The Wesley Chalice

John Wesley (1703-1791), founder of the Methodist movement, was born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, about 30 miles east of Sheffield. His father, Samuel the Elder, was a clergyman in the Church of England and John and his brother Charles were raised as Anglicans along with their thirteen siblings. After graduating from Christ Church at the University of Oxford in 1724, he was ordained a deacon and later a priest. In 1735, he was invited to the American colonies by James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, who wanted Wesley to be the minister of the nascent town of Savannah. He would return to England two years later, depressed from his experiences in America. After a 1738 experience at a Moravian meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, he found his faith invigorated. It was this experience that led Wesley to evangelism.

Beginning in 1739, Wesley began lay preaching across England and it was around this time that the Methodist Society was founded. While he and his followers were persecuted for various reasons by Anglican clergy, they continued to expand through lay preaching, advocating for the abolition of slavery as well as prison reform. Eventually, his society would make its way back to the colonies and form a strong presence here. 

This chalice was given as a gift from Wesley to Francis Asbury, one of his first lay preachers selected to evangelize in America, in 1785.