who was Charles Wesley and why should Methodists celebrate his birth?
Charles was born on 18 December 1707 at Epworth, the third and youngest surviving son of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. Both Wesley parents were remarkable people: Samuel a clergyman and scholar, Susanna a gifted educator and theologian. As an undergraduate at Oxford, Charles and a group of friends began meeting for study and their programme then expanded to incorporate prayer, worship and Christian service. This Holy Club, taken over by Charles elder brother John, was one of the sources of Methodism. Following an abortive missionary expedition to Georgia in 1735-6, Charles linked up with groups in London which were experiencing stirrings of revival. His assurance of acceptance with God came on Whit Sunday 1738 (several days before John Wesleys Aldersgate Street experience), and this produced an outpouring of religious verse unparalleled in the English language. Despite his vast output estimates vary from 6500 to 10,000 hymns – Charles was not just a hymn writer. In the early years of Meth
