This Week in Texas Methodist History June 13

 

 

A. J. Weeks Returns to Dallas after Attending Aldersgate Bicentennial Celebration, June 1938

 

 

A.     J. Weeks, editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate, was one of the best known Texas Methodist preachers in the 1930s.  He grew up in the Methodist Church of Ryan’s Chapel and served appointments in several annual conferences before accepting the editorship of the Advocate which served Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and sometimes Colorado.  He had an impressive number of contacts and served on the Judicial Council of the MECS and was Secretary of the Ecumenical Council.   It was in that role that Weeks was one of the organizers of the celebration of the bicentennial of John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience on May 24, 1938.

 

Weeks had to take a whole month off from his editorship so he could travel to England for the celebration.  W. D. Bradfield stepped in as substitute editor during his absence.  Sadly this was valuable experience.  He stepped in again to help out when Weeks died in 1939. 

 

It was natural for Weeks to fill up the Advocate with reports when he arrived back in Dallas in June 1938.      

 

Weeks actually was part of the program, bringing greetings from the Western Division of the Ecumenical Council.  May 24 1938 was a Tuesday so the celebration started on Sunday the 22 with services at Wesley Chapel.   Weeks reported he arose at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday and read II Peter 1:4 as Wesley had done 200 years earlier.  After a luncheon, there was  police-escorted procession, first to Susanna Wesley’s birthplace.  The next stop was the house where Charles Wesley was staying when he also had a transforming experience.  Then on to the chapel at Aldersgate where the procession stopped and the members sang O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, in the street.   They then processed to the cemetery where Susanna Wesley is buried and sand For the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest.   The next stop was right across the street to the house where John Wesley lived and died. 

 

The proceedings started at 7:30 in Wesley Chapel with Charles Wesley hymns and scriptures readings.  There were two short sermons, but most of the evening was consumed with formal statements from the global representatives who had assembled, including Weeks.

 

On Wednesday services were held in St. Paul’s Cathedral by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang.   He reminded the congregation that John Wesley had attended Evensong in St. Paul’s prior to going to the meeting house on Aldersgate Street.  Lang preached from the text, I saw another angle fly into the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell upon the earth, and to every nation, and kindred and tongue of people.”  Revelation 14:16

 

On Thursday Weeks went to Bristol and got a personal tour from Dr. Frederick Pratt, Warden of the New Room, who took him to the house of George Whitefield’s sister where John Wesley came and stayed during his first trip to Bristol.

 

On returning to New York, Weeks preached on June 7 at John Street Methodist Church.  That was a Tuesday.  John Street had services six days per week.  The church dates to 1766  and is famous for its association with Barbara Heck,  Captain Webb, Philip Embury, and many other 18^th century Methodists. 

 

Weeks returned to Dallas by means of a series of flights I have already highlighted in a previous post.  Here is a summary    From New York he flew to Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, then to Dallas.  The longest layover was 3 ½ hours.