REGENT’S NOW COLLEGE LIFE
Research at Regent's
The Angus Library and Archive EMILY BURGOYNE, ANGUS LIBRARIAN
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Centre for Baptist Studies DR CHRISTINE JOYNES, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE FOR BAPTIST STUDIES & TUTORIAL FELLOW IN THEOLOGY
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021 was a busy year for the Centre as we continued to connect via Zoom. In March we enjoyed a day conference ‘Blake and the Baptists’, attended online by friends from Australia to America and featuring papers by Paul Fiddes (‘Freedom from the Law: Is Blake also among the Baptists?’), Nicholas Shrimpton (‘Blake and John Linnell’), and Susanne Sklar (‘Praise is the Practice of Art’). We were also delighted to co-sponsor (with the Baptist Historical Society) a special lecture by William H. Brackney: ‘Perticular or Particular? In Search of When the English Calvinistic Baptists became Particular’ (available to access on the Baptist Historical Society website). A significant highlight of 2021 was the launch of Project Violet, a CBS research project exploring women’s experiences in ministry, by project co-leaders Helen Cameron and Jane Day in July. The first phase of the project (inviting feedback from Baptist women ministers) produced a strong response rate. In November this was followed up by a seminar ‘Discernment,
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dialogue and the Church Meeting’, with speakers Rachel Muers and Ruth Moriarty. Make sure to check out the Project Violet website at www.baptist.org.uk! Our termly lunchtime lectures have continued to bring together church and academy for fruitful discussion. We welcomed alumnus Jack Wakefield (Theology, 2013) and María Alejandra Andrade from Tearfund to explore a Christian response to Climate Change and COP26 and Eleasah Louis to discuss the Baptist Union’s Visions of Colour initiative, sponsored by the Sam Sharpe project in which the CBS is a partner. Our second conference (‘Sacred Song through Eighteenth-Century Hymnody’) was particularly apt given the absence of singing for much of the pandemic and attracted participants from Korea to Canada. Topics discussed included Anne Steele’s pursuit of happiness (Nancy Jiwon Cho) and holy tears in Steele’s hymnody (Cindy Aalders)! Papers by Tim Whelan on the religious poetry of Hannah Towgood Wakeford (1725-46) and Mary Steele Wakeford (1724-72) and J.R. Watson on Simon Browne and Dissenting Hymnody extended the discussion to other hymn writers. The Centre has continued to publish a variety of literature ranging from David McLachlan’s 2021 Whitley Lecture (Does This Cross Have Disabled Access?) to a Festschrift for Rob Ellis (Being Attentive: Explorations in Practical Theology, ed. Anthony Clarke). Details of our forthcoming activities can be found via the College website, or our Twitter account @CBS Oxford. Many events will continue online in 2022 so we hope that you will join us in the coming year!
he Angus has started to look more like its normal self since October 2021, when we finally welcomed visiting students and researchers back, albeit with Covid precautions in place. Throughout 2021 we worked tremendously hard to help the many people who couldn’t visit while we were closed. We received enquiries on topics covering every century from the 1600s onwards and ranging from the history of abolitionism and the hymns of English Baptist hymn writer and essayist Anne Steele (1717-1778) to coffee plantations in the Congo and the papers of British Nonconformist minister and politician John Clifford (1836-1923). The Friends of the Angus ‘Opening the Angus’ online seminars in 2021 covered a variety of fascinating subjects. Two of the most popular talks were given by members of the Regent’s community: Dr Lynn Robson discussed three women whose works are held in the Angus, Ann Askew, Martha Gurney and the unknown compiler of an antislavery commonplace book; while Dr Julian Thompson and I spoke together about Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and its links with the work of the Baptist Missionary Society in Congo. 2021 saw the launch of the William H. and Kathryn E. Brackney Angus Travel Bursary, awarded to Landon Adams of William Carey University in Mississippi. Landon will be joining us in 2022 to work on William Ward (1769–1823), one of the first Baptist missionaries in India. Last year also witnessed a significant bridging of the gap between the 17th and 21st centuries, when thanks to a generous grant from the Baptist Historical Society, the records of Cripplegate Baptist Church and Hexham and Hamsterley Baptist Church were digitised and made available to view on the digital library JSTOR. We hope to digitise more material in this way and plan to carry out a number of conservation projects. 2022 promises to be another fantastic, interesting, and busy year!
