Editorial

This editors note stands at the start of a second special centenary edition of Holiness, as Wesley House finds itself entering a second (doubtlessly just as special in innumerable and unknowable ways) century. The journey of the College through this period, as I think is visible in this issue, has within it the stories of so many who have touched the lives of individuals and communities the world over. Equally, this very same journey speaks to so many of the events, issues and challenges that have occurred around Wesley House throughout these decades, in the church and in broader society.

It is pertinent, then, that so many contributors to our centenary events have reflected on these past events and utilised them as a lens with which to examine the path ahead. What can the church’s interaction, and indeed inaction, towards slavery tell us about our worship in the now? What lessons can we take from the titanic legacy of those who have led the College in the past? As a now storied place of pedagogy, how can we understand Wesley House’s role in a global contemporary educational context? How can all of this drive Wesley House to deliver on its deep commitment to decolonisation? It is through this close engagement with what has been that what is to come can be better shaped. As ever, I must thank the contributing authors, and dearly hope readers enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Leading us into this second centenary edition comes Robert Gribben’s specially devised ‘Wesley House Centenary Prayers’ in which he reflects on the special place, both now and then, of Morning (and Evening) Prayer in Anglican and Methodist communities. Writing from a context defined by Covid-19, Gribben reflects on what opportunities and challenges the pandemic bought to worship and the commemoration of this centennial milestone.

Thomas Wolfe then reports on the ‘Leading Like a Methodist – Intercultural Perspectives’ panel event which formed part of the celebrations. The emphasis here comes in how the past can and should inform future practice. The ‘enduring’ legacy of Methodist education all over the world redefined in an era of greater governmental interaction, cultural sensitivity and shifting social appetites.

As with our first centenary issue we also take time to reflect on and celebrate an inimitably towering figure in the past and present of Wesley House. Susan Howdle’s deeply moving sermon given at the funeral of the Revd Dr Brian Beck at the request of his family as well as Jonathan Hustler’s memoriam are both brimming with warm recollection of a figure who touched so many here. Both also, of course, engage Brian’s legacy with that regular source of encounter of his, the Gospel of Luke.

Paul Glass continues his richly detailed and intimately human retelling of the history of Wesley House. Having left us in Holiness 8.2 with the spectre of war on the horizon, Glass picks things up as the College turns itself towards decades of challenge and change as a new, modern era lays ahead. Both the editor and readers alike now patiently await a third instalment in what must surely become a trilogy (trinity?)…

As part of reflections on the place of Wesley House and the Church more broadly in the history of slavery, Adam Ployd examines Methodist Episcopal Bishop William Caper’s influence in the 19^th century American South. As we are shown thinly veiled encouragements for the enslaved to fall in line with a white, slave owner social status qou, Ployd encourages us to recognise the agency of its recipients, and to think about how our contemporary practice of faith should manifest to bolster the disempowered of our times.

Valentin Dedji’s ‘Slavery, Colonialism and Christian Memory ‘asks immediately pertinent questions around colonial legacy, reparation and the status of artefacts and items plundered by colonial authorities that currently reside in European ‘cultural institutions’. As ‘leaders at every level in the West should be held accountable for those historic acts of injustice against African and Caribbean people’, what implications does this have for the contemporary church?

Finally, Paul Chilcote’s ‘Leading the Church’ catalogues a intimately international dialogue between Methodist leaders from North America, Africa, Asia and Europe, and wonders what it ‘means to lead’ as one inspired by Wesley in the present. Through diverse challenges, a recognition of the importance of being practiced in ‘intercultural competency’ emerges. Indeed, Chilcote fittingly asks ‘what role might Wesley House have’ in facilitating these conversations going forward?

As ever, I must thank the contributing authors, and commend their thoughts to you.

Joseph Powell, Editor