Locally Distinctive Unit 9 KS2
John Wesley the New Rooms and Hanham Mount
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John Wesley (1703–1791), Riding a Horse Whilst Reading a Book
by Richard Gilmore Douglas
John Wesley Time Line
John Wesley’s Life1703 -1791
John Wesley’s Life 1703 - 1791
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Life and times of John Wesley
What life was like? / The differences that John Wesley made. / Would the differences that John made, make today’s world/church better?There was a big gap between the rich and the poor and the Church of England at the time did not preach to the poor. / John Wesley went out and preached to the poor and many heard his words and joined “societies”.
Only priests did the preaching in the Church of England at that time. Women did not preach. / Ordinary non-priests or “lay” people , including women were sent out by John Wesley to preach.
The church had very classical traditional music that required you to be able to read to sing. / John introduced catchy songs for the time with memorable words (many were written by his brother Charles Wesley).
Many people were addicted to alcohol which helped to keep them poor and in misery. / John saw that this ruined people’s life and called them to “abstinence” – giving up all alcohol. He asked them to ask for God’s grace to help them live a holy, disciplined and controlled life.
The Church of England only preached to people in the churches. / John and his followers went into the fields, outside the factories and mines and preached to people where they were.
The Church at that time only used words that ordinary uneducated people could not understand. / John Wesley used words that ordinary people could understand; he used “plain words for plain people”.
Many people had very low paid jobs in awful conditions with no benefits and often children were put to work. / He spoke to these people, organised them into societies where they could pray together, support each other and encourage each other to transform their lives with discipline through God’s power in the Holy Spirit.
Slavery existed and many within the Church of England supported it. / John Wesley spoke out against slavery and campaigned for it to come to an end he described it as “villainy which is the scandal of religion”
Life and times of John Wesley
What life was like? / The differences that John Wesley made. / Was that a good thing to do? Why do you think so?Poor people were very poor and the rich people were rich. / John Wesley went out and preached to the poor and told them that God loved them.
The church had very old fashioned music. / John introduced catchy songs that people could easily learn.
Many people drank too much alcohol and it was not making them happy. / He asked people to give up drinking alcohol and said that God would help them to do that.
The Church of England only told people about God in the churches. / John went into the fields, and told people about God’s love where they were.
The Church used big long difficult words. / John Wesley used words that everyone could understand.
Many people had horrible low paid jobs and often children had to work. / He helped these people to have hope with God, the support of friends and helped them to improve their lives.
Slavery was used to force people from Africa to work for nothing in America and the Caribbean. / John Wesley was against this and spoke out to try to get it stopped.
Hanham Mount
Hanham Mount is a World Methodist Heritage Site visited by pilgrims from many countries. It is a sacred place for many Christians and is known about by Methodists all over the world who may not even have heard of Bristol.
When we think of Holy Places we usually think of buildings like Cathedrals, Churches, Temples. Mosques and Synagogues. So why is Hanham Mount is so special? The fact that it is just an open space is the key to its importance because it was here that in the 1700s a Church of England clergyman called John Wesley began preaching in the open air and began what became knows as ‘Field Preaching’.
In the 1700s Hanham was very different to how it is today. It is still outside the City of Bristol but in those days it was a rough and dangerous place where gangs of criminals felt themselves to be well outside the reach of the law. It was a very poor place too where most of the men worked in the local coal mines. John Wesley was not only risking his reputation as a clergyman but his personal safety as well.
However a few days after he came to Bristol he came out to Hanham Mount and for Sunday April the 8th his journal records “At seven in the morning I preached to about a thousand persons at Bristol and afterwards to about fifteen hundred on the top of Hannam Mount (he uses an old spelling for Hanham) in Kingswood. I called them in the words of the evangelical prophet “Ho! Everyone that thirsts, come ye to the waters” (Isa 55v1)
At Hanham Mount John Wesley challenged the Church of his time to take the Christian story out to those who most needed to hear it and not be limited by the walls of church buildings.
The miners worked long and hard in awful conditions and their families were poor. Often people would turn to drinking alcohol to try to blot out the pain of their unpleasant lives. When one miner heard John Wesley preach on Hanham Mount as he listened tears ran down his coal stained face leaving white tracks. The words that John Wesley said rang true - “God loved him, would give him life and
satisfaction, there was hope, he and his family could live well and be
supported by this new Church community. There was an end to his
misery.”
To the Miners, hope
To the Sick – Dispensaries
To Prisoners – Reform
To Children - Education
To All
The love of Jesus”
Quotations and statements about John Wesley and Goodness for Lesson 4
Consequences game
- “Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can”
- John Wesley believed that you can not earn God’s love by being good – God loves all people whatever they do, but because of that love you should gratefully respond by allowing God to help you to be good
- “Whenever I have money I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart”
- “Beware you are not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge”
- “Everyone although they are born of God in an instant , yet undoubtedly grows by slow degrees” : John Wesley believed that although people may have an experience of God which means they are “saved” as he did when his “heart was strangely warmed”, it takes a daily discipline and commitment to slowly grow towards goodness– it does not happen overnight. John Wesley set his alarm for 4 in the morning just to begin the day with at least two hours of prayer and reading the Bible.
Worshipping God
Praying
Meeting in groups
Writing and hearing sermons
Preachers meeting together to discuss ideas
Singing hymns
Giving money to the poor
Teaching children
Giving medicines to sick people
Collecting clothes and giving them away to poor people
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