Conversion of John & Charles Wesley -- St. Botolf-without-Aldersgate. Aldersgate, City of London, UK
N 51° 31.016 W 000° 05.815
30U E 701416 N 5711307
A small historic marker notes the locations of the conversions of John and Charles Wesley, Anglican clerics who founded the Methodist Church
Waymark Code: WMT2P6
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/15/2016
Views: 4
This small historic marker attached to the wrought iron fencing around Postman's park commemorates John and Charles Wesley's evangelical conversion that led directly to the foundation of the Methodist Church.
This conversion is celebrated throughout the Methodist movement as Aldersgate day. An account of Wesley's conversion can be found on Wikipedia: (
visit link)
". . .
Wesley's "Aldersgate experience"
Wesley returned to England depressed and beaten. It was at this point that he turned to the Moravians. Both he and Charles received counsel from the young Moravian missionary Peter Boehler, who was temporarily in England awaiting permission to depart for Georgia himself. Wesley's noted "Aldersgate experience" of 24 May 1738, at a Moravian meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, in which he heard a reading of Martin Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans, revolutionised the character and method of his ministry.[17] The previous week he had been highly impressed by the sermon of John Heylyn, whom he was assisting in the service at St Mary-le-Strand. Earlier that day, he had heard the choir at St. Paul's Cathedral singing Psalm 130, where the Psalmist calls to God "Out of the depths."
But it was still a depressed Wesley who attended a service on the evening of 24 May. Wesley recounted his Aldersgate experience in his journal: "In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
A few weeks later, Wesley preached a sermon on the doctrine of personal salvation by faith, which was followed by another, on God's grace "free in all, and free for all." Daniel L. Burnett writes: “The significance of Wesley’s Aldersgate Experience is monumental. It is the pivotal point in his life and the Methodist movement. Without it the names of Wesley and Methodism would likely be nothing more than obscure footnotes in the pages of church history.”
Daniel L. Burnett calls this event Wesley's "Evangelical Conversion". It is commemorated in Methodist churches as Aldersgate Day. . . ."
The marker reads as follows:
"IHS
This Tablet Is Erected To The Glory Of God In Commemoration Of The Evangelical Conversion Of The
REV. JOHN WESLEY, M.A.
on May 24, 1738.
(The site of the Meeting Room of the Religious Society was probably 28 Aldersgate St.).
And of the
REV. CHARLES WELSEY, M.A.
on May 21, 1738
(The site of the house is near St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Little Britain.)
Erected by the International Methodist Historical Union
May 24, 1926."