The people of John’s Island have always been unique. Being of an island culture, the store of memories, the interrelationships, and the sense of being apart, have characterized this island people.
The church has always played a pivotal role in the island culture. Wesley was known as “Big Wesley” because of its leadership and prominence in the community.
The connection to the land for John’s Islanders has always been a powerful relationship that has led to a quilted patchwork strategy for interconnection of life on the island.
“The traditional and the modern coexist eerily on Johns Island now. I notice the incongruity at once in Wesley United Methodist Church. …I sit in its elegant pews and listen to the organist and the robed choir perform staid hymns from the Methodist hymnal. But the congregation sings out in old African polyrhythmic style of the sea islands, almost as though the hymns were ancient spirituals”
-Charles Joyner, December 1988, Ain’t you got a right to the tree of life?
