200 Years!

Today our Bridge St. United Church begins its celebration of 200 years of presence in the Belleville community. The roots of this congregation are in Methodism, the movement begun by John Wesley and his brother Charles in the 19th century. When the first Methodist gathering took place in a rough and tumble town on the Bay of Quinte John Wesley had been dead about 25 years but there was still considerable fervor within the movement and a powerful evangelical zeal. The building here is about 125 years old, built in the days before church union, and really a Methodist cathedral. There must have been a sense that the "Holy Ghost" was at work when the place was newly dedicated and full.

The challenge, it seems to me, is to be radical, in the sense of radix, or root, to ask how the first gathering of committed Christians can be the inspiration for us today. They didn't have a church building, and they were part of a revival movement within Anglicanism. It doesn't appear that they were daunted by the challenge, and fortunately they weren't encumbered by nostalgia, the "good old days." They were inventing the "good old days," by God's grace! They were evangelical in the best sense of that term.

We can consider how scripture, experience, reason, and tradition --what has been described as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral can give life to our congregation today, and how Christ will light our way.