How the Scallop Shell became the Emblem of the Methodist Church

In 1778 the portrait painter William Hamilton RA There is evidence that Charles Wesley turned down an painted the portrait of John Wesley which now offer to inherit the Coat of Arms and a fortune belonging hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London. to Garrett Wesley, this going eventually to the Duke of Wellington. Later that same year, an engraving of this portrait was published by James Fittler. Beneath the portrait, We should remember it is through Wesley's Coat of Arms Fittler added his own conception of the Coat of Arms that we are linked to the spirit of all those who joined in of the Wesley family – a shield with an outlined the “Crusade for Christ”. cross, containing three scallop shells in each quarter and a wyvern as the crest, with the words, “God is ______love” as the motto underneath. It is not known whether he prepared this drawing with Wesley's permission, but the motto added an 1. The scallop shell comes from Wesley's authentic touch, for Wesley did use the words, “God Coat of Arms. is love” on one of his seals. ______

It seems that there are as many as 15 different Coat Designed by Ben Matthee for the of Arms used by various branches of the Wesley 2. The cross is central, reminding us of Methodist Centenary celebrated family, but the one under John Wesley's portrait has Christ’s one perfect and sufcient sacrice become a fairly well-known Methodist motif, even throughout South Africa in 1982, though it cannot strictly live up to its title of being the emblem has become very much for the world’s sins. “John Wesley's Coat of Arms”. part and parcel of our corporate ______The Wesleys were apparently reticent about their Methodist identity, and variations The whole design is done in the three traditional colours aristocratic ancestors – the Wellesleys and thereof have been done to meet the of red, black and white, which are the recognised colours Annersleys – yet when John Wesley saw the incorrect specic requirements of various of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. drawing of the Coat of Arms beneath his engraved departments and churches. portrait, he was surely reminded by the scallop shell that some remote ancestor of his had been a crusader and a pilgrim to the Holy Land. The emblem incorporates features which combine the traditions of the It was during the Middle Ages that the shell “Pecten Church as well as its vision for the Jacobaeus” became a religious emblem, known as the badge of St James. It was worn by pilgrims future. visiting the shrine of St James in Santiago in Spain and the Holy Land.