monday may 17th began with morning worship; on a monday, april 2nd, 1739, john wesley wrote: at four in the afternoon i submitted to 'be more vile' and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about 3,000 (!) people. john preached his first open air sermon on this date, see below picture, using the text from luke 4 -- the spirit of the lord is upon me...it was the theme we used at our closing service tonight.
note the old world key that opens and closes my room! bristol, our destination for today, is a mixture of old and new, as seen in the picture to the right. heavily bombed during wwii, this community is now built over water, but was once a shipping hub and hosted a major issue dealing with slave trade. the old city is still represented by a castle (to the lower right), and a shell of a church; one of two shelled churches -- the other one below. also below you will find a ship in the harbor. a wonderful city. just an fyi; we have walked so far an average of about 15,000 steps per day.
note the old world key that opens and closes my room! bristol, our destination for today, is a mixture of old and new, as seen in the picture to the right. heavily bombed during wwii, this community is now built over water, but was once a shipping hub and hosted a major issue dealing with slave trade. the old city is still represented by a castle (to the lower right), and a shell of a church; one of two shelled churches -- the other one below. also below you will find a ship in the harbor. a wonderful city. just an fyi; we have walked so far an average of about 15,000 steps per day.
following breakfast, we head for bristol, the home of charles wesley and his family. this is the heart of the beginning of methodism, with charles helping to create the bedrock of the faithful movement. the new room, pictured above, is the meeting house where methodism came into its own. following street preaching, this building was erected within 3 months, making visible to the angelican church that methodism had arrived; the wesley's had not intended to make a church, but the angelican churches refused to serve the bread and wine to these faithful pilgrims; that is when the communion table was added, along with the communion rail in front of the two upper/lower lecturn and pulpit.the picture below shows the building as it was; bristol was a coal miner's community; a rough crowd. with the help of the holy clubs formed in oxford, and names like whitfield, asbury and coke, we find 1739 bristol the second largest trading post in england.
a funny story as to how the new room got its name; the location where they had been meeting was so filled with bodies that the floor gave way. so this was built, and became the oldest chartered building, registered in 1748. it was created as a multi-purpose room, with benches only; the pews were added by the calvinists later on. whitfield had come here to raise money for an orphanage, and invited the wesleys to come when he left; ben franklin was impressed enough to contribute!
there is a church clock in this building -- very large, so as to keep any preacher on track, having started the church service at 5 am, and allowing time to get the workers on time to their places of business.upstairs from the meeting hall is the place where john would study and sleep; the bed below was the type that the wesley parents used; a rope bed, inexpensive, covered with only a feather bed, it had to be pulled tight each night; "good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" is a response to this bed; pulltthe cords when it is time to go to bed at night, and shake out the bugs that would become attracted to the bed materials...see what you learn in europe?!
the inside of the meeting house has a lower and upper seating area. the window behind the pulpit isn't all that helpful is it, but there is also a cirrcular window in the roof infront of the preacher; rumor has it what wesley would stand at that window during services to observe the preachers when he wasn't preaching! ye-gads!
and here i am above; this is a 'photo opp' for all united methodist preachers....
john, on the ever-famous horse, is seen here on the other entrance to the new room; just to let you know; john wore longer, natural hair, and no wig; charles wore shorter hair and a wig, like his father samuel.
moving on to the family home, we begin with this picture of the stairwell looking down, from the attic room of the four story house. charles wrote up in this room; bedrooms below and a parlor on the first floor; the kitchen was in the basement. a wonderful bell announced the arrival of many guests. a small backyard was attached to the home.
here is how the house looks from the front; note that a modern building has been attached or replaced an existing structure. when wesley was living here, the river could be seen from the house.
and here is the back end of the house.
remember i told you about john wesley preaching in the open air for the first time in bristol? below is the picture of the spot; being stood upon by nearly 40 american united methodists. what a hoot, eh?
not unusual to find buildings simply gutted by the bombings of wwii. such is the case here, and modern building built around them -- sometimes nearly right on top. the picture of the gate below is symbolic of a walled city that has been given new life. bath, by the way, is very near by this community.
down the street from here is the 7 stars pub, where discussions were held about the issues of slave trade. you'll recall this discussion during the movie 'amazing grace'. methodism was never mentioned in that movie, but that song has methodist roots!
every community has a cathedral. the other churches also have a minisrty to do; some poeple like to attend worship in a location where they can be nearly invisible. of course, this is difficult for them, and for the church that is trying to survive; not only for financial reasons, but also for the sense of being connected, responsive, and visible to the ministry of god in christ. i truly believe it is very difficult to grow in faith and not be connected to a community of people who will support you in your faith development.
there is something 'awe-inspiring' as you walk into such a massive place; the voices you can't understand as people whisper to one another; the musicians who practice the organ during the week -- almost like getting a free concert. and there are so many little chapels that you can pray and not feel like anyone is walking around you.
as we leave bristol back to salisbury in heavy traffic, arriving late for dinner, the ship above is a picture i took from the bus! a neat reminder of years gone by and today and tomorrow! 
