We had our first of four classes on the Wesleys tonight.
John Wesley was born in 1703 and died in 1791.
Organized Christianity came to British Isles in the sixth century (500s) with Augustine of Canterbury. There is a history of contention between the monarchy and the church (Catholic) about who had the real leadership in the church. So there was a great deal of back and forth between the monarchy and the Pope for authority and this went on for many, many years. An anti-papal sentiment rose up. Henry VIII separates from Catholicism and the Pope. He separates because he wants to divorce his wife and Catholicism would not allow for that. The monarch became head of the church. Church services began being conducted in English instead of Latin. However, the church remained basically Catholic in nature but without the Pope.
Thomas Cranmer wrote the Book of Common Prayer which is still used today and we Methodists use also at times in some of our services (or prayers coming from there).
Mary I was Catholic and had divisions with Elizabeth I, her sister. Her nickname was Bloody Mary and she tried to get rid of Protestantism in order to return England to Catholicism. She had important Protestant clergy arrested including Thomas Cranmer and she had 287 Protestants slain which earned her the nickname, Bloody Mary. After Mary, Elizabeth I came to the throne. She was not that religious and wanted peace in her church. She was herself a Protestant and Protestants, who had been exiled during Mary's reign, came back to England. Elizabeth tries to take a middle road to keep the peace. She said she was not prepared to "open windows into men's souls" and ended the bloody imposition of orthodoxy. Then came James I and Charles I who were both of a more Catholic thinking. (Charles I was beheaded). Then there was no monarch and Oliver Cromwell led for a while. After this, England went back to a monarchy and Charles II came to the throne, then James II, both of whom also had Catholic leanings. By this time, the people had gotten fed up with all this back and forth and wanted to be left alone about religion.
English people had to pledge their loyalty to the Church of England and everyone is born into a parish whether they go to church or not. This continues to this day.
In 1688, William and Mary came to the throne. The Glorious Revolution occurred, called that due to its being a peaceful revolution. Many, many people thought William and Mary were pretenders to the throne and did not recognize their authority.
In Epworth, the Wesleys had a non-conformist background. Samuel (John and Charles' father) was rector at St. Andrews. Samuel thought William and Mary were rightful authorities on the throne. Susanna, his wife, did not think they should have authority. This caused a rift in their relationship and Samuel went away. Susanna is, by the way, known as the mother of Methodism.
Then Ann came to the throne and both Samuel and Susannah thought she belonged there. Samuel and Susannah were reconciled after this.
John was born into a family of girls and until Charles came along, he was the only boy. Susannah made sure her daughters were educated in knowledge and in religion. Susannah herself began conducting services when her husband was out of town and Samuel criticized her for doing that.
There was a fire in the Wesley home and Susannah wrote of it and of the drama of trying to save everyone in the household from succumbing to the fire. John Wesley was 5 years old at the time and was rescued. This made a deep impression on the young boy and he regarded himself as saved for a reason as a "brand plucked from the burning."
At 12, John goes to school in London and then goes from there to Oxford. This is the first big phase of his life and of the Methodist movement. He reads lots of pious literature such as Imitation of Christ and Practice of True Devotion. These readings had rules for living and a search for holiness in common.
About this time Charles meets William Morgan and plans to meet with him on a regular basis on how to be holy. John gets involved and they form what they call the "Holy Club."
Second Phase of the rise of Methodism is when John and Charles go to Georgia. Prior to this, John went to be an Associate Minister with his father. His father dies. John gets invited to go to Georgia and since his father had dreamed of going to Georgia on missionary work to convert Native Americans, John felt this was the thing to do. On the way over, John was impressed by how calm the Moravians remained even when being tossed and turned in heavy storms. John was himself scared and wondered if he was assured as the Moravians said they were assured and this kept them from being afraid.
Charles went to St. Simons Island and John to Savannah. He formed the Savannah Society and met Sophie Hopkey. They were together a long while and Sophie wanted to marry. John literally draws straws to decide whether to marry her and he gets the straw that says they should wait a year. Sophie doesn't wait and marries someone else. He withholds communion from her and is sued by Sophie's husband, Mr. Williamson. He defends himself and says he does this because of her neglect of public service, her neglect of fasting, her neglect of communicating and because she had wrongfully told him she was no longer inclined for Mr. Mellichamp although she was inclined toward him. He said she had also told him she had no desire to marry Mr. Williamson when she knew she did. And she had deliberately lied to him about Mr. Mellichamp and Mr. Williamson. He goes on to say "O how fallen! How changed! Surely there was a time when in Miss Sophy's lips there was no guile..."
He returns to London and the third phase of the rise of Methodism begins . At Aldersgate, he wants people to follow the rules. He meets Peter Bohler who tells him to "Preach faith until you have it and because you preach it, you will have it." He had begun to notice that his faith fluctuated and grew over time. He wrote "In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, 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."
He becomes very involved with the Moravians, visits their homelands, and sees how organized they are. He thinks there might be degrees of faith and came up with the notion that faith grows over time and also waxes and wanes throughout life.
He meets George Whitfield in Bristol an the revival begins. Gwennap Pit in Cornwall was a great place to preach. People are wary of him but at the same time, people came to hear him preach. In Bristol, he builds the New Room. There are Societies, Classes, and Bands. He takes over a Foundry in London for meetings of these societies. The Classes were asked to help pay for expenses. (Classes were made up of men and women so they were co-ed.) Those richer paid more than those who were poorer. Bands were separated between groups of men and groups of women (they were not co-ed). Bands kept everyone accountable.
Rules of Society were categorized into the three simple rules: (1) Do no harm, (2) Do good, and (3) Stay in love with God. Wesley details specifics on what to do or not do for each of these rules (pages 73 and 74 of tonight's handout).
Some believed if not moved to do something, then wait for the spirit to move you. Wesley says, do something.
The group around Wesley was called Methodist in Oxford but it was not a formal church. Wesley holds things together in the middle. Wesley refutes the "only by faith" idea by saying works are important too.
In his life, Wesley traveled all over the country. People were not fans of his fanaticism. He goes to Epworth and is not allowed to preach in church. He goes out to his father's grave and preaches there. He got thrown out of town for being too enthusiastic about his faith or so people thought. There were lots of evangelicals around during Wesley's time but Wesley had such great organization skills that he was more successful.
Methodist organization:
Preaching and Conferencing - teaches how, what, etc.
Education - Kingswood School
Publishing - Christian library, notes, sermons
Foundry in London
Francis Asbury sent to the colonies to evangelize. Most missionaries were leaving the colonies and Asbury noted that communion was unavailable to the people due to lack of ordained clergy. Wesley decided to ordain Thomas Coke himself. Charles never forgave John for this as he said only bishops can ordain. Charles in buried in church graveyard. John was buried outside church graveyard.
John did marry and it was an unhappy marriage with no children. Charles married happily.
For next week, we were given a sermon to read and we will discuss in class and also a sermon for the week following. Next week's sermon is "The Scripture Way of Salvation" and the week after's is "The Means of Grace." Neither is meant to be a spoken sermon but was written for the purpose of being read.
1/25/10
2010.01.25
Big day in a way. Went to exercise class where teacher recommended something called Biofreeze for sore hip joints/muscles. I ordered a small bottle from Amazon but I need it NOW.
Then, we went to a dentist office I had found that is in a DMO I would like to join. They accepted me right away as a new patient and I went to my old dentist and got a copy of my last ex-rays and copy of a record of my last checkup to give the new dentist. We went back there and filled out forms for them to make a file on me.
I went home and researched Aetna EPO to see if my doctors are members and all of the ones I have used in the last year and a half are. I think the EPO is more trouble to use than the PPO but it has a less expensive premium and appears to have wide doctor choices in it. We will just have to check out the doctor's membership before getting treatment each time.
Then I called about some new leaks in my ceiling. Rick says he has already told the roofing company we are calling in our warranty and want a new roof installed on the building I am in and on a couple of other buildings in the complex. No timetable yet but he knows there is damage in my place that he says will be fixed once the new roof is on.
I called the bank and asked about when I could/should sign up for these new benefits. Basically, I should do it soon in order to get new cards, etc. but I have an absolute deadline of 3/31. If I went into March, they would grant the coverage retroactively and I think that would be a bit more difficult if I had a claim before I had chosen the coverage. Anyway, I plan to go ahead and register my picks next week sometime. I can't sign up until after Jan 30, I was told.
Then, this evening, we went to a class on John Wesley at church this evening. It was a history of his life and a really interesting class I thought.
Pretty productive day, I think. I got a lot done that I have had on my mind for some time. It will take some time to complete it all but I am further along than I thought I would be at this juncture.
Then, we went to a dentist office I had found that is in a DMO I would like to join. They accepted me right away as a new patient and I went to my old dentist and got a copy of my last ex-rays and copy of a record of my last checkup to give the new dentist. We went back there and filled out forms for them to make a file on me.
I went home and researched Aetna EPO to see if my doctors are members and all of the ones I have used in the last year and a half are. I think the EPO is more trouble to use than the PPO but it has a less expensive premium and appears to have wide doctor choices in it. We will just have to check out the doctor's membership before getting treatment each time.
Then I called about some new leaks in my ceiling. Rick says he has already told the roofing company we are calling in our warranty and want a new roof installed on the building I am in and on a couple of other buildings in the complex. No timetable yet but he knows there is damage in my place that he says will be fixed once the new roof is on.
I called the bank and asked about when I could/should sign up for these new benefits. Basically, I should do it soon in order to get new cards, etc. but I have an absolute deadline of 3/31. If I went into March, they would grant the coverage retroactively and I think that would be a bit more difficult if I had a claim before I had chosen the coverage. Anyway, I plan to go ahead and register my picks next week sometime. I can't sign up until after Jan 30, I was told.
Then, this evening, we went to a class on John Wesley at church this evening. It was a history of his life and a really interesting class I thought.
Pretty productive day, I think. I got a lot done that I have had on my mind for some time. It will take some time to complete it all but I am further along than I thought I would be at this juncture.
1/10/10
2010.01.10 Sunday School Class
We had a great class this morning, January 10, 2010. It was announced that Bob Johnson is getting remarried. All are invited to his wedding in Tennessee and we shared his new address and phone number. We were all glad to see Mrs. Halpern back in class. Janie brought a guest, Betty Kirby, and introduced her to everyone.
Durward began by telling the class he and Tom Stinson are in process of taking contributions to acquire a set of Ben Witherington III's books for our church library. Since Ben, III's parents are members of our Sundy School class and he has been a speaker at our church and many other local churches, this is something he feels is important and appropriate. He needed $699 and has all but $149.10. Don Hammer added there is a new $18.95 book so that may up the total by $18.95. Barbara Barden had checked to see which books we already have in our library and which needed to be purchased to complete the set. Durward made a point of saying Don Redding had wanted the class to be offered a chance to make contributions to this effort.
Durward taught about the hymn, Amazing Grace, (published 1779 in Olney Hymns) and the class was, well......amazing. Most of the verses were written by John Newton but Stanza 6 in our hymnal is written by an anonymous person. There is also a seventh verse that we do not include in our hymnal. (I looked up the song on Wikipedia and it shows the following verse as part of the original 1779 publication but is not in our hymnal:
Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art have been the two most popular hymns throughout the years.
