Wesley, John

John Wesley (born 28 June  1703  died 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent Methodist movement that continues to this day.

Brought up in a strictly religious and disciplined household with a very large number of siblings he gained an education at Charterhouse and Christ Church, Oxford. Wesley was elected a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1726 and was ordained as an Anglican priest two years later. At Oxford, he led the "Holy Club", a society formed for the purpose of the study and the pursuit of a devout Christian life; it had been founded by his brother Charles and counted George Whitefield among its members. After an unsuccessful ministry of two years in the Georgia colony of Savannah, he returned to London and joined a religious society led by Moravian Christians. On 24 May 1738, he experienced what has come to be called his evangelical conversion, when he felt his "heart strangely warmed". He subsequently left the Moravians and began his own ministry.

Refused permission to preach in many churches due to his conflict with certain doctrines at the time, he started preaching in the open air where many who would not normally have entered a church heard the Gospel for the first time. This included preaching from his father’s tombstone at Epworth, Lincolnshire.

He and his brother Charles wrote many hymns that are still in use today.

from Wikipedia 

see also Marshall Claxton's painting John Wesley preaching from his father's grave, Epworth, Lincolnshire, part of the College art collection

see also Lion edition August 2008 p18