TUESDAY, June 17, 2003 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Rev. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. This signal event in the history of the denomination will be marked in Bermuda by a special service of celebration and thanksgiving at the Wesley Methodist Church in Hamilton at 7 p.m., writes Ira Philip

Methodists of all variations including African Methodists as well as the general public are expected to pack the church and share in what is calculated to be a largely choral tribute both to John and his brother Charles Wesley, who became one of the greatest hymn writers of all times.

The Hamilton Methodist Church is spearheading the local celebration on behalf of all the other Methodist Churches. Chairman of the organising committee is Leo Mills, a barrister at law and lay reader in the church.

He said Methodist congregations around the world that evolved from the movement started by John and Charles Wesley were celebrating the tercentennial year of the denomination in various ways.

Light refreshments will be served after Tuesday's service.

John Wesley was born into a family of Anglicans in England in 1703. Mills said it was interesting to note that Wesley remained an Anglican until the day he died. For two years, Wesley assisted his father who served as a Curate at Epworth. During this time brother Charles Wesley organised a group of students at Oxford University who met together for Bible study and prayer; they became known as The Holy Club.

When John returned to Oxford, he joined in the group's activities and, in short order, became its leader. The manner in which these Christians lived out their lives caused them to be referred to dismissively as Methodists.

John Wesley's fervent zeal for the faith led him to the United States where he served as a chaplain in the Colony of Georgia between 1735 and 1738. On his return to England, he continued his theological journey and his search for a deeper expression of his faith.

It was while attending a Moravian service in Aldersgate Street in London on May 24, 1738 that John Wesley experienced his own personal religious epiphany. He recalled in his Journal how he felt his heart strangely warmed as he listened to a reading of Martin Luther's preface to Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

Salvation by faith subsequently became the cornerstone of Wesley's ministry throughout 50 years of preaching in England, Ireland and Scotland.

In the years between 1739 and 1744, Wesley showed his amazing skill at organisation by forming societies that later evolved into what we now know as the Methodist Church. When the powers that be of the day disapproved of Wesley's approach to ministry, pulpits of Anglican churches were closed to him, causing Wesley to follow the lead of the Rev. George Whitefield and preached in open fields and on street corners. His outdoors sermons regularly drew thousands of people, mostly ordinary folk and, for years, he travelled all over Britain, mostly on horseback, visiting the various Methodist societies, which had sprung up.

In 1742, Wesley organised a system of class meetings where classes of 12 met on a weekly basis for prayer, Bible study, religious discussion and mutual help in Christian living. In many Methodist congregations around the world, the system of class meetings is still maintained.

Mills observed that Wesley's ministry also had a strong social focus on education, health care and self-help since many of the people to whom he preached were the more disadvantaged and marginalised members of the society.

Many of the social institutions that are taken for granted in today's world actually grew out of the modest beginnings spawned by the early Methodist Church.

He added: "Wesley's long reach also touched Bermuda. Rev. George Whitefield, a well-regarded preacher in his own right and a close ally of the Wesley brothers, spent three months on the island during which he preached at Christ Church (Presbyterian) in Warwick."

In 1799, the Rev. John Stephenson arrived in Bermuda as the first Methodist missionary. His tenure was marked by the increased prominence of Methodism and his readiness to buck the social status quo by preaching to black people.

For his efforts, Stephenson was hauled before a magistrate and subsequently jailed. An Act of the Bermuda Parliament was passed to curb Stephenson's revolutionary approach to ministry, but, even in jail, he continued to preach through the window of his jail cell.

That window still exists in the St. George's Historical Society Building on Featherbed Alley in St. George's and is marked by a commemorative plaque.

Stephenson's work was continued with the arrival in Bermuda in 1808 of the Rev. Joshua Marsden. Within a short time Marsden opened the very first Sunday School in Bermuda and, later, the very first day school which, in effect, launched public education in the island.

The Wesleyan movement prospered in the years after Marsden's ministry. The Bermuda Synod of the Wesleyan Methodist Church is affiliated with The United Church of Canada. This affiliation dates back to 1930, five years after the UCC came into being. Since that time, the Bermuda Synod has functioned as a presbytery of Maritime Conference of the United Church of Canada.

Mills went on to say that the Wesley Methodist Church is Hamilton's oldest Christian congregation, dating from its early beginnings as Zion Chapel which was dedicated in 1810 on the spot where the City Hall car park now stands. For nearly 35 years, Wesley was the only place of worship in the City of Hamilton.