John Wesley

1957 – Washington National Cathedral – South Trancept, Southwes Turret Staiway

In the dark spiral stairway of the southwest turret, the Wesley family is remembered in three tall, narrow windows. This one honors John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church.  Unlike the window that honors his brother Charles, which is joyous, this window has a serious mood.  John is in mid-sermon and is preaching in the open air.  The flames surrounding him seem to radiate the fire of his belief.  None of these three windows has the crosshatching that Rowan used in so many of his windows.

Iconography

John Wesley, a lifelong Anglican like his younger brother Charles, is nevertheless credited with founding the Methodist Church, which began as an evangelical renewal movement within 18th century Anglicanism and later became its own denomination.  John was trained as an academic but felt a call to the ordained ministry and was ordained a priest in 1728.

The flames that dance in this window recall the descent and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but they also signify two other important episodes in John’s life: First, they recall his narrow escape as a child from a fire in his parent’s home (the rectory at Epworth in Lincolnshire) after he was trapped in the burning building; thereafter he referred to himself as a “brand plucked from the burning.” Second, the flames commemorate his radical conversion experience while attending a Moravian meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, in which he felt his “heart strangely warmed” and his sins taken away. An ascending flame is still part of the symbol of the United Methodist Church in the United States.

John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience caused an evangelical shift in his viewpoint that eventually led him, despite his traditional Anglican views, to begin preaching wherever people would listen, and not just in churches (many of which would not receive him).

At the urging of his friend George Whitefield, by 1739 John had begun to preach to miners in the open air, a style of preaching that he would continue for 50 years. John is said to have traveled over 250,000 miles and preached over 40,000 sermons. Here Rowan and Irene have shown John preaching a Spirit-filled sermon against a field of blue. 

Over the decades, John’s popularity continued to grow, and “Methodist Societies” sprang up around the UK and in the United States, with Methodism eventually becoming a worldwide movement.

Year Completed

1957

Artists

Rowan LeCompte

Irene Matz LeCompte

Fabricator

Rowan LeCompte

Irene Matz LeCompte

Location In Building

South Trancept

Southwest Turret Stairway