Moravians and Methodists

In Memoriam
Mary Jane Brothers Smith

Two days after attending the May meeting of the board of directors of the Wachovia Historical Society, Mary Jane was stricken with an acute illness that led to her death June 1, 2002. Her like will not come to us again. For those who knew her, little need be said of her devotion to Old Salem and to Moravian history. For all of us, Mary Giunca’s column in the June 13, 2002, issue of the Winston-Salem Journal, Devoted: She loved all things Moravian, is a remarkable tribute that captured her devotion, knowledge, and enthusiasm so well that more words would be superfluous. As Giunca emphasized, Mary Jane was as good a Methodist as she was an expert on the Brethren. The following article about Moravians and Methodists that was written several years ago has been on our web site for some time.

The Wachovia Historical Society has elected to honor her by dedicating this story of Methodists and Moravians to her memory.

In the Beginning: England, Oxford, and Georgia

The historical connection between Moravians and Methodists may lie in the question, “What is your blood pressure?” An important early human bridge between the two denominations was Reverend Stephen Hales, an Anglican priest in Cambridge who in 1707 was the first person to measure blood pressure in mammals. Later he became deeply involved with General James Oglethorpe in establishing the colony of Georgia as a refuge for English debtors because his brother, Robert, a goldsmith, has died in debtor’s prison in London. The priest and the soldier were friends and trustees of two organizations we today call charitable foundations. When Oglethorpe was named to chair a committee about debtors, he chose Hales as a member. The colony of Georgia, founded in 1733, resulted.

Hales recommended his young friends, John Wesley, as priest for the new colony, and John’s brother, Charles, to be Oglethorpe’s secretary, posts they gladly accepted. Central European Protestants, sorely pressed by the Catholic Counter Reformation, were then seeking haven in the New World. Moravians and Austrian Lutheran Salzburgers, though not debtors, received grants of land in coastal Georgia and the first Moravians, led by August Gottlieb Spangenberg, landed at Savannah on April 5, 1735 after two months at sea. A second contingent, led by David Nitschman, left on the Symonds from Gravesend in England on October 10 with about 200 on board, among them the Wesleys who soon became friendly with the Moravians. Hales watched from the pier as the ship set sail, his part in our tale nearly done.

The Wesleys and the Moravians began to teach each other their native tongues and John, spiritually a very troubled young man, found great comfort in this new relationship. At Savannah and Fort Frederica John continued conflicted, uncertain, and increasingly dependent emotionally on his Moravians colleagues. He was soon in romantic difficulty with Sophie Hopkie who had every reason to expect a proposal of marriage. But Wesley was never comfortable with women and on the advice of his friends accepted the casting of the ‘Lot’ which providentially came out ‘Nein.’ Sophie then married another and the frustrated John denied her communion. His behavior provoked a lawsuit that forced him to flee Georgia abruptly and return to London. The trustees learned that one of the plaintiffs in the suit had committed fraud and exonerated Wesley of wrong doing but not without critical judgment as recorded in the diary of another trustee who had stood at the pier with Hales.

“Mr. John Wesley, our minister at Savannah, left with us his license for performing ecclesiastical service at Savannah, which we took for resignation, and therefore resolved to revoke his commission. In truth the board did it with great pleasure, he appearing to us to be a very odd mixture of a man, an enthusiast and at the same time a hypocrite, wholly distasteful to the greater part of the inhabitants, and an incendiary of the people against the magistracy.”

His successor was George Whitefield who had been a member of Wesley’s worship group at Christ Church College, Oxford, called “The Holy Club” by many of their contemporaries. Because of their systematic approach to all aspects of their being, they also came to be called “Methodists” as they sought perfection in Christ. Whitefield was as headstrong and dogmatic as Wesley and they eventually parted ways because they couldn’t agree about doctrine. Whitefield then led the great 18th century religious awakening in the colonies introducing many of today’s evangelical techniques; a recent biographer has called him a Peddler of Divinity. His ventures included acquiring vast tracts of land in Georgia and Pennsylvania and hiring Benjamin Franklin to publish the many volumes of his profitable best selling sermons.

PART 1 | PART 2

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

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