Annual Congregational Library LectureThe 2020 Lecture (delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic) will take placeat 5:30 pm on Thursday 28th January 2021. Professor Jane Shaw, Principal ofHarris Manchester College and Professor of the History of Religion at the University of Oxford will speak on the subject, Nonconformists and the Modern Revival of Mysticism. The early twentieth century saw a revival of interest in mysticism, and an accompanying growth in retreats and prayer groups. While Anglicans and Roman Catholics initially sparked the revival, non conformists – especially women – contributed to it in significant ways.

Some wrote influential books, others edited modern editions of the medieval mystics, yet others helped lead retreats and prayer meetings, and a handful engaged in a rigorous form of the mystic and ascetic life themselves. In addition, many nonconformists were shaped by this renewal of mysticism(notably the leading Congregationalist of the day, R. J. Campbell), and made it a part of their theology and daily life. This lecture will consider the impact of nonconformists on the revival of mysticism, and the impact of the revival on key nonconformists. The lecture will be delivered via Zoom and is free of charge. To obtain the Zoom link and password please contact the Secretary of the Friends of the Congregational Library, Patricia Judd New Congregational Memorial Hall Trust and Congregational Library website.

We have been asked by the trustees of the Congregational Memorial Hall Trust and Library to publicise their new website which can be accessed at http://www.conglib.ac.uk . The Congregational Memorial Hall Trust was founded in 1872 to create a memorial to those Christian ministers who were forced out of their positions in the Church of England following the Act of Uniformity in 1662. The fund established by the Trust was used to create the Congregational Library and encourage and assistBiblical studies. Since 1872 the Library has occupied a number of sites in London and is now lodged with Dr Williams’s Library in Gordon Square,London, who manage the Congregational Library collections on behalf of theTrust. The United Reformed Church, the Congregational Federation and the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches, all of which grew out of Congregationalism, each have an interest in the Trust and have a right to appoint its trustees. Among the collections held by the Congregational Library are the archives of the Congregational Union/Congregational Church, 1831-1972, and some of its successors, 1972 onwards: namely the United Reformed Church, and the Unaffiliated Congregational Churches Charities. The Congregational Library holds over 50,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals concerned with Congregationalism, Puritanism and Dissent in general.