Historic site for United Methodists

Sunday at 3 p.m. I walked two blocks to a ceremony to unveil a plaque commemorating Lakeside as an official Historic Site of The United Methodist Church (UMC). The final approval came in June, and the plaque will be placed on the original Lakeside Chapel (now a museum). If you're on our Christmas card list, you've seen this building before. The first camp meeting was held September 11, 1872, and the first sermon preached with 20 tents on August 27, 1873. The first two buildings on the 30 acre site were Hotel Lakeside and the Lakeside Chapel built 1874-1875. But there's more to come in this designation. Now we have to become a Heritage Landmark of the UMC and that might take another few years because the meeting is in 2020. The honor will actually be for a cluster of seven buildings, and our archivist prepared a lot of research on the history of the buildings.

Speaking of Methodists, I've seen some mean, nasty battles on Facebook, even between family members. But nothing beats the Wesley family's political and religious battles of Susanna (mother of John and Charles) and Samuel Wesley back in the 18th century. Both Susanna and Samuel were offspring of dissenters, Christians who refused to conform to the Anglican Church, but they in turn dissented against their own parents and joined the Church of England. But the couple had political differences--he supported King William III and she liked James II. Their political differences were stronger than their shared lives and beliefs (they had 6 living children and 8 deceased) and Samuel eventually changed bedrooms and then moved out. With Queen Anne, they could reconcile and he moved back, but they continued to sleep separately. You know how old political differences divide us. But a fire in July 1702 burned 3/4 of their home and Samuel returned to the marriage bed. On June 17, 1703, little John Wesley was born, and 4 years later Charles Wesley (their 18th child). John and Charles went on to found the Methodist Church, and I've looked at a few web sites (I'm not a Methodist) and can't determine if Susanna ever supported them in this. Independent thinker to the end, she's nevertheless called the Mother of Methodism. (Story source: The One Year Christian History by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten, Tyndale, 2003, Sept. 3, pp. 494-495)