JOHN WESLEY’S SAVANNAH MISSION AND THE ROOTS OF METHODISM Wesley Hutchins
John Wesley is known for his role in founding and being a leader of the Methodist movement, alongside George Whitefield and his brother Charles, which today claims approximately 80 million adherents. However, before Methodism became an independent religious force, it was a movement within the Church of England and John Wesley was an Anglican priest who had been educated at Oxford, where he also lectured and organized the Holy Club with his brother Charles. Dedicated to the pursuit of a devout Christian life, members of the club engaged in daily prayer, communion, and biblical readings, along with fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays. They also visited prisoners, as well as preached, educated, and relieved debtors, and cared for the sick. The methodical way in which they carried out their practices gained them the nickname “methodist”, and Wesley himself referred to the name in a letter, whilst a published pamphlet described the group as the “Oxford Methodists”. The turning point in Wesley’s life, which led to Methodism taking root into what is today, was probably when
he was invited by General James Edward Oglethorpe to become rector of the new Anglican parish in the colony he had recently founded in Savannah, Georgia. He became a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and, along with his brother Charles, joined Oglethorpe on his second voyage to Savannah in 1735. During the journey, Wesley came into contact with a group of Moravian Christians, whose sense of piety and inner spiritual strength made an impression on him, especially when other passengers panicked during a storm which had broken a mast off of the ship, but they calmly sang and prayed. Upon arriving in Georgia on February 6, 1736 – almost three years to the day of its founding by Oglethorpe – Wesley led his fellow passengers in a prayer of Thanksgiving on what is now Cockspur Island. About a month later on March 7th, he conducted his first formal church service and preached his sermon at the site now occupied by the US Customs House at the corner of Bay and Bull streets. Even though a lot was set aside for a church in Oglethorpe’s planned city, Wesley con-
Fellowship & Fairydust
97
