Wesley College, Colombo
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Wesley College, Colombo is a Methodist educational institution in Sri Lanka.
In 1858 Rev. Joseph Rippon (a great uncle of Rev. Henry Highfield) wanted to establish a superior educational institution for the Wesleyan Methodist Mission in South Ceylon. On March 2nd 1874 (the death anniversary of Rev. John Wesley) Wesley College was founded in the City Mission Buildings at Dam Street, Pettah Sri Lanka. Wesley’s first Principal was Rev. Samuel Wilkin and first Vice Principal, Rev. D. Henry Pereira. The Methodist institution was envisaged to be a distinctly Christian college, providing a secondary education.
Wesley College is named after John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of the Methodist Church . An Oxford graduate, he was an important evangelist in the history of the Christian Church.
Historically, Ceylon Methodism began when the first Methodist missionaries landed in Ceylon on 29 June 1814. But it was in 1813, when Dr Thomas Coke wrote those words of his, that Ceylon Methodism actually came into being -"I am now dead to Europe and alive to India. God Himself has said to me, 'Go to Ceylon'! I am as convinced of the will of God in this respect as that I breathe - so fully convinced that methinks I would rather be set naked on the coast of Ceylon without clothes and without friends, than not go there".
