John and Charles Wesley: Anglicans with Kindled Hearts
On March 3rd, we celebrate the feast of John and Charles Wesley, two Anglican priests credited as the founders of Methodism, but whose lifelong loyalties lay with the Church of England, from which they never formally left. The Anglican Church in North America recognizes them as “Reformers of the Church” (2019 Book of Common Prayer, page 694). As such, we remember them with the following collect:
O God, by your grace your servants John and Charles Wesley, kindled by the flame of your love, became burning and shining lights in your Church, turning pride into humility and error into truth: Grant that we may be set aflame with the same spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
“Of A Reformer of the Church,” 2019 Book of Common Prayer, page 639
This collect, which is universal for all reformers on the Church Calendar, providentially encapsulates the lives of the Wesley brothers. John was the older brother and natural leader whom Charles looked up to, who co-founded and led the Oxford Holy Club during his university years. As fervent adherents of the Book of Common Prayer, they received ridicule from fellow students and curious outsiders and were members of the “Holy Club.” However, the name that we remember them by is “Methodists,” due to their methodical devotion to receiving Holy Communion regularly, fasting, reading and discussing Scriptures, and keeping the Daily Office.
Sponsored
We may find the mocking and derision the Wesley brothers and early Methodists received surprising, but the Church of England and the nation as a whole were devoid of Christian spirituality. It was a time in which bishops, priests, and average laymen were more given to deism than the Creeds, questioned the veracity of Scripture, and embodied the zeitgeist of so-called “Enlightenment” thinking and Latitudinarianism. England was spiritually bankrupt.
Meet the Wesleys
Enter the Wesley brothers and their small band of young men seeking to live the Prayer Book life. Nevertheless, no matter how much they tried, both John and Charles felt a distance in their faith. Despite their ordinations to the priesthood in 1728 and 1735, respectively, and both serving as Society for the Propagation of the Gospel missionaries to Georgia, they still wrestled with their own faith and relationship with the Lord. Their missionary trip to Georgia was less than successful, but during the trip, both men witnessed the strong faith of Moravians who shared the perilous trans-Atlantic journey with them. During a tremendous and frightful storm, the brothers were struck by the Moravians’ calm presence, steadfast faith, and hymn-singing, unfazed by the storm.
A Heart Strangely Warmed
After a subpar, unsuccessful ministry in Georgia, John Wesley returned to England and attended Moravian meetings, where he received encouragement from Peter Boehler to “preach faith until you have it.” On May 24, 1738, John was forever changed at a Moravian meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, when he heard a reading from Martin Luther’s classic preface to Romans. John described Luther’s words about God changing the heart through faith in Christ as rendering his “heart strangely warmed.” As he records in his journal:
I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.
A Hymnist Reborn
Little did John know that younger brother Charles had a similar evangelical change of heart just three days before John’s own experience. One year later, Charles would mark this renewal of faith by authoring O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing. This poem was one of over 5,000—yes, five thousand—poems and hymns that Charles would author. By the grace of God, Charles would deliver to English-speaking Christians, from Anglicans to Methodists to Baptists and Presbyterians, such classics as:
- And Can It Be that I Should Gain
- Christ the Lord is Risen Today
- Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
- Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending
- Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
After their spiritual renewal and assurance of faith in Christ, the Wesley brothers encountered difficulty, as many within the Church of England did not share their revived and enthusiastic faith. The brothers and early Methodists could not find a pulpit to preach in, as doors quite literally closed to them. This did not deter early Methodists, as famous evangelist George Whitefield (a member of the Holy Club and famous Calvinist Methodist) began preaching outdoors. Whitefield’s preaching to miners in the fields and invitation to John to do the same led John in 1739 to do the same.
John did not especially favor open-air preaching, for he was a loyal son of the prayerbook and its prescribed order. Nevertheless, he did see that they were able to reach many Englishmen who otherwise would never have hearkened to the door of the local parish.
The Spread of Methodism
Methodist societies quickly spread across England. These societies were not alternatives to local parish ministries but rather attempts to support, enrich, and revive them. Unfortunately, local rectors did not typically share the same view that these “Methodists” were little more than troublemakers in their eyes.
Methodists, including the Wesley brothers, were at times subject to persecution and dangerous mobs after organizing Methodist societies. Eventually, the Methodists’ growth led John to build chapels and meeting houses. Methodism was quickly growing into more than a movement, with preaching-houses that were all but churches unto themselves.
The Methodists Organize
In 1744, John and Charles organized the first Methodist conference, often recognized as the beginning of the Methodist church. The Methodists organized as small classes, bound together in bands, and came together as local societies served by circuit preachers. These societies met together quarterly and held yearly conferences. Notably, the language for these groupings was carefully chosen. Terminology such as “parish” and “diocese” was omitted because, even at this time, the Wesley brothers considered themselves faithful Anglicans merely trying to live out their ordination vows in the midst of a hostile Church of England. Most denominations have inherited “cell groups,” “small groups,” and a host of other weekly gatherings of the saints inspired by Methodist class meetings.
