Editing John Wesley (section)

==Journey to Savannah, Georgia==
[[File:15-17-040, John Wesley Statue - panoramio.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Statue of Wesley in [[Savannah, Georgia]], United States]]

On 14 October 1735, Wesley and his brother Charles sailed on ''The Simmonds'' from [[Gravesend]] in Kent for [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]] in the [[Province of Georgia]] in the [[British America|American colonies]] at the request of [[James Oglethorpe]], who had founded the colony in 1733 on behalf of the [[Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America]]. Oglethorpe wanted Wesley to be the minister of the newly formed [[Christ Church (Savannah, Georgia)|Savannah parish]], a new town laid out in accordance with the famous [[Oglethorpe Plan]].{{sfn |Ross |Stacey |1998}}

It was on the voyage to the colonies that the Wesleys first came into contact with [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] settlers. Wesley was influenced by their deep faith and spirituality rooted in [[pietism]]. At one point in the voyage, a storm came up and broke the mast off the ship. While the English panicked, the Moravians calmly sang hymns and prayed. This experience led Wesley to believe that the Moravians possessed an inner strength which he lacked.{{sfn |Ross |Stacey |1998}} The deeply personal religion that the Moravian pietists practised heavily influenced Wesley and is reflected in his theology of Methodism.{{sfn |Ross |Stacey |1998}}

[[File:John Wesley preaching to native American Indians. Engraving. Wellcome V0006867.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.25|An engraving, usually titled ''John Wesley preaching to the [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]]'', artist unattributed.{{sfn |NYPL Digital Collections}}]]

Wesley arrived in the colony in February 1736, and lived for a year at the [[parsonage]] that stood on the site of today's [[Oliver Sturges House]].{{sfn|Edge|2000|p=266}} He approached the Georgia mission as a [[High church]]man, seeing it as an opportunity to revive "[[Early Christianity|primitive Christianity]]" in a primitive environment.{{sfn |Hammond |2014| p=13}} Although his primary goal was to evangelise the Native American people, a shortage of clergy in the colony largely limited his ministry to European settlers in Savannah. While his ministry has often been judged to have been a failure in comparison to his later success as a leader in the [[Evangelical Revival]], Wesley gathered around him a group of devoted Christians, who met in a number of small group religious societies. At the same time, attendance at [[Eucharist|Communion]] increased over the course of nearly two years in which he served as [[Christ Church (Savannah, Georgia)|Christ Church]]'s parish priest.{{sfn |Hammond |2014| p=191}}

Nonetheless, Wesley's High Church ministry was controversial among the colonists and it ended in disappointment after Wesley fell in love with a young woman named Sophia (or Sophy) Hopkey. He hesitated to marry her because he felt that his first priority in Georgia was to be a missionary to the Native Americans, and he was interested in the practice of [[clerical celibacy]] within early Christianity.{{sfn |Hodges |2014}} Following her marriage to William Williamson, Wesley believed Sophia's former zeal for practising the Christian faith declined. In strictly applying the rubrics of the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]'', Wesley denied her Communion after she failed to signify to him in advance her intention of taking it.{{sfn|Tomkins|2003|pp=54–55|ps=. "Biographers have debated whether Wesley was acting from spite or priestly duty here. The most likely answer seems to be that he convinced himself that the one was the other [...] the decision was doubtlessly fueled by spite."}} As a result, legal proceedings against him ensued in which a clear resolution seemed unlikely. On 22 December 1737, Wesley fled the colony and returned to England.{{sfn|Wesley|1826|p=45}}

One of the most significant accomplishments of Wesley's Georgia mission was his publication of a ''Collection of Psalms and Hymns''. The ''Collection'' was the first Anglican [[hymnal]] published in America, and the first of many hymn books Wesley published. It included five hymns he translated from German.{{sfn |Hammond |2014 |p=106}}