Page 5 - TORCH Magazine - Issue #19

Building bridges with Jews
Born in 1703 and 1707 respectively,
John and Charles were Anglicans their whole lives, having been ordained at Oxford University. It was in Oxford that
the brothers and other students at
Oxford formed a small group dedicated
to frequent Communion, serious study
of the Bible, and regular visitations to the deprived Oxford prisons. The members of this group, which the Wesleys came to lead, became known as Methodists, because of their “methodical” devotion and study.
In 1735, John sailed across the Atlantic
to the New World with the intention of being a missionary to the indigenous tribes. Arriving in the colony of Georgia, John’s mission took a different direction, such is the Scripture, “a man’s heart devises his way, but the Lord directs his steps”!
John spent most of his time ministering to the needs of colonists in the town of Savannah. Whilst the majority of residents were Gentiles, around 15-20 per cent of the community were Jewish. The experience made a significant impression on John
and Christian immigrants in Savannah. Many Christians at the time had been conditioned to view Jews with suspicion and distrust because of the damage caused by rooted anti-Semitic attitudes. But what the Christian immigrants experienced
in Savannah was much different to the widespread conspiracies. In fact, when
Christian immigrants arrived they were met by Jews presenting them
with gifts of food. Jews and Christians also forged friendships by gathering at one another’s respective occasions.
John Wesley himself recognised
the importance of serving the Jewish community in Savannah alongside its Christians, without a hidden agenda. He had begun learning a little Spanish to help in his role as a translator for a high-ranking British colonel, General Oglethorpe, who had founded the colony of Georgia. But when this ended, Wesley continued the Spanish language studies so that he could better converse with, what he called, his “Jewish parishioners”.
The Portuguese Jew
One of those parishioners was Dr Samuel Nunez Ribeiro, a Jewish physician of Portuguese descent. Shortly before Wesley’s arrival, London had expressed concern about Georgia becoming a ‘Jewish colony’, but General Oglethorpe allowed Jews to settle in Savannah. At the time,
the town was suffering under a raging uncontrollable epidemic, understood to be Yellow Fever, that had even killed the community’s only doctor. Dr Nunez, an expert in infectious diseases, insisted that he could help. To the amazement and appreciation of the Christians in Savannah, Dr Nunez ended the epidemic and word soon spread to London of how the Christians in Savannah had been blessed by the Jewish doctor.
Like many Jews in Savannah, Dr Nunez had a story. Born
in Portugal during the Portuguese Inquisition, his
parents were the descendants