Salisbury and Winchelsea
Before leaving the beautiful town of Salisbury, we stopped in to visit the Methodist Church there. They were preparing to host a guest lecturer for the local arts council, and also receiving their Tuesday mother's day out children, so it was quite a busy hub of activity. They also open up the church daily from 10 AM to noon for tea and coffee, so there were some people taking advantage of that as well. It was good to see the church building busy and being used.
John Wesley first visited Salisbury in 1738, then purchased the plot of land where the church stands now in order to build a preaching house in 1759. The current church building was built in 1810, then enlarged in 1835 (you can see in the photo where the enlargement took place). The most recent renovation was in 1992, at which time they changed the orientation of the worship space, removed the traditional altar and pews, and hung a beautiful creation embroidery. The organ remains in the rear balcony. The place is also notable because Francis Asbury served here.
After a nice visit with the Salisbury Methodists, we hit the road for the long drive to Winchelsea, which would take us to the west coast of England. We really have made our way across the whole of England this trip... all the while imagining John Wesley doing the same on horseback. We made a lunch/toilet stop at a roadside park that was like a combination of Buc-ee's and a mall food court. Nice. I had a sausage roll and a yum yum with my diet coke. Pretty sure John Wesley didn't have this.
Upon arriving in Winchelsea, we had a bit of trouble finding the Methodist Chapel where we thought it would be, so we stopped first at the more-easily-found Parish Church.
This is the last place that John Wesley preached outdoors, under a tree. A descendant of that tree still lives there (although it recently barely survived an illness, so it's been cut back severely to help it live), and there's a sign explaining its significance. Said sign also gives directions to the Methodist Chapel, which we followed easily and found our host Barry waiting with tea, coffee and biscuits.
The chapel still contains a raised pulpit in which John Wesley preached. It was first opened as a preaching house in 1785 and has changed very little since then.
Although there are no longer regular church meetings there, the group that acts as steward tries to hold some type of event there once a month. He told us that there are no longer any Methodists living in the town (they are sure to point out that it is a town with a mayor and a council, NOT a village!) and haven't been any there in 20 years. The rest of the churches in the circuit care for and maintain the chapel, and they were happy to have some visitors come their way. He said that, although there are no Methodists, the people in the town hold the Methodists and the Wesley connection in very high regard. This was a beautiful little town... if it needs some transplant Methodists, I would be willing to raise my hand.
The trip out to Winchelsea had taken us past London, so now we headed back to London for our first of three night's stay in the city. We'll head out on a walking tour tomorrow in order to see the Wesley sites.
At dinner this evening, the Flippins, Jacksons and I talked about John Wesley's travels. David found a list of top things you might not know about John Wesley, and we did learn a couple of new things. I thought the most interesting was that he coined the term "agree to disagree." I really like that so much!
In case you're wondering, I had the crab mac and cheese for dinner. Mmmm.
John Wesley first visited Salisbury in 1738, then purchased the plot of land where the church stands now in order to build a preaching house in 1759. The current church building was built in 1810, then enlarged in 1835 (you can see in the photo where the enlargement took place). The most recent renovation was in 1992, at which time they changed the orientation of the worship space, removed the traditional altar and pews, and hung a beautiful creation embroidery. The organ remains in the rear balcony. The place is also notable because Francis Asbury served here.
After a nice visit with the Salisbury Methodists, we hit the road for the long drive to Winchelsea, which would take us to the west coast of England. We really have made our way across the whole of England this trip... all the while imagining John Wesley doing the same on horseback. We made a lunch/toilet stop at a roadside park that was like a combination of Buc-ee's and a mall food court. Nice. I had a sausage roll and a yum yum with my diet coke. Pretty sure John Wesley didn't have this.
Upon arriving in Winchelsea, we had a bit of trouble finding the Methodist Chapel where we thought it would be, so we stopped first at the more-easily-found Parish Church.
This is the last place that John Wesley preached outdoors, under a tree. A descendant of that tree still lives there (although it recently barely survived an illness, so it's been cut back severely to help it live), and there's a sign explaining its significance. Said sign also gives directions to the Methodist Chapel, which we followed easily and found our host Barry waiting with tea, coffee and biscuits.
The chapel still contains a raised pulpit in which John Wesley preached. It was first opened as a preaching house in 1785 and has changed very little since then.
Although there are no longer regular church meetings there, the group that acts as steward tries to hold some type of event there once a month. He told us that there are no longer any Methodists living in the town (they are sure to point out that it is a town with a mayor and a council, NOT a village!) and haven't been any there in 20 years. The rest of the churches in the circuit care for and maintain the chapel, and they were happy to have some visitors come their way. He said that, although there are no Methodists, the people in the town hold the Methodists and the Wesley connection in very high regard. This was a beautiful little town... if it needs some transplant Methodists, I would be willing to raise my hand.
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| Beautiful shade of iris across the street from Wesley's preaching tree... |
The trip out to Winchelsea had taken us past London, so now we headed back to London for our first of three night's stay in the city. We'll head out on a walking tour tomorrow in order to see the Wesley sites.
At dinner this evening, the Flippins, Jacksons and I talked about John Wesley's travels. David found a list of top things you might not know about John Wesley, and we did learn a couple of new things. I thought the most interesting was that he coined the term "agree to disagree." I really like that so much!
In case you're wondering, I had the crab mac and cheese for dinner. Mmmm.
Amazing! All!
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