The Wesley Historical Society was founded in 1893 for the advancement of interest in the history of all branches of the Methodist Church.
Wesleyan and Methodist heritage is an integral part of the history of countries worldwide and we welcome everyone who is interested in their own roots, culture and history to visit the pages in this web site.
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The 2022 Annual General meeting will now be a Zoom meeting at 2.00pm on Thursday 7th July.
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Cumulative Index to Volumes 51 to 60,
is
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The direct link
is
https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/whs/51-60-index.pdf
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FEATURE
ARTICLE
"What's in a name?
That which we call a chapel by any
other name would be
as sweet"
(With apologies to William Shakespeare.
As the General Secretary of the Wesley Historical Society I am the receiving point for the questions and queries that are addressed to the
society. The range is immense from lost chapel signs, chairs John
Wesley sat in-
and recently
chapel names.
The question referred to the name of a chapel, and why had it been given the biblical name 'Ebenezer, ' as well as its town and street? Well I
know why 'Ebenezer' is a powerful name, for to this point
God has been with us. Why a particular chapel chose it, I didn't know.
On a simple basis, in the larger settlements, rather than simply say PM chapel West Street, or PM chapel High Street, the names did
become in many cases the identifying mark. So I would suggest that 'Ebenezer', or 'Mt Zion' said all that needed to be said. Wolverhampton
had both a 'Bethel' and a 'Bethesda', and in Lincolnshire Grimsby had
both 'Bethel' and 'Ebenezer'- all Primitive chapels.
I looked through the My Primitive Methodist Ancestors website, as the most accessible list available, and went through the North Midlands
counties I am familiar with and came up with the following figures. Even if not fully comprehensive for PM chapels, it has to be a good
indication, and other
Methodist denominations would not be that different.
|
Bethel |
Bethesda |
Ebenezer |
Mt Tabor |
Mt Zion |
Cheshire |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
Derbyshire |
2 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
Lincolnshire |
5 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
Shropshire |
4 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
4 |
Staffordshire |
3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
Yes there is some geographical variation, but Bethel, Ebenezer, and Mt Zion are clearly most used. There are some unusual ones, Chester
had a 'City Temple', Ling's Row in Derbyshire a 'Salem,, 'Providence' appears in Belton, Lincolnshire, but Brownhills' 'Rehobeth' might be
one on its own- unless you know differently.
David Leese
I