Every year, in early June, John Wesley, the founder with his brother Charles of the movement that became the Methodist Church, stands on top of a roof terrace in the Piazza Sant’Angelo, looking across to St Peter’s and the Vatican.

Around him are a host of people eating, drinking, meeting, talking and laughing in celebration of his birthday: ambassadors, church leaders, academics, students, members of religious orders; Italians, British and from all over the world; Catholics, Anglicans and Methodists.