My Contextual Background

I was nurtured and socialized within a conservative evangelical Methodist Central Mission in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The spirituality of this church fell within the framework of classical Wesleyan sensibilities in which the quest for holiness and moral rectitude were at the forefront of the heightened consciousness of this community of faith.

As I became increasingly knowledgeable about the tradition into which I was being nurtured, it soon became increasingly clear that my church was absorbed by one major preoccupation. This preoccupation was the acute consciousness of the reality of sin and the power of Jesus' blood to blot out our transgressions. The emphasis in Christian discipleship was on gratitude and fidelity to God in Christ, expressed in terms of using the appropriate Christian language of piety and religious observance.

Two texts have defined that formative period in my life as prime exemplars for the determining framework of theological reflection and Christian discipleship that dominated mine and the lives of countless others. These are, first, the classic Charles Wesley hymn And Can It Be?, and second, the Apostles' Creed. Both texts were sung and read with what appeared to be constant regularity in that gathered assembly within the Wesleyan tradition.