#quaker minister

[artandthebible]

Noah's Ark

Artist: Edward Hicks (American, 1780–1849)

Date: 1846

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Painting Description

By the spring of 1816 Quaker minister Edward Hicks had reconciled his penchant and skill for ornamental painting with Quaker ideas of simplicity and plainness by liberally interpreting his religion's codes about earning a living by honest work. At this time he rejoined the painting shop he had established in 1811 and began creating landscape, history, and religious art for his family and friends in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. This unusual image of Noah's ark is based on an 1844 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier. The animals Hicks added to the scene resemble those in his earlier representations of his favorite biblical subject: Isaiah's prophecy of the “peaceable kingdom.” The cooperative animals express Hicks's Quaker belief in mankind's ability to live together harmoniously in nature, just as the story of Noah promises humanity a fresh start.

The biblical story of Noah’s ark, depicted here, is found in the book of Genesis (6:9–9:28). To punish people for their wicked and violent ways, God decided to send heavy rains to earth for forty days and forty nights. First, however, he instructed Noah, a righteous man, to build an ark for his family and two of every kind of animal. After the rains stopped, a dove sent out by Noah returned to the ark with an olive branch, proof that the floodwater had receded and plants could grow again. Then God created a beautiful rainbow in the sky as a symbol of his promise to never destroy the earth again.

[theinwardlight]

From The Journal of Ann Branson, a Minister of the Gospel in the Society of Friends (1892)

[marvel-mistress-padawan]

I posted yesterday about my decision to attend Seminary school and begin Quakers meetings. This particular tumblr account is mostly focused on fanfictions so I guess the post was a bit out of place. I just wanted to share my happy news with a community that wouldn’t judge. My plans are still going forward. If you saw my post yesterday, thanks for not judging.

[ausetkmt]

On this day in 1838, Frederick Douglass escaped to freedom and found his calling as a leading voice in the abolitionist movement. Douglass escaped slavery by boarding a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland.

He was dressed in a sailor's uniform, provided to him by Anna Murray, (he married her 12 days later, she was a free Black woman in Baltimore) she also gave him part of her savings to cover his travel costs, and carried identification papers which he had obtained from a free black seaman. He crossed the Susquehanna River by ferry at Havre de Grace, then continued by train to Wilmington, Delaware.

From there he went by steamboat to "Quaker City" (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and continued to the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles in New York; the whole journey took less than 24 hours. Frederick Douglass later wrote of his arrival in New York: "I have often been asked, how I felt when first I found myself on free soil. And my readers may share the same curiosity. There is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer.

A new world had opened upon me. If life is more than breath, and the 'quick round of blood,' I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. It was a time of joyous excitement which words can but tamely describe.

In a letter written to a friend soon after reaching New York, I said: 'I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions.' Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil."

Frederick Douglass first tried to escape from Freeland, who had hired him out from his owner Colonel Lloyd, but was unsuccessful. In 1836, he tried to escape from his new owner Covey, but failed again. In 1837, Douglass met and fell in love with Anna Murray, her freedom strengthened his belief in the possibility of his own.

Once he had arrived, he sent for Murray to follow him to New York; she arrived with the necessary basics for them to set up home. They were married on September 15, 1838, by a black Presbyterian minister eleven days after his arrival in New York.

[monstrousproductions]

TELL US ABOUT QUAKERISM

This is an absolutely hilarious thing to find in my inbox in all caps thank you so much 😂 I was going to say something like, "I'll try to keep this brief" but realistically I know I'm gonna waffle so BRACE FOR WAFFLING.

Quakers - also known as the Religious Society of Friends - are a denomination of Christianity that was founded in the mid-1600s in the north of England. It was part of the Dissenters movement, which is a term for a collection of Protestant denominations that grew up around that time out of criticism, dissatisfaction and... dissent... with the Church of England.

The branch of Quakerism that I belong to is actually in the global minority for Quakers. Most Quakers worldwide belong to evangelical branches and I'm not at all clear on how their theology differs from mainstream evangelical Christianity.

Those meetings (the Quaker term for churches/congregations) are what's called "programmed", which means their worship takes the form of a service easily recognisible by most Christians with hymns, a minister, prepared readings from the Bible, etc. I really can't speak much to that side of things as I know almost nothing abou it!

