage) as a way to send the message, "Get out of town!" The second burning of the refectory that happened, John Wesley had not gotten out of the house with the rest of the family. As the townspeople and Wesley family looked up, they saw 5 year old John at the window on the second story. There is a painting that depicts the townspeople building a human ladder, grabbing John Wesley out of the fire just before the thatched roof caved in. Susanna Wesley would hence refer to John as her "Brand plucked from the fire," an image that John would later use in his sermons to describe God's grace in our lives saving us from destruction.
Susanna Wesley had a major impact on John's life, really showing him how women can be great pastors and spiritual mentors. Likely because of her influence in his life he was a strong supporter of women in ministry. Unfortunately, that did not stick around in the Methodist movement following his death; within 10 years of his death, the movement had restricted women from preaching or being in positions of leadership (an unfortunately unbiblical reading of the Scriptures driven primarily by patriarchal structures of society).
It seems like a decent sized enough off a home until you at stop and realize that Samuel and Susanna Wesley had 10 children... In one of the rooms, we saw a life sized was statute of John Wesley which was made by Madame Tussaud.
The home that stands today is in the process of being renovated back to what it originally looked like. Until the 1950s, the home was still being used as a rectory for St. Andrew's Parish Church, so one can see the various updates to the building - particularly the fireplaces having been updated.
Following the rectory we headed down to Wesley Memorial Methodist Church in Epworth where the ladies of the church served us a wonderful lunch. We were able to see the communion table where Samuel Wesley served communion on (St. Andrews had given it to the Methodist Church some time ago). After that we headed to St. Andrew's Parish Church - the beautiful church is at least 900 years old - and on that site, the place of worship For closer to 1200 years! This is where Samuel Wesley is buried.
After looking around Epworth a little while (a small town about half the size of Sullivan, IN, where I am serving; a city of only 4,200) we got back on the coach to head back to Sarum College. At the time of writing this, we have been on this coach for about 6 hours. A lot of beautiful country side and conversations with my fellow pilgrims have helped time to go by, however. We even went ahead and did our evening prayer service on the coach which was a change of pace.
It's been a good day - a bit more relaxed than some of the previous days. It's been especially good considering that it's helped to flesh out the Wesley brothers' background and possibly helped to explain why they stood for what they stood for.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment