Patrick Comerford
I am planning to be in London later today (24 September 2022) for the Annual Celebration and Reunion of former USPG staff and mission personnel at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square. This promises to be a wonderful time to catch up with news, renew friendships, meet some new USPG staff and share stories with people who are an important part of USPG history and family. The programme begins with a celebration of the Eucharist, followed by a sandwich lunch and some presentations by USPG staff.
But, before the day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.
Throughout this week, I have been reflecting each morning on a church, chapel, or place of worship in Oxford, which I visited earlier this month.
In my prayer diary this week I am reflecting in these ways:
1, One of the readings for the morning;
2, Reflecting on a church, chapel or place of worship in Oxford;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’
The Gospel reading provided in the lectionary in Common Worship for the Eucharist today:
Luke 9: 43b-45:
43b While everyone was amazed at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples, 44 ‘Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.’ 45 But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was concealed from them, so that they could not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall Street, Oxford:
The Wesley Memorial Church on New Inn Hall Street, Oxford, was completed in 1878, but Oxford is full of connections to the Wesley family and with the early beginnings of Methodism in the previous century, tracing its origins to 1783.
John and Charles Wesley followed their elder brother Samuel (1690-1739) to Christ Church, Oxford’s largest college. Their father, Samuel Wesley (1662-1735), Rector of Epworth, Lincolnshire, had been a student at Exeter College, and their grandfather, John Wesley (1636-1670), studied at New Inn Hall.
John Wesley graduated in 1724 and was ordained deacon in Christ Church Cathedral in 1725. He was elected a Fellow of Lincoln College in 1726, and was ordained priest in 1728, having left Oxford the previous year to assist his father at Epworth. Charles Wesley arrived at Christ Church in 1726.
A small group of students began meeting in Oxford in 1729 to pray, study, and express their faith in compassionate social outreach. This ‘Holy Club’ led by the Wesley brothers was the beginning of the movement that evolved into the Methodist Church.
John Wesley was invited to preach before the University in the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. He preached his last University sermon, ‘Scriptural Christianity,’ on 24 August 1744, when he criticised the University for its spiritual apathy.
The first Methodist meeting house in Oxford was a building on the east side of New Inn Hall Street. It is now numbered 32-34 and is part of Brasenose College. A plaque on the wall recalls that John Wesley preached there on 14 July 1783 and on several later occasions. Wesley described ‘the new preaching-house at Oxford’ as ‘a lightsome, cheerful place.’
The congregation later moved to a second building on the west side of New Inn Hall Street. The foundation stone was laid in May 1817 and the chapel opened for worship in February 1818. It became the centre of the Oxford Wesleyan Methodist Circuit, with outposts gradually developing in the surrounding villages and small towns.
This building has since been demolished and the site has been incorporated into Saint Peter’s College.
Within 60 years of the completion of the first Wesleyan chapel, a new building was planned. As well as accommodating a growing congregation, there was a desire to emphasise the presence of Methodism in Oxford as the university agreed to admit Nonconformist students.
The Wesley Memorial Church was designed in the Decorated Gothic style by the architect Charles Bell (1846-1899), who designed more than 60 Wesleyan Methodist chapels. The church was built by Joshua Symm, a son-in-law of Daniel Evans, builder of the 1818 chapel. Henry Frith of Gloucester carved the capitals of the columns, which portray 12 different kinds of English plants.
The foundation stones were laid in July 1877, and the building opened for worship in October 1878.
A stained-glass window depicting the three virtues, Faith, Hope and Love or Charity, was donated by the builder Joshua Symm in memory of his only surviving child, Hannah Elizabeth, and her husband, Dr Joseph Lawson. A stained-glass window depicting the Risen Christ with Zechariah and Elizabeth was donated by Adeline Boffin in memory of her parents who ran a confectionary business in Oxford.
Both the church and the Oxford circuit experienced considerable numerical growth in the early 1880s, during the ministry of the Revd Hugh Price Hughes. The expansion of the city to the east led to building Wesley Hall, now Cowley Road Methodist Church, in 1904.
The three main branches of British Methodism united in 1932 to form the present Methodist Church of Great Britain. By 1941, there was a single Oxford Circuit. Meanwhile, a new suite of ancillary premises had been added to Wesley Memorial. The large hall and other meeting rooms, opened in 1932, proved ideal for the great expansion in student work that followed World War II. The heritage atrium opened in 2022.
• The Revd Peter Powers is the Superintendent Minister. Sunday services are at 10:30 am and at 6:30 pm on the first Sunday of the month.
Today’s Prayer (Saturday 24 September 2022):
The Collect:
Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
The theme in the USPG prayer diary this week has been ‘Welcoming Refugees.’ Father Frank Hegedus, Chaplain of Saint Margaret’s in Budapest, spoke to USPG about how the Church in Hungary is helping refugees fleeing Ukraine.
The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:
We pray for a peaceful and just resolution to the war in Ukraine.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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