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oh, that was amazing wasn't it
i want to join that choir
Clarence they wouldn't let you join it
those lovely children
they can't have a frog singing
I'd be all right
no, no I don't think you would Clarence
and uh... certainly florence she's having a job coming out of her, out of her
suitcases florence
they couldn't get me a yellow frock
for from the charity shop
well florence we think you look lovely in the frock that you're in
but they all amazing ladies
yeah, well you look fine as well
clarence and florence are my little frogs from Cornwall
and we've hopped up today on the train and Gwennap pit
which is an iconic place in Cornwall, it's our John Wesleys preaching pit
this year
for the methodist conference
we're going to have for the first time ordinations in the Gwennap pit
they said it wasn't possible
they said it's going to rain, but it isn't, the sun always shines in Cornwall
well incase incase it doesn't
everybody who comes - besides being given a hymn sheet and a service sheet -
are going to be given this little pack
and then
just in case if the weather
doesn't, if the sun doesn't shine
we've got these disposable
pancho
for further
**laughter and inaudible speech**
...what a frozen chicken feels like now
just so it doesn't look likes the Cornish Druids all assembling in the pit if it does
rain
we've had a cross printed on the back
oh dear, who said I couldn't fight my way out of a paper bag?
thinkin' of music in Methodism
and, uh
i want to
draw your attention friends to the nineteen thirty three methodist hymn
book
because
it says there, in the, in the introduction
Methodism was born in song
and that was written by a former superintendent
at the Central Hall here at Westminster
Luke Wiseman; Methodism was born in song
it's a great phrase
but it's not altogether accurate
because the holy spirit
brought about the birth of Methodism
and we see in the bible in church history that when the spirit moves
people sing
music is spiritual
and as an evangalist
I find it easy to talk
about the spirit
when I talk to musicians
singing always played an important part in Methodist worship if we think
of John Wesley our founder
then, when he went to preach in the marketplace or the village square
he'd often start singing
and that would draw a crowd
certainly that's never something I've tried in my evangelism because it would turn people people away
but he was a good singer
and of course his brother Charles
was amazing, and
Charles was
handouts spiritual verse like a machine
now, not all Charles Wesleys hymns where brilliant, but
to manage to get inextinguishable in a single verse, i think is pretty
amazing
and the great thing for me about charles wesley is that his poetry
transcends the eighteenth century
because it links into the reality of faith
and it articulates our experience
Charles Wesley
was an amazing man
our early singing in Methodism was unaccompanied
and on the whole in the methodist conference until recent years
we have always sung unaccompanied
at my synod in Cornwall, when we sing we sing unaccompanied
but there where, there where local music bands set up, and we read of the
mellstock
orchestra and Thomas Hardy
and what trouble there was when they got an organ in
and and the music band
had to move out what passion
the organn brought. if you go onto the next slide, shows the mell...
that's right that shows us that the organ at Leeds, at Leeds Brunswick church
now it was like this one because it was a very controversial organ
and the Methodist conference had said that we shouldn't have organs in our
chapels, and these Leeds trustees
put an organ in and it caused
terrible trouble
and the whole methodist denomination was bom
because of the organ
John Wesley sided with the puritans he didn't...he felt that it was an embellishment
to worship we didn't need it
but of course we do need it
and it was lovely to hear our organ playing for us this afternoon
we've always had great
choirs in Methodism
and
it's just been lovely to hear the children sing this afternoon
it makes your heart soar
on such commitments and such passion in the singing
and then of course
in evangelism there has always been music. And I've put a picture up for you
you might not be able to see it all together to clearly
but it's of the primitive Methodist preaching carts at the seaside at
Clacton
of the preacher was Alfred Russell
a converted police sergeant
and next to him
playing his trumpet and his harp,
is francis the converted pireo(?)
and, I must say
apparently, when they got a lot of people come around Francis used to always
put his foot in it so
you have a crowd something like we have now and he'd say
how wonderful to see such a dense crowd
what ever the method, whether we're a crow or a nightingale
the lord delights
in his people singing
it's a wonderful thing and in
Methodism today
there are varied musical tastes and musical talents
and we use them all
not for ourselves
but to glorify God
let everything
that has breath
praise the lord
well i brought a little
treasured thing here
is uh... wesleyan hymn book that's over a hundred and fifty years old. It's
absolutely
tiny, you can see there on the screen a little picture of John Wesley...oh it's just
fallen out
hahahaha
oh, you know
if you're going to ruin a family heirloom, you might as well that with a few thousand
people in front of you, don't you think.
however that first hymn hasn't fallen out
haha
and until nineteen eighty three
the first hymn in every Methodist hymn book that's existed was the one that we're
gonna sing now, cos it's an absolutely amazing hymn
Oh for a thousand
tongues to sing
my great redeemers praise