Rev Augusten Subhan and Rev Dr Trevor Hoggard by Image supplied.

Parishes Celebrate Wesley Sunday

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The Waitakere Methodist Parish remembered the 285th anniversary of John Wesley’s conversion with a combined service at the Glen Eden church. Rev Augusten Subhan prepared and led the service and the guest preacher was Rev Dr Trevor Hoggard. Doreen Sunman reports.

The Henderson church music team led rousing renditions of some favourite Charles Wesley hymns with piano, organ and two violins. As a reminder of the strong influence of Methodism in the Pacific, one Bible reading was read in Samoan and the other in Tongan, with the English versions on Power Point.

Trevor spoke about golfer Arnold Palmer playing a tournament in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi king offered Arnold a gift of his own choosing. Arnold’s request was a modest one – he asked for a golf club. The king gave him something much bigger - an 18-hole golf course, with a club house! Similarly, John and Charles Wesley had asked to do something small for God – take the Gospel to the native Americans of Georgia. But they found that the people they were expected to minister to were the European settlers. That was not what they had signed up for. They returned to England dejected. Soon after, first Charles and then John attended a meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, where they had their conversion experiences.

The brothers soon learned that God had a mission field which was much bigger than Georgia. They were to take the Gospel to the industrial heartland of the world’s first industrialised nation. They forsook the pulpit to peach in the open air. They came from a privileged, educated class but their work took them to places of poverty and deprivation. John Wesley preached both the spiritual and social Gospels. In the 19th century the transformative power of Methodism helped people to lift themselves out of poverty.

Trevor went on to say that Methodists today need to unite and trust in this same transformative power and take the light of God’s presence into our world. We face different challenges from those the Wesleys did. We are able to interact with people all over the world via the internet. Democracy and capitalism are breaking down and we are experiencing more civil discontent. Refugees are flooding into Europe and the United States to escape poverty, dictatorship and war. Many countries will carry a huge debt burden into the future. In despair, young people are withdrawing into the digital world and having less real-life connections. Trevor urges the Methodist church to put its house in order and unite to meet these challenges, as the Wesley brothers met the challenges of their time and take the spiritual and social Gospels to our world.

Lay preacher Richard Small led prayers before the final hymn and the benediction. A time of fellowship followed while everyone enjoyed morning tea served by the youth of the Glen Eden church.