Happy 2022! John Wesley often participated in Watch Night Services, also known as Covenant Services, on New Years Eve. Is this the Wesleyan form of New Year Resolutions? Is this tradition still around? How have different communities, particularly African American forms of Methodism, adopted and adapted the Watch Night Service?

GUESTS:

Dr. Martin Wellings serves as Superintendent Minister of the Barnet & Queensbury Circuit, in London, UK. He chairs the Faith and Order Committee of the British Methodist Church and is a Past President of the World Methodist Historical Society. He has recently become editor of the online Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland (https://dmbi.online/ ).

Dr. Sharon Grant is an Associate Professor of the History of Christianity at Hood. She joined the faculty in 2016, and teaches the major required surveys on the History of Christianity and elective courses in the fields of American Religious History,  Wesleyan and Methodist Studies, Black Church History and World Religions. As a former environmental scientist, her research interests have converged to integrate religious studies, theological inquiry and scientific content as the Founder and Director of the International Center of Faith, Science and History.

HOST:

Dr. Ashley Boggan Dreff, General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church. Dreff earned her PhD from Drew Theological School’s Graduate Division of Religion, specializing in both Methodist/Wesleyan Studies and Women’s/Gender Studies. She earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, specializing in American Religious History.