During the service of worship which opened The Western North Carolina Annual Conference, June 5, Bishop Charlene Payne Kammerer, put forward a theme likely to be highlighted throughout her ministry as Resident Bishop. She issued a passionate plea for the most vulnerable members of our society. This focus of her ministry, as critical as it is today, is not a new one for Methodists. As Lovett Weems reminds us, "reform of the nation" was an early purpose of Methodism, along with "spreading scriptural holiness over the land." John Wesley was clear, indeed, blunt, on the unity of faith and action.

As early as 1740, Methodist collections for the poor fed nearly 150 unemployed people each day. Wesley looked upon this effort as "redemption of society by economic means." During the eighteenth century little was done to help children. There were no hospitals for children. There were no public schools for children. Many children were sent to prison for petty offenses, and some were executed.

Fifty years before Robert Raikes began his work on Sunday Schools, Wesley was catechizing all the children in Savannah, Georgia. He reported that as early as 1787 at Bolton, there were 800 poor children taught in our Sunday School by about 80 masters who receive no pay. In spite of the limitations of the eighteenth century the Wesleys were remarkably successful in achieving an integration of faith and action. Their activity preceded the "social movement" in Great Britain and the United States.

Wesley's first concerns for social work were kindled by the social activity of the "Holy Club" which Charles Wesley formed at Oxford in 1729. The "Holy Club" was made up of what Theodore Jennings calls, "adolescent evangelists who populated the seminary." Their concerns were focused on the two Oxford prisons, poor families, the workhouse, and a school for underprivileged children. John Wesley raised the following question when he prepared his action plans for the "Holy Club:"

Whether we can be happy at all hereafter unless we have, according to our power, 'fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited those that are sick and in prison;' and make all these actions subservient to a higher purpose, even the saving of souls from death?... 'Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

The "Holy Club" firmly planted in Wesley the concept of practical love for neighbor, which we know as "practical divinity." He believed that love was the indispensable condition for all deeds that might be called good.

On November 17, 1759, Wesley wrote in his journal: "It is well a few of the rich and nobel are called. Oh, that God would increase their number! But I should rejoice (were it the will of God) if it were done by the ministry of others. If I must choose, I should still (as I have done hitherto) preach the gospel to the poor."

John Wesley looked at poverty as an evil to be eliminated through every allowable means, not as a necessary consequence of culpable failure on the part of the poor, or as the unavoidable fate of those excluded from God's election. He constantly investigated the causes of poverty, encouraged and applauded diligent labor, and strove to awaken in the rich and influential a sense of responsibility for eliminating social evils. Wesley vigorously opposed injustice and dedicated himself to seek the welfare of the poor.

God's love for all people became the cardinal point of ethics, and indeed for the whole Christian life, which is described in Wesley's belief in perfection. To put into practice this "love for all people," Wesley initiated various activities toward self-help and charitable deeds to relieve their distress. He encouraged his classes to collect funds, food, clothing, fuel, and medicine and health care for distribution to the poor. He even argued that by letting his hair grow unfashionably long he was able to save money to give to the poor. (Letter to brother Samuel, Nov. 17,1731)

John Wesley believed that visiting the poor, establishing first hand contact with them, was in itself a means of grace. He once said it was better to take food to the poor than to send it. He even compared it to prayer and the sacraments as a means of grace. (Sermon "On Zeal") He believed that the commandment to love one's neighbor requires one to go beyond merely loving the "soul" of the neighbor. One must also care for the physical needs of the neighbor, just as one cares for the physical needs of oneself.

Wesley had a three-part plan for addressing the needs of the poor:

1. Meet the needs yourself.
2. Solicit resources for the poor
3. Become an advocate for the poor.

Perhaps his most important contribution in ministry to the poor was in raising consciousness to the plight of the disadvantaged. This may well be one of the primary contributions Bishop Kammerer will make to United Methodists. She, like John Wesley, will accomplish this through appeals in sermons, conversations and the press.

As he did so often, Charles Wesley expressed in song the intense feelings the brothers, and now Bishop Kammerer, have for the often forgotten of society: