John Cennick was an early Methodist

Methodism

Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...

 and Moravian evangelist

Evangelism

Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....

 and hymnwriter. He was born in Reading, Berkshire

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to an Anglican

Anglicanism

Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

 family and raised in the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

.

At age nine, he heard his dying aunt proclaim "Last night the Lord stood by me and invited me to drink of the fountain of life freely and I shall stand before the Lord as bold as a lion." The words stayed with him for many years as the focus of his own fear of death and concern for his salvation.

Early life

Being from a family of humble means, John was compelled, at the age of 13, to leave school and seek an apprenticeship

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...

. He made eight trips to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 looking for a position and, failing, became somewhat of a dissolute youth, spending what little money he had on plays and gambling, and engaged in lying and petty theft. Of this period in his life, he later said "I had forgot Jesus and everlasting ages, loving ungodliness more than goodness and to talk of lies more than righteousness."

Conversion

At the age of 17, he was suddenly oppressed by a heavy spirit, which he endured for two years, until relief came when he happened into a church. There he heard the words of the psalm

Psalms

The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...

 "Great are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all! And he that putteth his trust in God shall not be desolate." He later said that he heard the voice of Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

 speaking to him.

My heart danced for joy and my dying soul revived. I heard the voice of Jesus saying, "I am thy salvation". I no more groaned under the weight of sin. The fears of hell were taken away … Christ loved me and died for me, I rejoiced in God my Saviour.

His religious conversion was experienced in 1737.

Ministry

After meeting John Wesley

John Wesley

John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...

, he joined the nascent Methodist movement. In 1740, he became a teacher at Kingswood, England, on Wesley's recommendation. He eventually allied with the Calvinistic Methodists

Calvinistic Methodists

Calvinistic Methodists are a body of Christians forming the Presbyterian Church of Wales and claiming to be the only denomination of the Presbyterian order in Wales which is of purely Welsh origin.-Early history:...

.

Baptists visiting London heard him preach and invited him to Dublin in 1747. Around this time he was in the process of joining the Moravians. After quarrels with his Dublin hosts, he concentrated his attentions on Ulster

Ulster

Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

, where he founded some 220 Moravian communities between 1747 and 1752 and helped to establish Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...

 in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. A plaque on the wall of the Moravian church in Gracehill

Gracehill

Gracehill is a village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies about 3 km from Ballymena and is in the townland of Ballykennedy . It is part of the Borough of Ballymena....

, County Antrim

County Antrim

County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...

, commemorates the arrival in Ballymena

Ballymena

Ballymena is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland and the seat of Ballymena Borough Council. Ballymena had a population of 28,717 people in the 2001 Census....

 on 9 August 1746, of John Cennick, the first Moravian evangelist in mid Antrim.

He spent much time as an itinerant evangelist in England and Ireland, enduring great and often violent opposition. By the time of his early death, he had established over 40 churches.

John Cennick died of a fever in London at only 36 years of age, leaving a wife and two children, and is buried at the Moravian cemetery (Sharon’s Garden

Moravian Burial Ground

The Moravian Burial Ground is the burial ground of the Moravian Congregation in London.-Location:The Burial Ground is located in the grounds of Lindsey House in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, just off Milman Street , near Cheyne Walk and Beaufort Street.-History:The Burial Ground was...

) in Chelsea

Chelsea, London

Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...

, England. A number of his hymns are preserved in the Sacred Harp

Sacred Harp

Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of sacred choral music that took root in the Southern region of the United States. It is part of the larger tradition of shape note music.- The music and its notation :...

.

Works

• Sacred Hymns, for the Children of God in the Days of Their Pilgrimage, 1741.
• Sacred Hymns for the Use of Religious Societies, 1743.
• A Collection of Sacred Hymns, 1749.
• Hymns to the Honour of Jesus Christ, Composed for Such Little Children as Desire to Be Saved, 1754.

External links

• Hymns by John Cennick