Wesley Memorial Church is a Methodist church in central

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

and

Charles Wesley Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was an English leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. His works include "And Can It Be", "Christ the Lord Is Risen T ...

studied in Oxford, and the congregation was founded in 1783. The present church building was completed in 1878. The building is now a focus for various social activities as well as

Christian worship In Christianity, worship is the act of attributing reverent honour and homage to God. In the New Testament, various words are used to refer to the term worship. One is ("to worship") which means to bow down to God or kings. Throughout most ...

History

Oxford's first Methodist meeting house was a building on the east side of

New Inn Hall Street New Inn Hall Street is a street in central Oxford, England, and is one of Oxford's oldest streets. It is a shopping street running north–south parallel and to the west of Cornmarket Street, with George Street to the north and Bonn Square at ...

. It is now numbered 32–34 and is part of

Brasenose College Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...

. A plaque on the wall commemorates the fact that John Wesley preached there on 4 July 1783. The congregation later moved to a second building on the west side of the street. This has since been sold and the site has been incorporated into St Peter's College. The present Gothic Revival building was started in 1877 and opened in October 1878. The architect Charles Bell designed it in a revival of

Decorated Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

. The building contractor was Joshua Symm. Henry Frith of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

carved the capitals of the columns, which portray twelve different kinds of English plants.

Gallery

File:NewInnHallSt WesleyMemorialChurch Night.JPG, The east front by night, showing the Gothic Revival tracery of the east window File:Tower of Wesley Memorial Methodist Church, Oxford - geograph.org.uk - 1705860.jpg, Church tower, pictured from St Michael's Street

References

Sources

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External links

Wesley Memorial Church, Oxford
1878 establishments in England Churches completed in 1878 Methodist churches in Oxfordshire English Gothic architecture in Oxfordshire Wesley Memorial Church {{England-church-stub