Saturday was our first official day of Wesley touring. We started at the beginning in Epworth where John Welsey was born and raised. His father Samuel Wesley was the rector of the Epworth parish in the Anglican church for almost 30 years. The rectory (parsonage) is a museum now. It's not the original home as that burned down when John was a small child - he was saved from the fire - his mother called him "a brand plucked from the burning."
This was Susanna Wesley's prayer chair in her bedroom. At other times she would just sit in the kitchen and throw her apron up over her head to pray and have some alone time from her 10 children.
We walked from the rectory over to Wesley Memorial Methodist Church, which was created by the British Methodist church in order of the Wesleys. On the way over there we passed a statue of John and also the market cross in the middle of downtown where Wesley sometimes preached from.
Then lunch at the Red Lion Pub in town - this place is super famous and has been an inn and a pub for around 400 years.
And then we walked over to St. Andrew's Parish where Samuel Wesley preached. John Wesley and most of his siblings were baptized in the font here. And one time John Wesley preached standing on top of his father's tomb when we was denied entry into the church. We closed out our time here with communion and a small worship service.
After dinner back at the hotel, we spent a little bit of time debriefing the trip so far with the Bishop.
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