In contrast, my branch of Quakerism - by far the most common in Britain and Ireland, and I think I'm right in saying the most common in Europe and North Amerca though I'm not 100% sure - is "unprogrammed". There's no service, instead we sit together for an hour in silence. That silence might be broken by any person taking part who feels moved to stand up and speak - this is called "ministry" and for theist Quakers, it's understood as being a response to the promptings of what some people call the Light, some people call God, some people call the Holy Spirit.

This unusual worship style is an expression of the foundational Quaker belief that nobody has more of a connection to the holy than anyone else. A minister isn't better able to speak to God than a layperson, and we place a lot of emphasis on speaking to your own experiences of the divine and respecting others' experiences. A phrase often used to describe this idea is "There is that of God in everyone."

As well as unprogrammed worship, this side of Quakerism has historically been very socially and theologically liberal/radical. Early Quakers were very involved in prison reform and abolition of the slave trade, and that social consciousness has carried through the centuried to see Quakers involved in all sorts of social justice causes from pacifism and anti-war work to climate justice and queer liberation.

Quakerism is a non-credal faith, which means there's no list of beliefs you have to subscribe to in order to be a Quaker. It's also non-sacramental, so we don't have things like christenings, baptisms, communion, etc.

There is a difference between being a "member" of a meeting and being an "attender", but the differences are largely administrative and effect what kinds of roles you can take in the meeting rather than whether you're considered a "full" Quaker or not. Those roles are things like treasurer or clerk - logistical roles related to the running of the meeting rather than spiritual leadership - and they change hands regularly.

That said, there are some basic concepts aside from "that of God in everyone" that guide most Quaker ideas. These are called "testimonies", and there's no total consensus on what they are - I have a feeling different Quakers in the world have a different list - but the ones I'm familiar with are Peace, Equality, Truth and Simplicity. Some people add Sustainability, personally I think that's accounted for under the first four, namely Equality and Simplicity.

The Peace testimony might be the most famous Quaker principle. Quakers are a pacifist group (though not all Quakers agree on what that pacifism should look like...) and have oppose war and violence in all sorts of ways, from refusing to join the military and being conscientious objectors to not buying their children toy guns and so on.

Equality is pretty simple to get your head round! If all people have something holy in them, they all deserve to be treated fairly. Quakers resist personal and structural inequality, and we organise ourselves in a way that reflect that as well as working to make the world around us more equal and fair. This is both on a broad scale and on a granular one - some Quakers still use "thee/thou" because early Quakers did as a way of rejecting social hierarchies. Personally I prefer not to use salutations which stem from the same thing.

Simplicity is often simplified to a kind of general anti-consumerism, which is why I think Sustainability falls under this (I think it goes under Equality too because of the social impact of climate change etc). With this testimony, you're encouraged to find joy in simple pleasures and to appreciate the world around you. You don't need more stuff to be happy, and we owe it to ourselves and others to think carefully about how much we consume, what we consume, and why.

Finally, Truth or Integrity is about living up to your principles. It's about being honest with yourself about whether you're living your faith and putting your values into action, and about speaking the truth in all cases. Early Quakers refused to take legal vows or oaths, because they committed to always speaking the truth so it made no sense theologically for them to say "OK but for real now I'm actually being honest". I'd still "affirm" in court rather than take a vow, for the same reason.

All in all, I'm really proud of being a Quaker and personally I can see a lot of Quakerism in Monstrous Agonies (and all my writing!) which isn't very suprising because Quakerism informs a huge part of my life and worldview. It's not some kind of perfect, historically spotless religion - as well as being abolitionists, some Quakers were also slave-owners, for example, or were involved in the residential schools for Native Americans, and individual Quakers are as flawed as any other group. But I think we make a good effort at repairing those wrongs, being honest about our failings and making reparations.

Also, the porridge oats are nothing to do with us.

[tothelasthoursofmylife]

So, if Cloudia really did marry Undertaker, she was underage at that time (the threshold was 21 then) and would have needed permission from her guardian to marry.

The best-case scenario is that she did get permission from her guardian. Undertaker with his "lack" of background might not have been the weirdest person to marry into the Phantomhive family after all. They got married. The end.

But what if she didn't?

Then, the only choice Cloudia would have had was to elope.

The Marriages Act of 1753 (Hardwicke's Marriage Act) killed clandestine marriages, as it declared that all marriage ceremonies would have to be performed by a minister in a parish church or chapel of the Church of England and be conducted according to the Anglican Canon of 1607; otherwise, the marriage would be null and void and not legally binding. (This meant that banns would have to be called, or a marriage license obtained. You could also only marry with parental permission if you were underage, and only between 8am and noon. (You needed to get special permission from the Archbishop of Canterbury to marry at other times.)) Only Jewish people and Quakers were exempt from this ruling.

