Wednesday 13 August 2014

Conference: Presbyterians in the trans-Atlantic world

A conference will be held at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) next month to explore the theme Presbyterians in the trans-Atlantic world, 1550-1700. Free and open to all, the conference will be held in the Senate Room, Lanyon Building, QUB. Here's the provisional programme:

Friday 12 September

2:00pm ‘Congregational principles are lost in New England': The drift towards Presbyterian
policy in colonial New England, with Francis J. Bremer (Millersville University, PA)
 3:00–4:30pm   Session 1: English Presbyterians in the Atlantic world
Presbyterians and the Prayer Book in the British Atlantic, with Polly Ha
English Presbyterians and the Covenant, with Elliot Vernon
4:45–6:15pm   Session 2: Scottish Presbyterians in the Atlantic world
‘They hope to find an America in Scotland': An Ulster view of religious freedom on the eve of the Stuart Civil Wars, with Andrew Robinson
Transatlantic sufferings: The American colonies in post-Revolution Scottish martyrology, with Kathleen Middleton
6:30pm   Ascendency and exile: accounting for ecclesiological shifts in ‘Scottish’
Presbyterianism, with R Scott Spurlock (University of Glasgow)
7:45pm   Conference dinner. Molly’s Yard, Botanic Avenue

Saturday 13 September

9:00–10:30pm Session 3: Irish Presbyterians in the Atlantic world
The Irish Mayfair: People, places and problems, with Laurence Kirkpatrick
Thinking like a Presbyterian: Irish Presbyterians in the British Atlantic world, 1689-1707 with Robert Armstrong
11–12:30pm Session 4: Commerce and covenants in the Atlantic world
Covenants and Commerce: Presbyterian Networks in the Atlantic world, with Craig Gallagher
The ‘Radical’ become Revolutionary: Violence as a Means of ‘Salvation’ within Covenanting Political Thought in a British Atlantic World, 1630-1750, with Michael S Griggs
12:30pm Lunch [available locally]
1:30–3:00pm Session 5
David Houston (1633-96) – Disquieter of the Peace, with Thomas Donachie
Covenanter factions in colonial Presbyterianism, with Joseph S. Moore
3:00pm Hunting for ‘presbyterianism’ in puritan New England, then and now, with Michael
Winship (University of Georgia)
4:00pm Conference ends

The conference has been organised by Crawford Gribben of QUB as part of the Radical religion in the trans-Atlantic world: Ulster Scots perspectives project, and is funded by the Northern Ireland DCAL Ministerial Advisory Group on Ulster Scots (2014-15). All enquiries should be emailed to Crawford Gribben at c.gribben@qub.ac.uk.

(Thanks to the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland)