This is the fireplace/oven in Susanna Wesley's kitchen in the Old Rectory, Epworth. I don't cook even with electricity and all the modern conveniences, so it amazes me to think of her (and her housekeeper) producing meals for a houseful of children, plus herself and Samuel, all from this tiny space.
For many people, the kitchen is the heart of their home. It's the place where people gather, not only to eat and drink, but to share the joys and griefs of the day with those whom they love most. It is tempting to get sentimental and imagine a toddler Jacky Wesley wobbling uncertainly towards his mother and toppling over into her outstretched arms, and who's to say that didn't happen? But get behind the warm fuzzies we often wrap motherhood in and think about this remarkable woman who in many ways did transform the world from her kitchen.
Susanna Annesley Wesley was as educated as it was possible for a woman to be given the restrictions on what women could do and be in the late 17th/early 18th century. She was the 24th or 25th child (last one, anyway) born to the Rev. Samuel Annesley and Mary White Annesley. As part of such a large brood, she could have been overlooked, but she showed delight in learning from a young age and had free reign of her distinguished clergyman father's library. At the age of almost 13, she remarkably chose to join the Church of England rather than remain in the Nonconformist fold of her father, and at age 19 married the Rev. Samuel Wesley, a clergyman in the Church of England and in that religious milieu they raised their 10 children.
In their isolated parish of Epworth on the Isle of Axholme (a patch of land cut off from the rest of the world by several rivers and other watery barriers), Susanna devised an orderly method for educating her children, male and female, in the ways of God as well as in reading and writing, etc. She kept a journal and wrote letters in which she expressed her desire to do good to her children's souls so they would live Christian lives and experience salvation. To that end, she not only kept regular "school hours" in which no interruption was allowed, but she allotted an hour a week of her time to each child individually -- a time of talking and listening and giving spiritual counsel that belonged specifically to that child.
Thursday nights were the time given to Jacky, and it left a lasting impression. Even as a student at Christ College, Oxford, he discussed theological matters with his mother in long letters, asking for her thoughts and opinion, taking seriously her continuing role in his life as a spiritual adviser and guide. The high regard he had for Susanna as a woman of intellect and piety plus his upbringing with seven lively, intelligent sisters gave John Wesley unusual insight into the ways women's lives were constricted by convention and society AND the ways in which they might step out of those roles to act in accord with their understanding and experience of God.
I won't try to argue whether he was a feminist advocate or a patriarchal figure -- truly, he exhibited characteristics of both -- but it is indisputable that not only the methodical approach he took to "redeeming" his time but also some of his theology itself can be traced to the hearth in the above picture. In Susanna, he saw a woman who controversially conducted prayer meetings in her kitchen in her husband's absence, who read and digested heavy works of theology in her rare moments of quiet, who prayed and wrote and conversed with the goal of committing her entire life with all its griefs and burdens to the Triune God. All of this had tremendous influence on how women were valued and set to work in the work of the Methodist revival. In Methodism, they found a space in which they could declare publicly what the Lord had done for them. In Methodism, they found a space in which they could share spiritual guidance and act as mentors to others, both male and female. In Methodism, they found a space in which to begin to transform the world, starting from the kitchen, yes, but going far, far beyond.
So, thank you, Mother Susanna, for your insights, your courage, your stubbornness, your honesty, your piety, and your devotion -- your children made good use of them in giving birth to the Methodist movement, and your spiritual daughters will be eternally grateful for the legacy you have left.
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