The Wesley Guild (also known as WG or Methodist Guild) is a worldwide Christian organisation, based in the United Kingdom, that aims to retain young people within the
Methodist Church. It was founded on 30 July 1896 in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, England, and its aim is to help young people to band together using the model known as the "four Cs of Christ":
*Comradeship (of young Methodists)
*Consecration (of body, soul and spirit to the Lord
Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
);
*Culture (of mind to ensure thoughtful and intelligent life);
*and Christian Service (for the building up of the Church and the Kingdom of God).
Beginnings
The Wesley Guild was founded by Rev Charles Henry Kelly and Rev W. Blackburn FitzGerald. Kelly advised the Church on the importance of retaining young people who were lost each year to Methodism after leaving Sunday school while Blackburn formed a group to work with young people for devotional purposes, evangelism, prayer and overseas missions. On the 30th July 1896 the
Wesleyan Methodist Conference gave a go-ahead for the Wesley Guild to operate in the United Kingdom. In 1899 it expanded to West Africa (
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
,
Ivory Coast and
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
), and in 1918 was introduced into
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, British
Guyana and Southern Africa (
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
,
Lesotho,
Swaziland,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
and
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...
).
Membership
Membership is open only to the members of the Methodist Church. In
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...
and
Sri Lanka the Wesley Guild remains an entity of the Methodist Youth Department. Since inception there has been no age limits for the Wesley Guilds leaving the organisation with three grades of members that include young people who are already attached to the Church, with others not yet ripe for such identification, and “older people
but young at heart"
Aims and objectives of the Wesley Guild
*To foster and promote discipline in Christ amongst young people in and outside the Church in general and those within the department in particular through implementation of the 4C's for Christ (Consecration, Comradeship, Creativity, and Community Development).
*To encourage young people to devote themselves and to take active participation in the affairs of the Church, growth and development of the Church
riesthood of all Believers
*To deepen the spirituality of young people by promoting earnest study of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...
as individuals, through bible studies and evangelistic programs.
*To promote loyalty to the work of God in general and the Church, in particular.
*To present God through the Church.
Motto
![Wesley Guild bronze medal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Wesley_Guild_bronze_medal.jpg)
The "One Heart, One Way" motto of the Guild was suggested by the heraldic motto of Earl of Exeter - ''Cor unum,'' ''via una''. A cross-like emblem that was placed at the entrance of the Castle of the
Earl of Exeter
Marquess of Exeter is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1525 for Henry Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon. For more ...
in Britain had this inscription as taken from the Bible Book of Jeremiah 32:38 and was used as a guiding principle for the knights of the Earl. The emblem was adopted for the use of the Wesley Guild in 1898 and formally used in 1903 when the Wesley Guild charter first introduced.
Wesley Guild pin
Before the guilds introduced the royal blue uniform, the Wesley Guild pin became the symbol. A Royal Blue Cross points in four directions and represent the basic Christian principles of faith, love, hope and peace, with the Motto "One Heart, One Way" and the WG acronym at the centre. The Wesley Guild pin is worn on the left, symbolically above the heart.
International Presence
The Wesley Guild spread from Britain to the other parts of the world as early as 1898 in
Sri Lanka, by 1908 there were about 120 Guilds that were operating outside
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
with the biggest number in
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
and
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
and a few in
Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gib ...
. In 1909 there were Guilds in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Ceylon,
China, South Central Africa,
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
.
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
saw the introduction of the organisation in 1918 mostly in the White side of the Methodist Church, the black congregations saw the introduction of the Guilds in the 1940s.
''The Wesley Guild is active in twelve countries''
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The Wesley Guild has ceased to exist in these countries
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References
{{Reflist
See also
*
John Wesley, the namesake
Wesleyan Church