Joseph Pilmoor
Dear Friends
I had the fortune to visit a town historically associated with my surname this month. In truth, our only claim to fame is a nominal association with a man called Joseph Pilmoor who in 1769 was sent by John Wesley to the New World as one of the first Methodist missionaries.
His published diary reveals that it was he who introduced the service of intercession, a forerunner to our mid-week prayer meetings, he who established the Sunday School Association of America and appointed the first female teacher to the role. As a preacher he ministered to, and was embraced by Episcopalians, Quakers, Lutherans, Dutch Reformers and Presbyterians along with Methodists in an age of religious rivalry.
He was known as a leader who in church discipline preferred the spirit to the letter of the law. Much later he parted company with the Methodists and became the Bishop of Philadelphia and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity in 1805. Quite a character!
That I should revel from such association came to an abrupt halt when I discovered a journal celebrating the work of a Quaker hydrologist - Joseph Foorde, the builder of 70 miles of water channels from the moors which enabled agriculture and village life in the district. As an aside, the book devotes two chapters to his unsanctified liaison with the family servant Sarah Pilmoor, the product of which was the same Joseph Pilmoor. The account goes on to quote the minutes of church board meetings in which this family was censured and excommunicated. One can only speculate the extent to which this provenance influenced his spiritual sensibility.
All of the above may appear self indulgent, indeed comic, save that there is another Joseph whose relationship with his son Jesus was something of a mystery! He had a surname that we all share. Centuries on, his origins contributed to his spiritual perspective, his character, his mission, his intercession, his inclusiveness and his orientation to the spirit of the law. Further, he established a variety of institutional initiatives that still frame religious practice. As things turn out, shared connection through character and aspiration is far more significant than the provenance of name and lineage.
Thank you for your association with Christ, and your willingness to be a champion of God’s grace despite the limitations of lineage.
Yours truly,
Victor Pilmoor