Images in Bronze

John Wesley looks out over the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College. He has been there since 1967. Sculpted by prominent Atlanta architect and sculptor, Julian Hoke Harris, the statue was commissioned for the campus. It has long been a place for students to meet and for photographs of families, friends, teams, and other campus groups to be taken. From groups of faculty to the Sago Mine disaster balloon release to celebrating new students, homecomings, lacrosse victories to pep band rallies, John Wesley tends to be right in the middle of it all. 

John Wesley and the Methodist Church

Through his sermons and his prolific writings, John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist movement in England, and was a major influence on the formation of churches in America, sending instructions to America in 1784 for the formation of a separate Methodist church for the United States

There were many divisions of that group throughout its history over such things as church governance, social issues, and other factors which resulted in nearly 30 denominations which come from this heritage. Here is an interesting list of these denominations. 

Some of these groups have divided, some have come back together.

In 1939 – Three groups reunited to be come The Methodist Church

In 1968 – The three reunited groups welcomed another one, the Evangelical United Brethren, and they became the United Methodist Church

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1939 Uniting Conference

In the late 1930s, nearly 100 years after the Methodist Episcopal Church, South had split from the denomination over the issue of slavery, there was a reuniting of three of these groups: Methodist Episcopal Church,  Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant. It was quite an emotional event.

On the 14th Day of the Uniting Conference in 1939, the leaders of these major groups spoke. You can read their words here: 

From left to right:

• Bishop John M. Moore — Methodist Episcopal Church South
• James H. Straughn — Methodist Protestant Church (At that time President of the Methodist Protestant Church, later ordained a Bishop)
• Bishop Edwin Holt Hughes — Methodist Episcopal Church

These three leaders have become a powerful symbol of all that happened in Kansas City, Missouri from April 26 – May 10, 1939. 

Bishops Straughn and Hughes have spoken at West Virginia Wesleyan. Bishop Straughn, in particular, is considered a great friend of the college and served on our Board of Trustees from 1941-48 when he was serving as the Bishop of the Pittsburgh Area.

The Plaque

More than a decade after this event, President Scarborough recognized the huge importance of the 1939 Uniting Conference, and of this particular moment. Working with his friend, Michael Late Benedum, who provided funds through the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, and long-time Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Clyde O. Law, the dream of a one-of-a-kind monument became a reality. The  architectural firm involved in creating three new buildings on campus at the time, Poundstone, Ayers, and Godwin, connected us with leading sculptor,  Julian Hoke Harris of Atlanta (Yes, the same one who later created our statue of John Wesley).

Bishop James H. Straughn, the center person on this plaque, was here on campus to dedicate this one-of-a-kind plaque. This took place on May 28, 1953 at the dedication ceremony of both the plaque and the Methodist History Room in the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Library. Although that room has moved to a different area and the plaque itself has moved to a new place on campus (the hallway in Martin Religious Center just outside of the Chapel Office), his words are powerful reminders for all of us. The full text of Bishop Straughn’s dedication speech can be found here, pages 1-4.

His speech includes:

• Conference and College Relationship
• West Virginia Religious Heritage
• The importance of the history of these things
• The stories of the sculptor and this work of art
• The story of the Uniting Conference in 1939 from the perspective of a central figure in that event, and including the roles of the three people immortalized on this plaque
• The story of the very photograph that was used as a model which has a great back-story of its own

Thus, Julian Hoke Harris has captured important images in bronze for West Virginia Wesleyan College. His work remains an important reminder of our heritage.