Karen B. Westerfield Tucker

Wesley’s emphases on worship and the means of grace

In his Journal under the date of April 12, 1789, the elderly John Wesley clarified and defended the intention of the Methodist movement and the course it had taken: “Being Easter Day, we had a solemn assembly indeed, many hundred communicants in the morning and in the afternoon, far more hearers than our room would contain, though it is now considerably enlarged. Afterwards, I met the society and explained to them at large the original design of the Methodists, viz., not to be a distinct party, but to stir up all parties, Christians or heathens, to worship God in spirit and in truth, but the Church of England in particular to which they belonged from the beginning. With this view I have uniformly gone on for fifty years, never varying of choice - but of necessity - from the doctrine of the church at all nor from her discipline.” / In this retrospective, Wesley gave central place to the revitalization of worship in the Methodist project. To worship God “in spirit and in truth” (cf. John 4:23-24) meant to “love him, to delight in him, to desire him, with all our heart and mind and soul and strength; to imitate him we love by purifying ourselves, even as he is pure; and to obey him whom we love, and in whom we believe, both in thought and word and work.”

Creating Liturgies “In the Gaps”

‘‘For fifty-five years we’ve lived in this house,’’ he said. ‘‘Ruth and I began our married life here. We raised our children here. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren have eaten, played, and slept here. This house was our shelter during good times and bad. There are so many memories—the music, the laughter, and, well, it is a good thing the house can’t talk! Ruth and I simply don’t have the energy now to take care of the house, and the stairs get harder to climb every day. I know in my head that the retirement community is the best thing for us. But it pains me to leave this place after all these years and I know Ruth feels the same way. Is there something you can do to help us make the goodbye a bit easier?’’

“Knee-Bowed and Body-Bent”: The Connection of Scripture with Postures and Gestures

The biblical witness makes it clear that God is a God who is made known by doing. Unlike Baal, whose inactivity Elijah ascribed to meditation or possible somnolence (1Kings 18:20–35), this God is one who acts, and has done so from the beginning. God speaks, and byGod’s words and theWord (John 1:1) the heavens, the earth, and all therein are brought to birth. JamesWeldon Johnson’s sermon-poem “The Creation” illustrates the biblical understanding that, when God speaks, something happens by portrayingGod as kneeling and carefully crafting the human creature–who is made in order to remedy God’s loneliness:

Scriptural Typology and Allegory in Liturgical Prayer

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. (cf. Ps 32:8; 37:23) And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness (cf. Pss 31:24; 36:10; 51:10) that you may be blameless (cf. Pss 15:2; 18:23, 25; 19:13; 37:18, 37; 119:1, 80) before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. (cf. Ps 89:5)

North American Methodism's Engagement with Liturgical Renewal

North American Methodism traces its origins to the evangelical and sacramental revival movement that began in the 1730s within England’s Established Church under the leadership of John and Charles Wesley. In matters of worship the Wesley brothers were strongly influenced by the rise of interest in the ancient church during their time, and strove to imitate early practices by organizing simple services of preaching and prayer, advocating for ‘‘constant’’ communion, and adopting agape meals (‘‘love feasts’’) and vigils (‘‘watch nights’’). By the 1760s, Methodism had crossed the Atlantic to the New World through the efforts of sympathetic Anglican clergy and laity from England and Ireland. No Methodist clergy yet existed, though certain Methodist lay preachers in the American colonies presumed to take on the attributes of ordination principally in order to administer the sacraments to Methodists dissatisfied with reception from Anglican clergy in the local parish church. Confronted both with the emergence of the newly independent United States and the clamor of Methodists to receive the sacraments from Methodist hands, John Wesley, though a presbyter, set apart ministers in England who would, in turn, ordain others as elders (presbyters) and deacons in North America. To aid the worship of these Methodists ‘‘in the wilderness,’’ Wesley sent with the English ministers his revision of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and with it a letter in which he advised the elders to ‘‘administer the supper of the Lord on every Lord’s day.’’ Together the English and American-born ministers founded the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1784. Wesley’s Sunday Service of the Methodists was officially adopted by the new church, though within eight years much of it was either revised or laid aside, the latter being the case for Wesley’s Sunday orders except for the Lord’s Supper liturgy, which became identified as an occasional service. Wesley’s instruction for the weekly administration of the sacrament was not feasible because of the circumstances in which Methodism found itself, although desire for the sacrament—typically received four times a year at the minimum—and the level of Eucharistic piety remained relatively high through the first third of the nineteenth century. Sunday morning worship