Again from Wikipedia, Charles Newton's father was a shipping merchant and he got his son a job on a ship as an apprentice. He was headstrong, disobedient, often sickly, and even more profane than other sailors of his day. He renounced the religion of his family until he had a conversion experience after spending time on a ship which nearly shipwrecked. Even after this experience, he took a job on a slave ship and made 3 voyages. He was then given the opportunity to move to a ship that did not deal in slaves but was too ill to take the job. Durward said he became a surveyor at this point. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1764 and began to write poems/hymns with William Cowper. They published Olney Hymns, named for the location where Newton was a curate. This book included Amazing Grace as one of its offerings.
The first time Amazing Grace was heard, it may have been chanted as no one knows what music it might have used. The hymnal showed only the words, not the music. Wikipedia says the song is associated with over 20 melodies but in 1835, it was set to the music of a song called New Britain, and this is the melody most used with the words today. The song is very popular and is used often in churches. Folk music also picked it up and, as well, it is known as an African American Spiritual. It is so popular due to its theme of God's forgiveness and mercy, a theme which came from Newton's feeling he had been redeemed by God from his life of profanity and disregard for others.
The 1960s and 1970s saw the song's words set to such music as House of the Rising Sun, an Eagles song, the "real thing" Coca-Cola ad, and many others. Durward had a singer on tape who demonstrated many of these versions. It was interesting to hear these versions and some of them were beautiful when using the words to Amazing Grace. Others took liberties beyond just setting the words to different music. The song and its title have been used numerous times by musicians on popular CDs, on tv, and in movies and there is now a movie titled, Amazing Grace.
Durward then shared his recently-authored "Upper Room" article which told about his miraculous experience with giving up smoking. He had tried many times without success and had suffered through several attempts. When his son joined the Methodist Church, he was asked by a Catholic friend what he was giving his son as a gift for the occasion. Durward told his friend it was not a tradition among Protestants to give gifts for this. However, when his son came to meet him, Durward handed him an almost-full pack of cigarettes and said he was stopping smoking as a gift to his son. He has never smoked again. Durward was overcome with emotion in the telling his story so his wife, Connie, came up and finished the story for him. She said they both consider this event as their personal miracle and gift from God.
A very touching class and one that we will remember for a long time. Thank you, Durward.
Durward began by telling the class he and Tom Stinson are in process of taking contributions to acquire a set of Ben Witherington III's books for our church library. Since Ben, III's parents are members of our Sundy School class and he has been a speaker at our church and many other local churches, this is something he feels is important and appropriate. He needed $699 and has all but $149.10. Don Hammer added there is a new $18.95 book so that may up the total by $18.95. Barbara Barden had checked to see which books we already have in our library and which needed to be purchased to complete the set. Durward made a point of saying Don Redding had wanted the class to be offered a chance to make contributions to this effort.
Durward taught about the hymn, Amazing Grace, (published 1779 in Olney Hymns) and the class was, well......amazing. Most of the verses were written by John Newton but Stanza 6 in our hymnal is written by an anonymous person. There is also a seventh verse that we do not include in our hymnal. (I looked up the song on Wikipedia and it shows the following verse as part of the original 1779 publication but is not in our hymnal:
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.)
Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art have been the two most popular hymns throughout the years.
Again from Wikipedia, Charles Newton's father was a shipping merchant and he got his son a job on a ship as an apprentice. He was headstrong, disobedient, often sickly, and even more profane than other sailors of his day. He renounced the religion of his family until he had a conversion experience after spending time on a ship which nearly shipwrecked. Even after this experience, he took a job on a slave ship and made 3 voyages. He was then given the opportunity to move to a ship that did not deal in slaves but was too ill to take the job. Durward said he became a surveyor at this point. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1764 and began to write poems/hymns with William Cowper. They published Olney Hymns, named for the location where Newton was a curate. This book included Amazing Grace as one of its offerings.
The first time Amazing Grace was heard, it may have been chanted as no one knows what music it might have used. The hymnal showed only the words, not the music. Wikipedia says the song is associated with over 20 melodies but in 1835, it was set to the music of a song called New Britain, and this is the melody most used with the words today. The song is very popular and is used often in churches. Folk music also picked it up and, as well, it is known as an African American Spiritual. It is so popular due to its theme of God's forgiveness and mercy, a theme which came from Newton's feeling he had been redeemed by God from his life of profanity and disregard for others.
