It’s my birthday month! There’s still a whole half of the summer to go. Although the idea of that is not holding as much significance to me this year, since my summer will go on.
We spent the day in Bristol. This is Methodist country. It was a most interesting day. I remembered that this is why I came on this pilgrimage. I wanted to experience music and worship in the places and styles that they first originated in and today was a good reminder of that. It’s been happening all along but today I think was most poignant. We spent a good part of the morning in The New Room. This is the Methodist worship space that the brothers John and Charles Wesley first built and used. Interesting was that the Wesley brothers were actually Anglican and intended people to worship in their parishes for morning services and Eucharist. The space they built was a meeting room where they would gather on Sunday afternoons to discuss scripture, sing hymns and preach. It was open and welcoming to all even the poor who didn’t feel welcome in the churches and cathedral. They even encouraged women to preach! Methodism as a separate denomination sprang up later. Our service in their style was very moving. It included a love feast. This was communion time in the respect that we shared food and drink with each other as a community. Traditionally biscuits and tea/water in these cool double handled mugs were passed around. The witnessing time also brought us all a bit closer together in Christ and in each other.
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