News

To register for this event, please email baptisthistoricalsociety@gmail.com

Due to the prevailing restrictions imposed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the BHS Committee has decided to hold the AGM online this year. This will take place on Wednesday June 3rd at 12.15pm. The meeting is open to personal members of BHS. If you wish to attend, please give your name and email address to Stephen Copson on stephen.bhs@dsl.pipex.com by May 22nd. You will then be given access to the Zoom location and also the Annual Report and Accounts, Baptist Quarterly annual report and the agenda.

This will be a day of interest to many – please pass on the news…

ICOBS is a triennial conference dedicated to the study of Baptist history and thought. Scholars from all over the world have been participating in ICOBS since our first conference at Oxford University in 1997. Our next ICOBS will be held at North Greenville University in Tigerville, South Carolina, USA on July 21-24, 2021. The theme for that conference will be “Baptists and Gender.”

Find out more here; ICOBS Conference

Available from November 24th 2019 will be Linking Hands with the Front by Janice O’Brien and Jonathan Barr

Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, situated in the centre of London, has always attracted a diverse community of members and friends. In the years preceding the First World War, young men and women flocking to the city for employment found within its walls a “home from home” and a church family. They came from all over Britain; some from Baptist congregations, while others were introduced into the church through friendships or an interest in the wider activities and societies offered by an institutional church.

With the outbreak of war Bloomsbury was immediately in the spotlight. The church’s minster, Thomas Phillips was well-known as a pacifist who hated war but now he was confronted with the reality of seeing a substantial number of his congregation make the choice of how to respond to the crisis. Many joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, others the YMCA, but a substantial number took up arms. In December 1915 he wrote:

“As to the number who have enlisted we are in danger of losing all count – there are over 300 connected with our different societies and taking the men who have passed through Bloomsbury during the last ten years there must be over a thousand – that is there is a Bloomsbury battalion in the field.”
This is the story of some of them…..

We have just had a very successful Summer Conference earlier this month. You can read the report here; Summer Conference 2019 Report

If you are interested, keep an eye out for details of the next one…

Open to God, Open to All: The History of Tyndale Baptist Church, Bristol, 1868-2018 ed John Briggs, 428pp, 2018, Tyndale Baptist Church and the Baptist Historical Society, £17.50 postage and packing included.

Available from Tyndale Baptist Church, Whiteladies Road, Clifton, BRISTOL, BS8 2QG

The Acadia Centre for Baptist and Anabaptist Studies (ACBAS) is pleased to announce a new prize competition in the general field of Baptist and Anabaptist history and thought, especially in Canada’s Atlantic region.

The annual Julian Gwyn Prize in Baptist and Anabaptist History and Thought, in the amount of $250 (Canadian), will be awarded for the best article approved for publication in a peerreviewed journal (including peer-reviewed student journals, open access journals, hybrid journals) by a doctoral- or masters-level student, in French or English. The initial award will be given for submissions published in 2018–2019, and annually thereafter when submissions of outstanding quality are received. The awards will normally be announced by November 1st following the close of the annual competition (June 30th of each year). *

All submissions must include: 1. An electronic copy of the article 2. Proof of the date of submission 3. Proof of current student status Email Submissions to acadiacbas@gmail.com

100 years ago, John Howard Shakespeare, who was then General Secretary of the Baptist Union, published his important book  The Churches At The Crossroads.  He challenged Baptists to rethink who they were, and, most significantly, how they related to others, asking them to reflect on the nature of the full Church of Christ.

Adrian Hastings commented that the book was ‘one of the most important books of twentieth century English Christianity because it sets out so clear the logic of the forthcoming ecumenical movement’ (A history of English Christianity 1920-2000 (SCM, 2001, p98))

As we mark 100 years since the publication of that ecumenical challenge – and as we continue to ask how we relate across denominational borders – here are some resources to help engage with the book, its impact and its legacy.

Keith Clements has written an article for the Baptist Times

JH Shakespeare and The Churches at the Cross-Roads (1918)

There are also articles in the Baptist Quarterly

JOHN HOW ARD SHAKESPEARE Prophet of Ecumenism by Michael Townsend

John Howard Shakespeare by his son, Geoffrey Shakespeare

and John Howard Shakespeare, 1857 .. 1928 An address delivered at a service in St. Mary’s Church, Norwich, to commemorate the centenary of his birth  by M E Aubrey.

Submissions are invited of an historical essay, exploring and assessing the contribution of a woman or a group of women to Baptist life. The topic may include women who have served in ordained or non-ordained ministry in the churches. Length of essay is 6.000 words. Deadline is December 31st 2019. The winning essayist will receive £200 and the Editors retain the right to publish essays in the Baptist Quarterly. Submissions are to be sent to Stephen Copson on stephen.bhs@dsl.pipex.com