By 1784, a year after the end of the Revolutionary War, the newly independent American states were still without a bishop to oversee the former Church of England parishes. John Wesley thought that waiting a year after the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War, was more than enough time for the Church of England to send a bishop to the United States. John took matters into his own hands (Samuel Seabury would be consecrated a bishop in late 1784, and William White and Samuel Provoost consecrated as bishops in 1787).
Methodism in the United States
Much to the alarm, if not horror, of his brother Charles, John claimed to ordain Thomas Coke as the “superintendent” of the Methodists in the United States. Coke was also a priest in the Church of England and would go on to ordain Francis Asbury as a fellow “superintendent” in the States. Coke and Francis would abandon John’s caution to refrain from referring to themselves as bishops once they arrived in the States, against John’s objections.
Methodism would grow, especially in the United States, where circuit-riding preachers were very adaptable to the harsh life of frontier living. Regrettably, even after the formation of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church (the original American Methodist church), and the Anglican branch were unable to find acceptable terms for union and reconciliation. Fortunately, the Global Methodist Church and ACNA have engaged in ecumenical discussions.
The Wesleys and Anglicans Today
The legacy of the Wesley brothers and Anglicanism is a vibrant inspiration for living faithfully to Christ’s call in trying times. While most Anglicans will agree with Charles and think his brother John went too far in commissioning superintendents to North America, what we can learn from them is a devotion to the treasures of the Anglican way, namely, living out the evangelical call for conversion, regular and faithful reception of the sacraments, and attention towards caring for and relieving the needy. The Wesley brothers, Holy Club members, and Methodists became known for helping the poor, caring for widows, opening orphanages, and visiting prisoners, especially those on death row.
Songs to Learn and Live By
Charles’ gift for putting theology into song infiltrated not only the Methodist movement but catechizes children and adults alike to this day. We could craft volumes of hymnals from his work alone. Every Christmas, Easter, and all seasons in between, countless hymns ring out that every Christian considers “essential,” having flowed from the gifted pen and mind of Charles Wesley.
We have much to thank Charles for rooting the following language in the hearts and minds of all English-speaking Christians, such as:
- Come, Thou long-expected Jesus /Born to set Thy people free /from our fears and sins release us, /let us find our rest in thee.
- And can it be that I should gain / An int’rest in the Savior’s blood? / Died He for me, who caused His pain? / For me, who Him to death pursued?
- O for a thousand tongues to sing / my great Redeemer’s praise, / the glories of my God and King, / the triumphs of his grace!
- Amazing love! How can it be / That Thou, my God, should die for me?
- Hark! the herald angels sing, / “Glory to the newborn King: / peace on earth, and mercy mild, / God and sinners reconciled!”
The Best of Methodism is Anglicanism
John’s initial struggle with open-air preaching serves as a humble reminder to us today—we must go where the lost sheep are and then bring them into the fold of the Church. Though their fervor and zeal led to the creation of a separate movement and denomination, we can find the best of Methodism through faithfully living and sharing the riches of Anglicanism. For example, John Wesley remarked:
I believe there is no liturgy in the world, either in ancient or modern language, which breathes more of a solid, scriptural, rational Piety, than the Common Prayer of the Church of England.
Indeed, John’s affection for the classic 1662 Book of Common Prayer led to his abridgement of the Prayer Book for use in North America. Furthermore, before the American adoption and revision of the Articles of Religion for the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States in 1801, John adapted the Thirty-Nine Articles into the Twenty-Five Articles for Methodists in the American Republic. This shows John’s reverence and respect for two of our formularies in the Anglican Church in North America and the Global Anglican Church.
The Wesleys and Global Anglicanism
Further, we can learn from the Wesley brothers that one may remain a loyal son of Anglicanism while working to revive and reform it. I suspect they would be sympathetic to the work being done by GAFCON, the GSFA, and all adherents of the Jerusalem Declaration throughout Global Anglicanism. Charles Wesley, the author of two out of the “Four Great Anglican Hymns” (compiled by the Rev. James King), remarked near his life’s end:
I have lived and I die in the communion of the Church of England, and I will be buried in the churchyard of my parish church.
Would it be a badge of honor for all loyal sons and daughters of Anglicanism to be methodical in our loyalty to Christ and known for a rigorous devotion in our pursuit of holiness through the Holy Spirit? May we endeavor to be devoted to the Gospel, faithful to Holy Scripture, and keepers of the catholic tradition, as we have received it in the ACNA and the wider Global Anglican Church. Or, as the Jerusalem Statement puts it:
The doctrine of the Church is grounded in the Holy Scriptures and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular, such doctrine is to be found in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal. We intend to remain faithful to this standard, and we call on others in the Communion to reaffirm and return to it.
Image: Charles and John Wesley stained glass (Memorial Chapel, Lake Junaluska, NC). Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
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