The 1960s and 1970s saw the song's words set to such music as House of the Rising Sun, an Eagles song, the "real thing" Coca-Cola ad, and many others. Durward had a singer on tape who demonstrated many of these versions. It was interesting to hear these versions and some of them were beautiful when using the words to Amazing Grace. Others took liberties beyond just setting the words to different music. The song and its title have been used numerous times by musicians on popular CDs, on tv, and in movies and there is now a movie titled, Amazing Grace.
Durward then shared his recently-authored "Upper Room" article which told about his miraculous experience with giving up smoking. He had tried many times without success and had suffered through several attempts. When his son joined the Methodist Church, he was asked by a Catholic friend what he was giving his son as a gift for the occasion. Durward told his friend it was not a tradition among Protestants to give gifts for this. However, when his son came to meet him, Durward handed him an almost-full pack of cigarettes and said he was stopping smoking as a gift to his son. He has never smoked again. Durward was overcome with emotion in the telling his story so his wife, Connie, came up and finished the story for him. She said they both consider this event as their personal miracle and gift from God.
A very touching class and one that we will remember for a long time. Thank you, Durward.
1/1/10
2010.01.01 Water Park
Don and I tried to find a church to attend last night but we couldn't locate one - unless we wanted to try out Bertha's which was having a 10 to midnight service. We decided to stay quietly at home. Then this morning, Don called to surprise me with a little trip to the Whitewater Park for a walk and lunch. Although it was 30-something outside, the sun came out and it was very pleasant for walking with a jacket and sweater. We walked around the artificial lake and saw all kinds of things we can't really see in the more heavily attended months. The water was down and some of the bridges that are blocked off in the summer were open for a little extra walking. We enjoyed it and went at a good pace around it. Then we went to the restaurant and got waited on right away. They were having beef stew as their soup special today and both of us had that with a grilled cheese and tea. It was enough food for us and didn't get us overly full. We came home and Don wanted to watch football and read on his "Anatomy of a Game" book for a while so both of us have had a great day. We also uploaded our pictures into SmugMug and let the program merge his pictures and mine by filename (basically by time of day taken). Nice to have a record.
Last year this time, I was still recovering from a fall I had on Dec 29, 2008, but I think we went to the Water Park early in the year sometime as I remember walking around it in a low traffic time. Don thinks it might have been 2008 but it feels (to me) like we did it in early 2009 as well.
Bob told us about a book he was reading that is set in Crozet, Virginia and has cats as important characters. This one is "Cat's Eyewitness." Have to check that one out. Might be a fun read.
I also made reservations today to go hear the Clef Hangers on 1/23/10 at the McGlohan Theatre. We really love this acapella men's group and look forward to hearing them in a whole concert. We have heard them several times do 2 or 3 songs at places we have been but never a whole concert. Last night I heard another acapella group, the Overtones, on a tv program. They sing seven or eight songs for the movie, Invictus. I think I love men's acapella groups as I fell in love with these guys as well.
Last year this time, I was still recovering from a fall I had on Dec 29, 2008, but I think we went to the Water Park early in the year sometime as I remember walking around it in a low traffic time. Don thinks it might have been 2008 but it feels (to me) like we did it in early 2009 as well.
Bob told us about a book he was reading that is set in Crozet, Virginia and has cats as important characters. This one is "Cat's Eyewitness." Have to check that one out. Might be a fun read.
I also made reservations today to go hear the Clef Hangers on 1/23/10 at the McGlohan Theatre. We really love this acapella men's group and look forward to hearing them in a whole concert. We have heard them several times do 2 or 3 songs at places we have been but never a whole concert. Last night I heard another acapella group, the Overtones, on a tv program. They sing seven or eight songs for the movie, Invictus. I think I love men's acapella groups as I fell in love with these guys as well.
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