While the Marriage Act of 1836 removed the requirement that one had to marry in the Church of England under its canon law and introduced civil marriages, parental permission remained a must.

These marriage acts only counted for England and Wales though which resulted in Scotland becoming an "elopement heaven."

Scotch marriages were very popular (like the clandestine Fleet marriages before them, they provided both privacy and freedom after all, but were obviously not without problems) and inspired many literary works. People liked "the speed, violence and recklessness" of them because, most of the time, the couple would haste north to Scotland (especially to Gretna Green which was right by the border) with their angry parents or guardians right behind them.

(They remained married until her death, but Sarah's father cut her and her son out of his will so that John Fane's (Lord Burghersh's) family would not benefit from the elopement. Sarah's eldest daughter became her grandfather's heir instead, and her husband ended up adding "Child" to his surname.)

Gretna/Scotch marriages remained popular until 1856 "when Parliament imposed a three-week residency requirement on all marriages north of the border, which put an end to the instant marriage business in Scotland."

(All quotes are from Lisa O'Connell's The Origins of the English Marriage Plot.)

Not that I think Cloudia eloped, but the mental image of that hypothetical carriage chase is just so fun (especially with the added factor of a Grim Reaper), and I simply wanted to provide this as a possibility.

[dwellordream]

“The instruction of girls was not meant to prepare them to take part in political life. Women were not citizens on par with men in the new United States. Except in New Jersey, they could not vote or hold public office. In most ways the establishment of a republic had left women’s political status unchanged. But in a few subtle areas, progress was made. Women’s work as mothers assumed greater purpose. Mothers were largely responsible for the early education of their children. They could rear either strong, virtuous children who would become valuable citizens or lazy, ignorant youngsters who could be corrupted easily and thus become undesirable members of society.

…For women to do their job properly, they needed to possess high moral standards. They could learn these standards best if they were educated and religious. Ideally, all women should be able to read, write, keep accounts, and think logically about current issues. They were also expected to attend church and heed the moral directions of their ministers. The middle and upper ranks of American society had even higher standards for women’s education by the end of the 18th century. Among wealthy women, poor reading, writing, and speaking skills became unacceptable. Elite men wanted their daughters to receive an education similar to that of their college-bound sons.

…The curriculum of female academies focused a great deal on subjects previously considered frills: rhetoric, grammar, geography, history, arithmetic, and oratory. Now the areas of study that once had been thought essential for elite women--music, dancing, and needlework--were regarded as recreational activities or not taught at all. Although many girls continued to study these subjects and to receive praise for doing so, intellectual development was regarded as equally or more important.

…Soon boarding schools for girls also opened. They appeared in rural areas as well as towns and answered a need for families who did not have relatives living in a northeastern city. One of the most successful was the Moravian Seminary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which had a reputation for strictly supervising the morals of its students while providing an advanced curriculum. …Parents were particularly concerned that their daughters receive moral instruction at boarding schools, where girls lived for extended periods of time. At the Moravian Seminary, for example, students stayed for a maximum of about three years, beginning when they were as young as 10 or 12 years old.

…When mothers wrote to their daughters at school, they frequently stressed the importance of diligence and urged their daughters not to waste their time. In turn, many girls recognized that they had been given a privilege their mothers had not enjoyed, and that their absence from home represented considerable maternal sacrifice. After all, during these years they could be of greatest help to their mothers in running their households. For some families, doing without a teenage daughter’s labor must have been as difficult as paying for the cost of her higher education.

…Although girls strove for academic excellence, they had nowhere to employ their education after graduation. Colleges were closed to women during this era, and so were the professions. Women might become skilled healers, but they could not attend medical school and become licensed physicians. They might offer religious instruction in their homes, but they could not serve as ministers for any congregations, except those of the Quakers. They might run successful businesses as single women, but when they married, the law demanded that they have their husbands’ permission to continue working outside the home.

…Under the laws of England as enforced in the United States, married women could not own property in their own name without special (and rare) contracts called marriage settlements. Everything a woman brought to marriage became her husband’s. Movable goods became her husband’s absolutely, and a man could sell or give away his wife’s movables at will. Men’s control over women’s real estate was restricted, however. A husband could not mortgage or sell his wife’s land unless the woman consented and signed deeds stating she did so of her own free will. But during marriage, a man could manage his wife’s real estate and take all the rents and profits for his own use.

