CONFERENCES
Learn about past and upcoming conferences sponsored by the Congregational Library & Archives.
The Congregational Library & Archives is pleased to host, sponsor, and organize conferences at 14 Beacon and online that bring together researchers whose work seeks to understand, interpret, and share the 400+ year Congregational story and its ongoing relevance today with audiences around the world.
GEMMS Preachers, Hearers, Readers, & Scribes Conference
October 3-5, 2024
The conference explored early modern sermon manuscripts from the British Isles, including Scotland and Wales, and North America, including present-day Mexico. Speakers considered a wide range of sermon manuscripts, from full sermons, sermon notes and notebooks, to mock sermons, sermon parodies, and sermons reports. They considered the perspectives of not only preachers from a range of persuasions, both Protestant and Catholic, but also of lay readers and hearers, women preachers, and indigenous preachers and auditors.
Mission and Transmission: Walking in the Congregational Way
July 17, 2024
The conference focused on the Congregational Way is an expression of Christianity in every part of the world. For some, it spread through the mission agencies of the USA and UK. In other places, it was transmitted through shifts in population as a result of persecution and conflict, or exploration and seeking new lives. But it has also arisen as a natural response to the Gospel, as God calls communities to express their lives in freedom.