Charles Wesley
Three hundred years after Charles Wesley’s birth, Alan Edwards looks
at his life and the sources of inspiration for some of his best-known hymns
E
ven in an increasingly secularized (and in some areas Islam- alike. Charles was an advocate of the Prayer Book ideal of regu-
ized) Britain, Charles Wesley’s ‘Hark the Herald Angels lar communion. Hymns such as ‘Victim Divine’ proclaimed the
Sing’ will still be sung countless times this Christmastide. Real Presence; ‘papists’ was an accusation sometimes thrown at
Countless too the hymns and poems by Wesley, born 300 years the Wesleys.
ago this year – five thousand at least; some esti- The Prayer Book inspired many of his greatest
mates say seven thousand. His energy came from hymns. ‘Christ Whose Glory Fills the Skies’ echoes
his mother Susanna; his poetry from his country the Benedictus. The reference in ‘Lo He Comes
rector father Samuel. with Clouds Descending’ to ‘glorious majesty’ is
Although having ten children, Susanna gave drawn from the Advent Collect. ‘Hail the Day that
individual tuition to each, not least in the High Sees Him Rise’ follows the Ascension Day Collect.
Church doctrine she shared with Samuel, though John omitted that hymn from his Collection of
both came from Puritan stock. He did not, how- Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists,
ever, support her Jacobite views. Traditionalist preferring hymns reflecting personal religious
maybe, but Susanna was not afraid to defy conven- experience to those following the liturgical year.
tion. She gathered up to two hundred folk in her Charles frequently revised his verses and freely
rectory kitchen for prayers, hymns and sermon borrowed from other writers. ‘Hark How the
reading, Samuel saying that this was ‘unseemly for Welkin Rings’, a variant first line of ‘Hark the
a woman.’ Herald Angels’, drew ‘welkin rings’ from another
The adult Charles, while remaining an Anglican all his days, poet’s work of four years earlier. ‘O for a Thousand Tongues to
joined John in defying convention, preaching in the open air when Sing’ may have been suggested by a Moravian’s remark that ‘Had
church doors were closed against their evangelistic enthusiasm. I a thousand tongues I would praise Him with all.’ He would
His remaining true to Anglicanism, despite John’s ‘ordinations’ also have known Isaac Watt’s ‘Begin My Tongue, Some Heavenly
which led to separation, and despite the hostility of many bishops, Theme’, turning one tongue to a thousand.
may strike a chord in the modern orthodox constituency. His balance of Catholic and Evangelical spirituality was followed
A more fiery preacher than John, he also directed his emo- in later times by Fr Stanton and Fr Andrew. Balance was also a
tion into his verse. ‘And Can It Be?’ celebrated his experience of characteristic of his personal life. Whereas John, like many born
May 1738 when he came to trust Christ fully, having attended a leaders, could be domineering, Charles was described as ‘sociable
Moravian meeting in London. He had first met Moravians on and affectionate’, enjoying a long and happy marriage. John con-
a voyage to Georgia for what turned out to be an unsuccessful tinued itinerant ministry until his death, but Charles settled down
mission. Possibly it was memories of that voyage that eventually in middle age, eventually at London’s City Road chapel.
led to ‘Jesu Lover of My Soul’. The calendar revision of recent years designated 24 May as a
His heart joined to the clear head that produced the methodi- day to remember the Wesleys, a date long celebrated in Meth-
cal regime of the ‘Holy Club’ of the Wesleys’ student days led odism. A Saturday in 2008, so why not, on the Sunday, choose
him to embrace John’s vision of the world being our parish. They every hymn from the Charles Wesley corpus? After all, there are
preached to condemned criminals, colliers and the comfortable five thousand to choose from!
ND
version]). If the latter, what status is being Some have also advanced the claims It is in the writings of the Gnostics and
accorded to Andronicus and Junia/s? Are of a ‘Pope Joan’. But the only relevance of Montanists, where they have survived,
they apostles or Apostles? this medieval tale of cross-dressing and that advocates of women bishops have
The only claim commonly made for sexual prurience to the cause of female had their richest pickings; though even
a female bishop in the early church ‘Apostles’, and so of women bishops, is that, in truth, has amounted to little.
is Theodora, mother of Pope Pascal that it shows the paucity of real evidence More recently, the poverty of evidence
I (817–24). Her mosaic image in the and the desperation of those who are has been attributed not to its absence but
baptistery of St Prassede in Rome seeking it. to a ‘male conspiracy’ to deny or eradicate
is inscribed ‘Theodora Episcopa’. If, The truth is that we have no evidence it. Such a theory, of course, is difficult
improbable as it seems, this is taken to whatever of female Apostles (Jesus chose to refute, since it is dependent to a large
mean that Theodora (about whom we only men, the Twelve and Paul; the Holy extent on an assessment of psychological
know little) was not merely the mother of Spirit singled out Paul and Barnabas), probabilities: ‘they would do that,
the bishop, but a bishop in her own right, and we have no incontrovertible wouldn’t they?’ But such a topsy-turvy
it raises the question of what she was evidence of women among their approach – assuming the existence of
bishop of. What See did she occupy, and in contemporaries or successors. The something for which there is no evidence,
whose succession did she stand? Until that earliest authorities, after the Pastoral and then developing a theory about the
information is forthcoming it seems wiser Epistles, all assert the maleness of cause of its absence – surely belongs more
to adhere to the first interpretation rather the succession and ascribe a female to the world of Dan Brown than that of
than the second. priesthood only to pagans and heretics. sober historical scholarship.
December 2007
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newdirections
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