Pictures:
Left - St Andrew's Church, Epworth. Samuel Wesley's raised tomb - from which John preached - can be seen just behind the two gravestones.
John Wesley - the perpetual preacher - 4
Even when John was a schoolboy, the Church of England had been in a sorry state. Doctrinally it had lost its way, and its broad view of religion had slowed its progress almost to a standstill. The church as a whole was described by another writer as ‘a flightless bird; shorn of both left and right wings’, and it was against this background that John's ministry began.
For the preacher who now viewed ‘all the world’ as his parish, things now took a different turn. The following year, John Wesley preached his first open-air sermon to about 3,000 people, and this was to be the first of many. It’s said that he travelled 250,000 miles in all during his ministry, and preached 40,000 sermons (mostly in the open air).
Though all the world (or at least all of England) did soon became his parish, John never forgot where he spent his childhood. After his first visit in 1742, he regularly returned to Epworth every year - often preaching at the Market Cross. But once, not being given access to the church, he preached from the top of his father’s tomb alongside the door.
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