Exhausted… the past two days have been grueling… my map book/travelogue included 52 waypoints for the two days combined, with nearly 450 miles of travel… what was I thinking!? We moved from June, 1791 into July, 1791 in Asbury’s journal. I don’t have many pictures for you in this post. We are looking forward to our next two-night stay in Jersey City, when we will visit John Street UMC and worship there this Sunday.

Tuesday, September 16, 2025: We had spent the night before in West Haven, CT… here is the condensed list of waypoints in the order we “visited” today. In context, “visited” will often be a drive-by, where directions to the next waypoint were entered in our GPS while we were driving through, or by, the current one.

In Connecticut: Wallingford, Middlefield, MIddletown, Haddam, Lyme, New London, Stonington. In Rhode Island: Newport, Touro Synagogue, Bristol, Providence. In Massachusetts: Easton.

At Middlefield, CT we visited Middlefield Federated Church. From our Book of Discipline:

¶ 208. Definition—Ecumenical shared ministries are ecumenical congregations formed by a local United Methodist church and one or more local congregations of other Christian traditions. Forms of ecumenical shared ministries include: (a) a federated church, in which one congregation is related to two or more denominations, with persons choosing to hold membership in one or the other of the denominations;

I would have so loved to have had the opportunity of conversation with someone at the church, but we were unable to find anyone there. I slipped a Prologue through a side door. If you would like to learn more of this church’s history and its federation, it can be found here: https://www.mfcct.org/history – and see how God’s grace works across faith communities.

Wednesday, September 17, 2025: the second day of a challenging schedule, coupled with challenging driving:

In Massachusetts: Boston, Saugus, Lynn, Marblehead, Salem, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Danvers, Folly Hill, Waltham, Sudbury, Marlborough, Northborough, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Leicester, Spencer, Brookfield, Warren, Palmer, Springfield.

St. Stephen’s UMC is located at Marblehead. Their history notes that it was formed in July, 1791 by Jesse Lee, a traveling companion of Francis Asbury. They have a huge preschool there, which was generating a great deal of in and out traffic when we arrived. Due to that, and the grueling travel schedule ahead of us, we moved on to Salem… and neglected to take any photos (sorry).

Proctor’s Ledge Memorial. For those of you who have read my Prologue, you may remember mention of Asbury’s visit to Gallows Hill on June 29, 1791:

I had the curiosity to visit the calvary of the witches — that is, those who were destroyed on the charge of witchcraft. I saw the graves of many innocent, good people, who were put to death, suffering persecution from those who had suffered persecution—such, and so strangely contradictory, is man.

I had anticipated this visit since the early days of my compiling significant waypoints of the 1791 circuit. Asbury is deeply moved by the cruelty of humankind – a cruelty that continues to this day… magnified today in unbelievable ways. I found hope, though, for this human condition while perusing this memorial of those hanged during the Salem witch trials. If you notice on the top of the stone wall where the names and dates of their death are remembered… to this day, folks still visit and lament the cruelty by leaving their unique remembrances. A painted stone above one marker, with the words:

For Bridget “innocent as an unborn child” with love.

The marker: Bridget Bishop, June 10, 1692… Innocent as an unborn child… let this place of peace, in a residential neighborhood of Salem, Massachusetts , serve as a reminder that we are capable of such evil… in tormenting and killing our innocent brothers and sisters… because they don’t look like us, or believe what we believe, or come from places we don’t like… or refuse to bow down to our false demagogues. Jesus taught us to love one another. Spend a few moments reflecting on the images above.

From a place of solemn reflections… we moved on to Manchester-by-the-Sea, which is the northern most point of Asbury’s coastal circuit in the northern states. We embraced the peaceful harbor, and nearby public park as long as we could before completing the many waypoints that stood between us and rest.

Thought you’d might be interested in seeing an excerpt from the July 1791 map in our map book/travelogue. Point 1 is Danvers, the first waypoint after Manchester-by-the-Sea, and point 17 is Springfield. Most of those waypoints are separated by only a few miles – of mostly very hilly and curvy roads… probably best navigated on horseback, as Asbury did. We took it in stride, there were no real stopping points and no time for reflection as we navigated westward in Massachusetts to spend the night in Springfield.

Peace,
-Pastor Tim