Thoughts before my Wesley Pilgrimage in England.

When I was in seventh grade, I was chosen to participate in a student exchange program to spend a month in England. I was picked out with twenty-nine others from the Monroe and Wayne County schools in Michigan. It was an amazing opportunity. At the time I was so afraid of airplanes and leaving my family, I chose not to go.

Now, I finally have the opportunity to travel to England with the help of the United Methodist Discipleship Ministries, my annual conference’s quadrennium grant, and the support of my church and my family. As a pilgrim on the Wesley Pilgrimage I will be traveling to sites that are sacred to all Methodist Christians. John Wesley and his brother Charles were two-thirds of the founding people of Methodism, with George Whitefield being the third. I will be visiting the places John and Charles Wesley lived, grew, and started a movement of Christian faithfulness and serious faith formation. I am leaving for England in a few hours. I will begin my pilgrimage at Canterbury Cathedral with prayer and visiting Augustine of Canterbury’s Abbey. I meet with the other pilgrims in two days at Sarum College in Salisbury, England. I am excited to go to the place of my spiritual heritage and my ancestral heritage.

Yes, I am very British, on both of my parents’ sides. Both my paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother were born in England. I am very excited to meet some of my family in Margate after I visit Canterbury. I get to meet my grandmother’s side of the family. I miss her and my grandpa whenever they come to my mind. I have waited a lifetime to take this trip and I am grateful for God’s timing. Sunday morning I will attend St. Peter’s in Broadstair, an Anglican Church that my ancestors and family attended and attend. I will then travel to Salisbury to Sarum College to settle in before the Wesley Pilgrimage begins the next day. I am beyond grateful to visit the places of my ancestral heritage and my spiritual heritage.

I have felt, since the Detroit Annual Conference 2014, a call to revive the United Methodist Church. I am still discerning the how, but a book written by my mentor in seminary that I am currently reading makes sense to me.

“Albert C.Outler once said that the expression “Wesleyan Evangelical” is redundant. If you are Wesleyan Christian, then you are, by definition, evangelical. The same thing could’ve said of the phrase “Wesleyan revival.” There is a certain redundancy here as well. If you are Wesleyan, then you are necessarily concerned about revival in the life of the church.” ~Dr. Paul Chilcote, The Wesleyan Tradition, A Paradigm for Renewal,p 10.

Having read all of the required reading and recommended reading for the pilgrimage, I will also be reading Dr. Chilcote’s book to keep me in the frame of mind of “how can I most effectively position the United Methodist Church (globally and locally) for a spiritual revival.” I learned from my Lewis Fellowship through Wesley Theological Seminary that we need to have a vision. My prayer is that God gives me the vision for what the United Methodist Church ought to be for this future.

From being twelve and afraid to go to England to now being thirty-two, much has changed. I still get nervous on airplanes, but I know that this pilgrimage is important in my faith formation and Christian leadership going forward. Please be in prayer for me and with me as I take this journey.