Westminster Conference 2019 Day 1

Pipa, Walker, Strivens

It was very good to be at the conference this week down in Oxford Street. We had a decent turn out and the papers and even the discussions went well. We kicked off by looking at William Perkins. Our American speaker Joseph Pipa is a Perkins expert but was able to bring a lightness of touch to his delivery that made the subject come alive. It was a great start and we had a good if slightly diffuse discussion under a good chairman (Andy Young).

The other two parts of the day followed on from each other with committee members Jeremy Walker and Robert Strivens looking consecutively at the theory (A holy God worshipped in spirit of holy fear according to a holy book) and practice of Puritan worship. The latter focused on the 1662 men adn their rejection of the prayer book. They spoke and chaired each other with time only for questions of clarification immediately after the paper. We then discussed both papers together. On reflection it might have been better to introduce a third person to chair that. We also got slightly sidetracked onto the question of Christmas trees in the worship area but it was a good day all round.