The Wesley Brothers at Frederica
Near St. Simons Island, Georgia
Two young English clergymen came to this island in seventeen thirty six who would go on to change the religious history of the world. They were the brothers John and Charles Wesley, and they would later found the Methodist movement. Charles Wesley arrived as private chaplain and secretary to General Oglethorpe, taking charge of the mission here at Frederica.
He was earnest and demanding, insisting on daily services and strict conduct, and the rough soldiers and settlers of a frontier fort had little patience for it. Within a few months, worn down and unwell, Charles sailed back to England. His older brother John, serving the parish up at Savannah, made several trips down to Frederica to preach to the troops before he too returned home at the end of seventeen thirty seven, discouraged.
Both men counted their Georgia years as failures at the time. Yet the ordeal shaped them, and back in England they launched a spiritual revival that swept across the English speaking world. Charles alone would write thousands of hymns still sung today.
Near here, the Christ Church parish and a Wesley memorial mark the ground where two future giants of the faith first, and unhappily, tried to lead a congregation.
