Three hundred years ago, England, a Christian country for more than a thousand years, was in decline. Congregations were shrinking, violence increasing, more and more people were addicted to drugs (gin, in this case).
The trend among educated people was to think of God as more and more abstract and distant, simply winding the clockwork of the universe and leaving us to get on with it. As this notion, known as Deism, became fashionable, lively trust in the realities of Jesus Christ was more and more treated with suspicion and scorn.
Quite a lot like today, then.
In 1738 a young Anglican clergyman, visiting a Moravian pietist chapel in the City of London, found his heart “strangely warmed.” This young man was John Wesley. He and his brother Charles were to have a huge impact on the church and the world.
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John’s experience of the Holy Spirit set him on a journey of evangelism and church reform that helped galvanise the revival of Christian faith in this island that filled hearts with hope and powered the abolition of the slave trade and the building of schools.
Charles was involved in John’s work, but much of his energy went into the writing of some of the greatest hymns we have. Charles remained an Anglican to his death, but John at length stepped out from under the umbrella of the Church of England, and laid the foundations of what today we know as the Methodist Church.
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So we give thanks to God for that deepening and broadening of faith. And we long for it in our own time. And who would not be delighted at there being more churches?
But when it comes to divisions between Christians… well in Roehampton we do our best to overcome this. For many decades we have, since long before there was a legal structure for it, been an Ecumenical Parish with Roehampton Methodist Church.
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Today, although the church in Minstead Gardens is now a class of Putney Methodist Church, under the care of Deacon Kathy Johnson, but also of The Revd Geoffrey Farrar, Minister of Putney Methodist Church, we treasure this long connection. Several of the most long standing members of Holy Trinity were baptised as Methodists.
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One sign of this connection is that every year we hold a Covenant service. This is a form of service developed in Methodism as a way of recommitting ourselves to our covenant with God – reminding ourselves whom we serve and why. What better way to start the New Year?
So tomorrow, Geoffrey and I will share in ministry: he will preach, I will preside at altar, and as a congregation we will enter into the covenant.
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God never changes: he is always ready to do something new, to go the next stage of our journey with us.
If you are inspired to look for something new in 2026, you can still share a New Year resolution (anonymously if you prefer) – click here for a simple form.
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Then this may also be a good moment for a sneak preview of Lent – another good time of year to be doing new things, or to stop doing old bad things.
This year we will have a Lent Course with a difference, in that it will be led by the author of our Lent Book.
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Between now and then of course it’s still Christmas, right to the end of the season of Epiphany at Candlemas. To keep up the spirit of Christmas joy we have two services of Choral Evensong coming up:
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And finally, a few other things going on hereabouts:
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