Wednesday, February 16, 2011

John Wesley's Chapel - The New Room


Right in the middle of Cabot Circus, a big indoor/outdoor mall of sorts, you'll stubble upon what seems odd in the middle of a shopping metropolis... The New Room. It was funny to notice other people as we walked in, it was almost as if no one else had even noticed it was there. We got lots of quizzical looks as we took pictures of the entrance. I don't think people could figure out why we'd want to go to a place like that. Some were trying to read the stone marker trying to figure out what it even was.


They're remodeling the entrance so it was hard to get a good picture of the statue.
You'll notice to the left a shop is encroaching on the front of the chapel, makes it hard to envision it as it was so long ago.

Mark was excited to stand in the pulpit and place his hands on the very place where Wesley preached.





A few interesting facts...
  • There was a grandfather clock upstairs in the Preachers' Rooms (a place for young aspiring pastors to come and stay if they wanted to study/apprentice under Wesley) that only had the short hand. Apparently is was quite common. They weren't so concerned about the exactness of time.
  • John Wesley was quite short at only 5'3".
  • There was a window that couldn't be seen from the congregation (window opposite the window you can see in the picture above) where John Wesley would stand in the Preachers' Rooms foyer area and look down on the apprentice who was preaching. It was told us it was a rather intimidating experience to sit under his tutelage, to look up as you were preaching and Wesley to be standing above you staring down at you.

2 comments:

jkbradford said...

we are definitely jealous of your recent adventures...

Dara Steward said...

How fascinating!!! And so cool that you walked in Wesley's shoes for a day... very jealous. :o) So cool for Mark! It seems so hidden and obscure.... a treasure.