…After the Revolution, all the new states made divorces easier to obtain. Some legislatures voted to allow both formal separations with property divisions, and absolute divorces that permitted remarriage. Others provided only for separations. But everywhere it was acknowledged that women and men needed legal recourse for disastrous marriages. …Freedom from English law allowed Americans to institute reforms in marriage that England adopted only in the 20th century. Both women and men benefitted from the new laws, which acknowledged male as well as female adultery and prohibited physical cruelty. American lawmakers congratulated themselves on their liberality to the female sex, but the courts still favored men. They routinely demanded more evidence of men’s wrongdoing than women’s and automatically gave men custody of their children.”

- Marylynn Salmon, “Independence Realized: New Directions for American Women.” in The Limits of Independence: American Women, 1760-1800

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Today in Christian History

Today is Friday, May 3rd, 2024. It is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; Because it is a leap year, 242 days remain until the end of the year.

321: Emperor Constantine the Great writes to his representative in North Africa, saying persecution of the Donatists (a Christian sect) must stop.

845: Rothad, bishop of Soissons consecrates Hincmar as Archbishop of Rheims. Hincmar will spend his life in battles to hold his position and in clashes with clergymen and kings to keep the church free of corruption and tyranny—at which he will fail.

1074: Death of Theodosius, a founder of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Kiev Caves). With Anthony of the Caves, he had introduced monasticism to Russia.

1679: Assassination of James Sharpe, Archbishop of St Andrew's, on Magus Moor. At one time a Presbyterian and Covenanter, he had joined the Church of England for the sake of advancement and had been made an archbishop. He had proceeded to brutally persecute his former brethren until at last, on this day, a band of Covenanters surround him and stab him to death to end his cruelty.

1784: Death in Philadelphia of Anthony Benezet (pictured above), a Quaker philanthropist and abolitionist.

1829: Nineteen-year-old Andrew Bonar, who will later become an influential minister in the Free Church of Scotland, notes in his journal that he is still out of Christ.

1831: Death of Elizabeth Hervey from dysentery before she could begin mission work in India.

1862: Death in New York City of Nathan Bangs, a Methodist minister and theologian, who had authored many books, including a massive history of Methodism in America. He had also been a successful Methodist publisher.

1878: Death in Winchester of William Whiting, master of Winchester College Choristers’ School. He had written the hymn “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” when one of his students sailed for America in 1860. Later writers added stanzas for submariners, airmen, and other branches of the military.

1989: Five-thousand Dani tribe members in Irian Jaya (Western New Guinea) gather for a two-day pig feast to celebrate the completion and distribution of a Dani-language New Testament.

[georgefairbrother]

The Challenge was a series III episode of Yes Minister (1982), in which Jim Hacker’s Department of Administrative Affairs assumes general oversight of local authorities. As Ludovic Kennedy (playing himself as BBC interviewer) points out, Hacker is now ‘Mr Townhall as well as Mr Whitehall’.

Echoing the Thatcher government’s zeal to reform the local government sector, Hacker is determined to make councils more efficient and to curb their extravagance. The Cabinet Secretary and Sir Humphrey are not so keen, worried that any reforms, such as direct financial accountability for the success or failure of council projects, could be extended to the civil service as a whole.

To deflect his attention, Jim Hacker is urged to tackle the largely ridiculed and tricky business of civil defence, in particular the provision of public fall-out shelters by local authorities, and is sent to confront the leader of the London Borough of Thames Marsh, Ben Stanley, over their anti-nuclear activism and budget blowouts. Stanley was reportedly based on Ken Livingstone, leader of the ill-fated Greater London Council.

There are a couple of interesting cameos, aside from Ludovic Kennedy, and Moray Watson as a BBC controller. Ian Lavender (Private Pike from Dad’s Army) plays Dr Cartwright, a departmental economics boffin doomed to spend his entire career as a middling undersecretary. “I fear I shall rise no higher,” he explained sadly to Jim Hacker, “Alas, I’m an expert.”

Ben Stanley, the unilateralist leader of Thames Marsh Council is played by Doug Fisher (Man About the House), and is unimpressed by Cartwright’s suggestions on how to save ratepayers' money, which include closing the feminist drama centre, abandoning plans for a leisure centre featuring an artificial ski slope and jacuzzi, closing the gay bereavement centre, selling the Mayor’s second Daimler, and cancelling a councillors’ fact-finding junket to the Caribbean.

