Unveiling of Charles Wesley Statue
by Alexis Kierstead, ATS Alumni Office, Student for MAMH
On Tuesday, September 25th 2014, an unveiling ceremony for the first Charles Wesley statue in North America was held at Asbury Theological Seminary in front of our historical Estes Chapel.
We were honored by the presence of the Charles Wesley Society who was in Wilmore for their annual meeting; it was courtesy of their funding that we are gifted this monument. Charles Wesley was born in 1707 and died in 1788. He is best known for the many hymns he produced throughout his lifetime… an astounding 8,989 in number. Many of these hymns were created during the latter part of his life when age and vigorous preaching and travel were catching up with him; as this season of life was when he produced the most hymns, our statue of him reflects his more wizened age. Some of his most well-known hymns include “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?,” “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” In memory of his lyrical contributions, his song, “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” brought our unveiling ceremony to a close.
A video of the unveiling ceremony of Charles Wesley can be found below.
The plaque adorning Charles’ statue reads, “Charles Wesley (1707-1788) Charles Wesley, born on 18 December 1707, an an ordained priest of the church of England and a founder of Methodism. He took his degrees form Christ Church, Oxford with a BA in 1730 and an MA in 1733. He became the secretary to James Oglethorpe in the English colony of Georgia in 1736. Later, back in England, he joined with John, his brother, and others in the great evangelical awakening that became a transatlantic phenomenon. Poetically gifted, and deemed by some to be the church’s greatest hymn writer, Charles Wesley composed thousands of hymns including “And Can It Be,” “Love Diving, All Loves Excelling,” “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” “ O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” A hymn composed for the opening of the Kingswood School in 1748 contains the following lines that epitomize a godly education: “Unite the pair so long disjoined, Knowledge and vital piety: Learning and holiness combined, And truth and love let all men see.”