In Writing 133 Now available

The latest copy of the Evangelical Library's In writing magazine is now available. It is free to members and costs £1.50 to buy. Do note the back cover

Lecture on Coggeshall at the Evangelical Library

I was able to give the second of this Spring's lunch time lectures at the Evangelical Library last Monday and it went well with a good number present. I threw in some pictures which helped. Having looked into Obadiah Sedgwick last year I discovered what a pot pourri of evangelical history swirls about Coggeshall and it seemed to me that it would be possible to produce a short spiritual history of the place of some interest. Not all my ideas come off but with references to a Marian martyr, Owen and Sedgwick, Spurgeon's grandfather and one or two others it went well. I wonder if there are other places that could bear similar treatments.

Poor taste humour

I did mean to show you what they have done in the parish church St Peter's in Coggeshall. When I got to the church the other day I looked around for evidence of Owen and Sedgwick's time at the church there seemed to be none but then I went into the extension on the side of the church and there were several portraits including the two above on a staircase. I can't quite show you properly but what they had done (as a sort of joke I guess) was to place the two Puritans between a crucifix and a statue of Mary. I see the humour but it's in poor taste really, especially when you think of the way nonconformists suffered from 1662 on.

Obadiah Sedgwick

 

Thomas Athow, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday evening in London you have heard Shai Lynne in ELT or Tim Keller in All Souls. or you coudl have heard me and others at the Strangers Rest Mission, East London. I spoke on  Puritan and Westminster Divine Obadiah Sedgwick at The Essex Conference. I was preceded by Norman Hopkins giving a presentation on the Huegenots and our host David Min on John Owen (Sedgwick's successor).  In the afternoon several had gone ona  walking tour. I started later then intended so had to be brief but that was probably for the best. The conference is new and probably needs better publicity and some streamlining. The whole thing is a three day event! I'll try adn out my paper online.

Day Off Week 43

On my day off this week I got into the car and travelled about an hour and a half east to the little town of Coggeshall in Essex. I am going to give a paper on Friday at the Essex Conference on Obadiah Sedgwick, one of the former incumbents there. It was good to see the parish church and the place itself. I discovered that next door to the church is an inn (the Woolpack) that was once a nonconformist church. I was also unaware of the martyrdom of Thomas Hawkes that took place in 1555. It was worth the visit, especially as the little library there put me on to a book I had missed. I also discovered another good connection. It beats me how a little place like that can have a proper little library while here in Childs Hill we struggle on with a voluntary arrangement where the Library is not open very much. I managed to fit in a spot of Leez Priory, open these days chiefly for private functions, where Sedgwick was sometimes entertained. En route I played some Focus albums from the box set I purchased a short while ago. Got through the first three albums. Back here I bought a new light fitting for the downstairs loo and started putting it in and watched some TV. Only the smallest bit of reading.