The episode lampoons the council’s hypocrisy in taking an anti-nuclear stance while providing fall-out shelter space solely for the leader and some senior councillors. Paul Eddington himself (Jim Hacker) was a Quaker pacifist, and in a later interview recalled that he was very uncomfortable with the way the writers (Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn) had ridiculed the anti-nuclear issue and peace activism, and that they had allowed their own political bias to influence the story. Eddington objected, and some moderating changes were made to the final script.

[argaman01]

Jerusalems in the United States - New York State

I reposted a blog earlier today about how Jewish Voice for Peace had at some point had people recite "Next Year in Al-Quds" instead of "Next Year in Jerusalem" during a Passover seder. Someone then commented that they could have said "Next Year in Jerusalem New York," and in fact, there is a Jerusalem, New York, and it's not very far from me. (I live in Ithaca)

The New York Jerusalem is in Yates County, right on Keuka Lake. (In the map below, it's enclosed by the dotted red line).

From a history of the town published in 1892:

"Jerusalem is practically and substantially the mother of towns in Yates County.  The district, sometimes called township, of Jerusalem, was organized in 1789 as one of the subdivisions of Ontario County, and included with its limits all that is now Milo, Benton and Torrey, as well as its own original territory.  On the erection of Stueben County in 1796, the region or district called Bluff Point, or so much of it as lies south of the south line of township seven, was made a part of the new formation; but in 1814 an act of the Legislature annexed Bluff Point to Jerusalem, and to which it has since belonged.   

"In 1803 the town of Jerusalem was definitely erected, embracing township seven, second range, and so much of township seven, first range, as lay westward of Lake Keuka and lot No. 37.  At or about the same time the other territory that had previously formed a part of the district of Jerusalem was organized into a town and called Vernon, after Snell and finally Benton."

The Public Universal Friend

Portrait of the Public Universal Friend, from 1812, unknown painter. Source: Yates County Historical Society

A famous resident of the town (famous then, not now), was the Public Universal Friend:

"The Public Universal Friend, Jemima WILKINSON, was of course a pioneer of this town, the same as she had been in the locality and settlement on Seneca Lake.  In 1790 she first came to the Genesee country and four years later she established herself permanently in the town of Jerusalem."

The Public Universal Friend was born as Jemima Wilkinson in 1752 to a Quaker family in Rhode Island. Jemima was transformed into the Public Universal Friend after "a night of fevered dreams" on October 10, 1776.

Jemima took on a new identity after the fever. "'Reborn' in their place was the Public Universal Friend, neither male nor female. According to the Friend, Jemima’s soul had passed into heaven, and God had reanimated their body with the spirit of the Friend sent to spread the Quaker gospel. From then on, the Friend began to gather followers and travel as a preacher."

The Friend lived as nonbinary person: "The Public Universal Friend dressed in a way that blended masculinity and femininity, and this drew much attention. Their clothing included a cravat and robe like traditional ministers and clergymen wore, as well as the kind of hat typically worn by Quaker men. They also didn’t wear the traditional bonnet or head covering women were expected to wear. The Public Universal Friend’s gender presentation caused curiosity and anger, and it was a radical challenge to the status quo that the Friend was not willing to be bound by the customs of the community." 

How did the Friend come to settle in Jerusalem, New York? After their transformation, the Friend gathered a following, and they decided to create a settlement in western New York, called Jerusalem.

The Friend's house, where they lived until dying in 1819. (Photo from the National Park Service).

Sources

Yates County, New York, History of the Town of Jerusalem: https://web.archive.org/web/20050125071905/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/yates/jerusalem/jeruhistory.htm

New York Public Library, January 13, 2023: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2023/02/16/who-was-public-universal-friend-living-outside-gender-binary-revolutionary-times

Washington Post, January 5, 2020: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/01/05/long-before-theythem-pronouns-genderless-prophet-drew-hundreds-followers/

National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/places/the-friend-s-home-jemima-wilkinson-house.htm

Life Story: The Public Universal Friend: https://wams.nyhistory.org/settler-colonialism-and-revolution/settler-colonialism/public-universal-friend/

Jerusalem and the Society of Universal Friends: http://upstatehistorical.org/items/show/75

More information about the Friend

The Public Universal Friend: Jemima Wilkinson and Religious Enthusiasm in Revolutionary America, by Paul B. Moyer (Cornell University Press, 2015).

