Charles Wesley's 250-year-old journals reveal fears that Church of England could split

The 300,000-word journals of Charles Wesley, the co-founder of the Methodist movement, have finally been decoded after a nine-year project to unravel the hidden messages within his complex personal shorthand.
By John Bingham
26 Aug 2008

Rev Prof Kenneth Newport, pro vice-chancellor of Liverpool Hope University, has deciphered more than 1,000 pages written 250 years ago between 1736 and 1756.

He has uncovered details of Wesley's anxieties over the possibilities of a split from the Church of England, his younger brother's plans to marry and even over the growing influence of Islam.

He used a handwritten transcription of the four gospels made by Wesley as a guide to deciphering the journals themselves.

Wesley's concerns over the prospect of the newly founded Methodist Societies splitting from the Church of England echo the Anglican Church's current debate over the consecration of gay clergy and the threat of schism. the rest