god calls us to rest; these are the pictures of salisbury cathedrial tonight. sort of like living in a magical - disney inspired world. but it is real. as i walked outside to get some fresh air, a young man was trying to get his date up off the ground. too much drink, but they did not want my help.
tomorrow is our last day here. each of our groups will present a five minute presentation on our wesley experience. our group has decided to each write a cinquain poem, five lines, that reflect what we will bring home from our experience here, and how we will continue to tell the story of how hearts are strangely warmed by god's spirit -- even in this day and age! so do log on tomorrow night to see what i've written -- it's 1 am, so i guess i better get started on that!
the inside of the meeting house has a lower and upper seating area. the window behind the pulpit isn't all that helpful is it, but there is also a cirrcular window in the roof infront of the preacher; rumor has it what wesley would stand at that window during services to observe the preachers when he wasn't preaching! ye-gads!
and here i am above; this is a 'photo opp' for all united methodist preachers....
charles wesley is forever welcoming those who enter one side of the building. he was the poet; his three children went on, not in ministry, but music.
john, on the ever-famous horse, is seen here on the other entrance to the new room; just to let you know; john wore longer, natural hair, and no wig; charles wore shorter hair and a wig, like his father samuel.
moving on to the family home, we begin with this picture of the stairwell looking down, from the attic room of the four story house. charles wrote up in this room; bedrooms below and a parlor on the first floor; the kitchen was in the basement. a wonderful bell announced the arrival of many guests. a small backyard was attached to the home.
here is how the house looks from the front; note that a modern building has been attached or replaced an existing structure. when wesley was living here, the river could be seen from the house.
and here is the back end of the house.remember i told you about john wesley preaching in the open air for the first time in bristol? below is the picture of the spot; being stood upon by nearly 40 american united methodists. what a hoot, eh?
not unusual to find buildings simply gutted by the bombings of wwii. such is the case here, and modern building built around them -- sometimes nearly right on top. the picture of the gate below is symbolic of a walled city that has been given new life. bath, by the way, is very near by this community.
down the street from here is the 7 stars pub, where discussions were held about the issues of slave trade. you'll recall this discussion during the movie 'amazing grace'. methodism was never mentioned in that movie, but that song has methodist roots!
every community has a cathedral. the other churches also have a minisrty to do; some poeple like to attend worship in a location where they can be nearly invisible. of course, this is difficult for them, and for the church that is trying to survive; not only for financial reasons, but also for the sense of being connected, responsive, and visible to the ministry of god in christ. i truly believe it is very difficult to grow in faith and not be connected to a community of people who will support you in your faith development.
there is something 'awe-inspiring' as you walk into such a massive place; the voices you can't understand as people whisper to one another; the musicians who practice the organ during the week -- almost like getting a free concert. and there are so many little chapels that you can pray and not feel like anyone is walking around you.
as we leave bristol back to salisbury in heavy traffic, arriving late for dinner, the ship above is a picture i took from the bus! a neat reminder of years gone by and today and tomorrow!so the discussion we raised today is, with bristol being the birth of a movement that has survived to this day, how do we make our faith tradition simply more than survival, but an opportunity for re-birth? do we still have a message to share, worth sharing; worth hearing? if so, how is the spirit of god in christ nuding you; inspiring you to step out in faith and be a faithful witness?
we don't have to hit people over the head with our faith, but i also believe we can't just wait for folks to come to us any longer. wesley addressed the issue of oppression and the poor; both in preaching and in music. hymns such as jesus, united by thy grace (united methodist hymnal -- umh -- #561; o come and dwell in me -- umh #388; come, thou long-expected jesus -- umh #196. how do these words speak to us today? if we were to write words in our modern verse, how would we communicate the needs and our prayerful desires? what words would we use; what image? how might our faith be expressed in mission, and not expect anything in return?
god calls us to rest; these are the pictures of salisbury cathedrial tonight. sort of like living in a magical - disney inspired world. but it is real. as i walked outside to get some fresh air, a young man was trying to get his date up off the ground. too much drink, but they did not want my help.
but i did note that while in charles wesley's home today, there were beer bottles on the fireplace mantal in the kitchen. water was terrible in the 17th century, and the consuption of beer was common. the issue for the wesley's was the social ills that come from the inability to contain ones' consumption. i saw the result of that tonight as well....
as i head back to my room to write this blog, i could not resist one more picture of a phone booth.
as i head back to my room to write this blog, i could not resist one more picture of a phone booth.
tomorrow is our last day here. each of our groups will present a five minute presentation on our wesley experience. our group has decided to each write a cinquain poem, five lines, that reflect what we will bring home from our experience here, and how we will continue to tell the story of how hearts are strangely warmed by god's spirit -- even in this day and age! so do log on tomorrow night to see what i've written -- it's 1 am, so i guess i better get started on that!
who ever said this was a vacation? a rich experience, but i'll really need to come home to rest up!
cheerio! pj
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