"'Indescribable Being': Theological Performances of Genderlessness in the Society of the Publick Universal Friend, 1776–1819," by Scott Larson, Early American Studies 12:3 (2014) 576-600. (Special issue: Beyond the Boundaries: Critical Approaches to Sex and Gender in Early America). JSTOR link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24474871

[rotgospels]

pardon me if you've answered this before but why anglicanism? any thoughts on quakerism? finding a denomination that feels like home to me has been a battle for years

I'm not entirely sure why Anglicanism. God put the word Anglican in my mind two years before I converted and I never really questioned it. I've faltered many times because I find myself more closely aligned to Catholic theology, but I cant shake the feeling of being at complete peace in Anglican churches (especially high Anglican ones). I adore evensong, I adore the book of common prayer; our liturgy. I also find extreme beauty in the centrality of scripture even if its often misused. I also feel called to the Anglican tradition over any others because I can see how my lineage goes back to it, and through it to Jesus. In a way its become part of my identity - I wouldn't be myself without it, nor would I be able to be a female minister anywhere else (as hard as that is).

I don't know enough about quakerism to have any thoughts or opinions on it, but I hope your battle ends soon. I truly believe the most important thing is finding a church you feel at home in.

[theinwardlight]

The Journal of Ann Branson, a Minister of the Gospel in the Society of Friends (1892)

[zornitsa]

Today in Quaker meeting I was thinking about how Venus made my body, she made my vulnerable blood filled flesh, my viscera, my bones but I am the one who animates this gift, who makes it into a Something, a Person, who keeps this flesh from rotting and feeds the marrow of my bones so that they make blood, and in theory makes my body into a person with my name who lives my life but that’s obviously a work in progress

And then someone got up to minister for the first time that meeting and I felt interrupted which was weird because we were supposed to be worshipping together and I was thinking about myself to the point that ministering felt like an interruption

[ausetkmt]

Introduction

For most of the past two millennia, Christian churches have not only accepted slavery, but have also participated in the slave trade and owned human property. The ethics of Christian slaveholding, however, have changed significantly. While Christians owned other Christians without controversy during the late ancient period, Christian churches began to forbid that practice over time. By the early modern period, it was considered taboo for Christians to own other Christians, although the practice sometimes continued illegally. While some individual Christians, including ministers and members of the clergy, questioned the legitimacy of slavery during the early modern period, it was not until the 18th century that a small minority of Christian churches began to assert an abolitionist stance.

Even then, it was deeply contested. For the majority of the early modern period, most Christian churches—both Catholic and Protestant—supported slavery and benefited from the institution. Even the Quakers (Society of Friends), who were leaders in the abolitionist movement, took a century to disown enslavers from their congregations. In the United States, many Christian denominations split on the issue of slavery in the 19th century, and Christian ministers and missionaries developed robust defenses of slavery based on Christian scripture and proslavery theology.

Enslaved and free Black Christians were the most ardent abolitionists, and they drew on scripture to support antislavery and abolition. While a significant amount of scholarship has debated whether Christian churches were pro- or anti-slavery, some of the most exciting research about the church and slavery has focused on why enslaved people became Christian and how they used the bureaucracy of the church to advocate for their rights and to protect their communities.

Much of this scholarship has emerged from a Latin American context, where archival records are more robust, but there are also important studies focusing on Black churches in the North America, especially the role of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) and other African American–led churches. Within this area, scholars debate the meaning of conversion as well as the relationship between African religions and Black Christianity. Recent scholarship has emphasized that Africans and their descendants were not passive recipients of Christianity.

Rather, many enslaved men and women actively sought out baptism and used church institutions not only as a place of worship, but also as a way to protect themselves and their families. Another significant area of research has examined the relationship between the church, slavery, and race. Scholars have demonstrated how European Christians drew on categories of religious difference as they developed new racial categories. They have shown how categories like “Whiteness” and “purity of blood” were transformed within the context of slavery, as enslavers sought to reconcile slaveholding with Christian practice.

General Overviews

As Christian nations began to build empires across the Atlantic, the pope condoned the enslavement of Africans as long as certain conditions were met. A century later, Protestant nations followed Catholic lead in creating colonial slave societies in the Americas, although they developed different laws and practices related to slavery and Christianity. Blackburn 1997 provides an overview of the shifting relationship between slavery and Christian churches in European empires, while Davis 1966 is a classic study of slavery from Antiquity to the early modern period.

