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URC History Society
1 Twenty seven members attended the Annual Meeting held jointly with the Baptist Historical Society at Dr Williams’s Library on Saturday 21 September. The Lecturer was the Revd Basil Amey on ‘The Free Church Federal Council: a retrospective view’. The Revd Geoffrey Roper, current Secretary of the Free Churches Group within Churches Together in England followed with an explanation of how the successor body operates. After lunch members were given an introductory talk about Dr Williams’s by David Powell, Special Cataloguer in the Congregational Library, and were able to look at interesting archival material, as well as touring the Library itself.
2 Reorganisation of the Society’s holdings continued. The Secretary acted as courier for material destined for Bristol, Cardiff and Leeds. Mr and Mrs Richard Potts assisted in the sorting and listing of the photographic collection and with their deposit of the remaining Yorkshire records, the task laid on the Society in 1997 to distribute material to the locality of origin was completed. The sale of surplus Communion tokens has been supervised by Mr Jeffrey Gardiner, another United Reformed Church member, all proceeds being devoted to Society’s Library. Extensive conservation work must begin soon and there will be costs associated with the storage of the national Presbyterian records that remain in the Society’s care.
3 Cataloguing of the Library, which will make it accessible ‘on line’, via the Cambridge University Library, has proceeded slowly but surely with the assistance of Dr Marian Foster, the recently retired Librarian of the Cambridge Theological Federation. The teamwork of the Chairman and Administrator in identifying duplicate stock ensured that a complete set of the Presbyterian Messenger and another of the Record of the national Synod/Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in/of England were donated to New College, Edinburgh. Other duplicates were sold to interested individuals or libraries.
4 Visitors are always welcome and should contact the Administrator, Mrs M Thompson at Westminster College, Cambridge CB3 0AA / 01223 741300 / mt212@cam.ac.uk (not Wednesdays). For those interested in the antecedents of Dissent, a short pamphlet, Pilgrim Roots, gives some directions for a tour of significant sites. The Manuscript copy of the Westminster Confession was the centre piece of a lecture given in a College context, but one which led to the Council’s decision to make a microfilm copy for use by scholars.
5 The Society’s Journal completed another volume (6) in July. Articles covered isisues of conscience, gender, culture and society, together with celebration of significant dates and ministries. The Editor, Clyde Binfield, succeeded Elaine Kay as Society President at the Annual Meeting.
6 The first General Assembly to be held north of the Border provided an opportunity to learn about Independency in Scotland, in a lunch‑time talk by the Revd Dr W D McNaughton on ‘Early Congregationalism and St Andrews’.
7 Copies of congregational histories are always useful additions to the Society’s collection. Churches may take out corporate membership at the same rate (£13) as individuals and there is a reduction for students.
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