  The "Wesley Window", which faces the pulpit from the rear balcony, shows life-sized busts of John (right) and Charles (left) Wesley, and at the top of the wondow a globe bears John Wesley's famous utterance, "The world is my parish".  
| John Wesley (June 17, 1703 - March 2, 1791) - Born in Epworth in Lincolnshire, John Wesley was a renowned preacher and spiritual leader of "Methodist revival". He was educated at Charthouse and later entered Christ Church in Oxford. The extraordinary scale of his ministry can be gauged from the first year, August 1739 to July 1740, when he undertook ten preaching tours radiating from Bristol or London through the towns and villages along the roads to Oxford, Exeter, Cardiff and Gloucester. In each passing year he tried to visit some new area, until virtually the whole of Britain had been reached. He maintained this demanding routine for nearly fifty years, riding on horseback for up to 80 miles a day and stopping at any convenient place "to declare unto all that are willing to hear the glad tidings of salvation". John sustained his active preaching ministry until a week before he died at the age of eighty-seven. He could have no better epitaph for his life than his own last words... "The best of all is, God is with us." Charles Wesley (December 18, 1707 - March 29, 1788) - Charles Wesley was the third surviving son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. Even though he tended to be hidden by his brother's exploits, his life was far from a shadowy existence. He entered Christ's Church, in Oxford, in June of 1726. By then, John had been ordained and elected a Fellow of Lincoln College. Some have described Charles as the "first Methodist", as he gathered together a group of like-minded Christian who shared his own religious seriousness. This began the "Holy Club" in 1729, and its members soon received the nickname "Methodist". While John later became leader of this small group, it was started by Charles. A prolific poet and arguably the greatest hymn writer ever, Charles Wesley wrote over 6,000 hymns. A number of his hymns are still sung today, such as Hark! the Herald Angels Sing and Christ the Lord is Risen Today, and show little sign of losing their appeal after more than 200 years. Wesley biography information from "The Heath Christian Bookshop". |