Words from Bede Circuit
Dear Friends
Every year within the Methodist calendar, we mark Aldersgate Sunday which falls each year on the Sunday immediately preceding 24th May (‘Wesley Day’), the day on which Methodists commemorate a life-changing moment in the Christian journey of John Wesley, the most prominent of the founders of Methodism. In May 1738, John unwillingly attended worship at a Moravian ‘Religious Society’ meeting on Aldersgate Street in London. It was during this service that he felt his "heart strangely warmed", as he experienced God's love in a most personal and life-giving way. Until then he had known God in his mind, but not in his heart. Now he understood the value of a personal experience of God that would bring assurance of salvation to the believer. Aldersgate Sunday is a great opportunity to celebrate the work of God in our lives, and to reflect on how we should respond to everything that God has given us.
Some of you will know that my father recently died. He was a man of great Christian faith, a lifelong Methodist, 87 years old and has had a profound influence upon my life and ministry. On my day off a few weeks ago, we walked together the few hundred yards from his house to his local chapel. We spent 20 minutes in the quietness of that space and, as we left Dad told me he was ready to meet his Maker. There was something in his tone of voice that told me he was serious and, as it turned out, he was right. Two hours later, following another fall, he was admitted to hospital where he eventually died on 28th April. We are still preparing for his funeral service on Monday 23rd May. I offer my deep gratitude to all who have offered prayers, cards of condolence, messages, and support to me at this difficult time.
The other day whilst sorting through some of Dad’s personal effects, I found a “Covenant Card” dated 15/10/1956 which Dad had signed after making his Christian commitment at a Billy Graham Crusade at Haringey. Without going into too much detail, as a young lad aged 6 in 1941, coping with the tragic death of his own mother, Dad had been expelled from the local Parish Church and its choir for scrumping apples from the vicarage garden, scratching his initials into the organ console (where they remain!) and covered in a white sheet, pretending to be a ghost on the porch roof as ladies from the Mother’s Union arrived for their meeting! An elderly Methodist gentleman took him under his wing, encouraged him to operate the blower on the chapel organ and stoking the boiler with coal became young Dad’s job. Dad had found his niche and eventually that journey led him to that Christian rally where his own “heart was strangely warmed”; an experience which changed the way he has lived his life and, despite my family’s sorrow, we have much to celebrate.
My prayer is that we can each use Aldersgate Sunday to consider our own commitment to Jesus Christ.
“O for a heart to praise my God, a heart from sin set free,
A heart that always feels thy blood so freely spilt for me…
Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart; come quickly from above,
Write thy new name upon my heart, thy new, best name of love.
(Charles Wesley)
Prayer meetings continue on Zoom on Wednesday mornings
With good wishes and prayers
Revd Deborah Wainwright on behalf of the Bede Circuit Staff Team