Over the past decades, scholars have sought to understand the history of the church and slavery from the perspectives of non-Europeans, especially Africans and Native Americans. Sanneh 2006 and Gray 2012 examine the history of Christianity in Africa, focusing on the role of African Christians. Johnson 2015 is a wide-ranging study of the relationship between African American religions (including Christianity), slavery, and colonialism, while Frey and Wood 1998 is an important survey of African American Protestantism in the British Atlantic world. Gin Lum and Harvey 2018 contains several essays relevant to the study of religion, race, and slavery. Reséndez 2016 explores the under-examined history of Native American enslavement.

Blackburn, Robin. The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492–1800. London and New York: Verso, 1997. Blackburn examines the Old World foundations for American slavery. While not the focus of his study, Christian churches play a central role in creating a precedent and a legal justification for slavery in the New World.

Davis, David Brion. The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1966. The first in David Brion Davis’s classic trilogy about slavery and abolition. Davis examines the ancient history of slavery and traces the relationship between slavery and the church in Europe and the Atlantic world.

Frey, Sylvia, and Betty Wood. Come Shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. An important survey of Afro-Protestantism in British America and the early United States. Early chapters cover the history of Catholicism in Africa and the persistence of African religious traditions under slavery in the Americas. Later chapters cover Protestant missionary efforts, and the expansion of Afro-Protestantism after the Great Awakening.

Gin Lum, Kathryn, and Paul Harvey, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. An excellent edited volume with over thirty essays, covering race and religion from the colonial period until the 2020s. Several essays are relevant for discussions of the church and slavery.

Gray, Richard. Christianity, the Papacy, and Mission in Africa. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2012. A posthumously published set of essays. Gray’s overarching argument is that African Christians played a central role in initiating papal interest and involvement in sub-Saharan Africa. Several essays touch on the history of slavery and the slave trade.

Johnson, Sylvester. African American Religions, 1500–2000. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139027038While not focusing exclusively on the church or Christianity, Johnson’s synthesis of five hundred years of African American religions is an indispensable study that traces the relationship between Black religion, slavery, racism, and colonialism within a transatlantic frame.

Lampe, Armando, ed. Christianity in the Caribbean: Essays on Church History. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, 2001. A helpful overview of the relationship between the church and slavery in the Caribbean, with essays on Catholic and Protestant churches in different imperial and national settings.

Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. The history of Native American enslavement has long been under-examined, largely because indigenous slavery was illegal for most of colonial American history. This study does not focus on the church explicitly, but the relationship between Catholicism and Indian slavery is an important theme.

Sanneh, Lamin. “Christianity in Africa.” In The Cambridge History of Christianity. Edited by Stewart Brown and Timothy Tackett, 411–432. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Sanneh’s survey traces the changing role of Christianity—both Catholic and Protestant—in West and East Africa, focusing on the role of Christian missions and the impact of slavery and colonialism

Abolition of Slavery

Michael Guasco, Matthew Wyman-McCarthy

Subject: Atlantic History »

Date Added: 2010-05-10

Abolition of SlaveryIntroductionThe abolition of slavery in the Atlantic world occurred during the 19th century, but its origins are generally recogni...

Abolitionism and Africa

Bronwen Everill

Subject: Atlantic History »

Date Added: 2016-02-25

Abolitionism and AfricaIntroductionFrom the beginning of the organized abolition campaigns in the Atlantic world in the 1780s, antislavery campaigners...

Africa and the Atlantic World

David Northrup

Subject: Atlantic History »

Date Added: 2010-05-10

Africa and the Atlantic World Introduction Africa from Morocco to the Cape of Good Hope experienced new contacts with Europeans during the...

African American Religions

Stefania Capone

Subject: Atlantic History »

Date Added: 2011-08-26

African American Religions Introduction Since its beginnings, the study of African American religions has combined anthropological and histori...

African Religion and Culture

David Northrup

Subject: Atlantic History »

Date Added: 2010-05-10

African Religion and Culture Introduction Africa has been home to a great variety of religious and other cultural practices and beliefs, i...

[longwindedbore]

Today’s reminder that MAGA theocratic authoritarians don’t think enough States still have blasphemy laws, heresy laws, and anti-atheist laws on their books.

‘Although some courts have struck down blasphemy laws since World War II, several states still have them on the books today. Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and South Carolina all have statutes that make some reference to blasphemy.’

DEATH FOR HERESY!

‘…on October 27, the three condemned Quakers were led to their public hanging — the first execution for religion on American soil.

‘It was a dramatic day on Boston Common and angry opposition among the people led the authorities to bring out a hundred armed soldiers to stand guard over the proceedings.’

‘Atheists are certainly free to run for Congress, but …are prohibited from holding office in 8 states.The states…are Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.’

====================================

MAGA Evangelical want Christian Bibles in schools to ‘sort out’ the non-Christians. For expulsion.

MAGA Evangelicals want Volunteer ministers in Public schools to sort out the heretics. For criminal prosecution of parents.

MAGA contains a political faction that embraces terrorism. That faction involves the same White Separatists both in in spirit as well as being ex-members of the White Separatist movement who in the 1990s organized the Oklahoma bombing.

That faction is the same which has inflamed Evangelical religious extremists who have, since the 1990s, murdered, wounded, bombed, kidnapped and thrown acid at abortion providers.

Yes. Biden is old and a lot of his policies belong in history’s trash can.

HOWEVER Hitler sent German attorneys in the 1930s to study US States’ LAWS on eugenics and segregation.

MAGA admires Hitler and Putin as Good and Moral leaders.

Biden does not.

A way way way lesser of two evils is always a pragmatic choice.

Unless you’re looking forward to mandatory four hours of Sunday church attendance. And tithing.

[grandmaster-anne]

Court Circular | 9th March 2023

Buckingham Palace

His Excellency the Hon Philip Goff was received in audience by The King today upon his appointment as High Commissioner for New Zealand in London. Mrs Goff was also received by His Majesty. His Excellency the Hon Stephen Smith was received in audience by The King upon his appointment as High Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Australia in London. Ms Jane Seymour was also received by His Majesty. The King received Addresses from Privileged Bodies to which His Majesty was graciously pleased to make reply. These were: the General Synod of the Church of England, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Free Churches Group, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), the City of London Corporation, the Corporation of the City of Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh, the University of London, the University of St Andrews, the University of Glasgow, the University of Aberdeen, the Royal Society, the Greater London Authority, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association, the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, the Lieutenancy of the City of London, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral, the City of Westminster, the Corporation of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, the Dean and Canons of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, the Royal County of Berkshire, the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, and the Military Knights of Windsor. The King’s Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard was on duty. His Majesty afterwards held a Reception at Buckingham Palace for the Privileged Bodies. The King later visited the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Woodham Lane, New Haw, and was received by His Majesty’s LordLieutenant of Surrey (Mr Michael More-Molyneux), the Minister of State for Biosecurity (the Lord Benyon), the Chairman (Mr Christopher Nicholson) and Mr David Holdsworth (Chief Executive). His Majesty received briefings on the work of the Agency and visited the Avian Influenza Virology High Containment Laboratory and the Genome Mapping Laboratory, before visiting the Library and meeting members of staff and scientists. The Queen Consort this morning visited the British Racing School, Snailwell Road, Newmarket, to mark their Fortieth Anniversary and was received by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire (Mrs Julie Spence). Her Majesty, Patron, the British Sporting Art Trust, this afternoon visited Palace House, Palace Street, Newmarket, to unveil the Belvoir Huntsman painting and was received by the Hon Peter Stanley (Deputy Lieutenant of Suffolk).

Kensington Palace

The Prince and Princess of Wales this morning visited Hayes Muslim Centre, 3 Pump Lane, Hayes, Middlesex, and were received by Ms Manju Malhi (Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London).

St James’s Palace

The Earl of Wessex this morning visited Propstore, Great House Farm, Chenies, and was received by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire (Mr Robert Voss). His Royal Highness this afternoon visited Ashridge House, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, and planted a tree for The Queen’s Green Canopy. The Earl of Wessex, Patron, the Production Guild of Great Britain, later visited Sky Studios Elstree, Rowley Lane, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The Countess of Wessex this morning visited the Countryside Education Trust, Palace Lane, Beaulieu, and was received by the Hon Mary Montagu-Scott (Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire). Her Royal Highness, Patron, Lions Clubs International, Multiple District 105, British Isles and Ireland, this afternoon planted trees for The Queen’s Green Canopy.

St James’s Palace

The Princess Royal, Patron, Maritime UK, this evening attended the Annual Awards at DoubleTree by Hilton Hull, 24 Ferensway, Kingston Upon Hull, and was received by Her Majesty’s LordLieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire (Mr James Dick).

Kensington Palace

The Duke of Gloucester, Grand Prior, the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, this evening attended the Installation Dinner of the Prior of the Priory of England and the Islands at St John’s Gate, 26 St John’s Lane, London EC1. The Duchess of Gloucester, Royal Patron, Missing People, this evening attended the “Night of Light” Gala Dinner at the Pan Pacific Hotel, Houndsditch, London EC3, to celebrate the Thirtieth Anniversary