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At the time of the Mayflower tercentenary, it would have been difficult to find a more fitting venue for commemorating the Pilgrim Fathers than Baxter Church in Kidderminster, Worcestershire. Baxter Church was named for the well-known Puritan Richard Baxter (1615-1691), who preached throughout the Civil War to parliamentarian garrisons, though he was himself of a less radical stance than many contemporaries and felt politically opposed to Cromwell. Baxter’s struggle to reconcile political conservatism with religious radicalism echoes the struggle felt by the Separatists who sailed on the Mayflower.
Kidderminster’s Baxter Church was a venue for lectures and sermons during the Tercentenary. Rev. E.D. Braimbridge drew an analogy between the Pilgrim Fathers and the biblical patriarch Abraham, who “went forth at the call of Heaven, and Heaven prospered their adventure”. Like many other speakers elsewhere, Braimbridge emphasised the hardship suffered by the Pilgrims, as compared with the luxuries of 1920. He also drew connections between the Congregationalists’ struggle for liberty in America and Britain. But he was at pains too to contrast the adventures of the Pilgrims, who sought to build a new Promised Land in the American continent, with earlier attempts by men like Columbus to impose autocracy – an old stereotype often applied to Catholicism. Unlike larger civic celebrations, those at Baxter Church, Kidderminster were very focused and even educational, placing great emphasis on the religion of the Pilgrim Fathers and the link between religious communions past and present.
Kidderminster’s Baxter Church was a venue for lectures and sermons during the Tercentenary. Rev. E.D. Braimbridge drew an analogy between the Pilgrim Fathers and the biblical patriarch Abraham, who “went forth at the call of Heaven, and Heaven prospered their adventure”. Like many other speakers elsewhere, Braimbridge emphasised the hardship suffered by the Pilgrims, as compared with the luxuries of 1920. He also drew connections between the Congregationalists’ struggle for liberty in America and Britain. But he was at pains too to contrast the adventures of the Pilgrims, who sought to build a new Promised Land in the American continent, with earlier attempts by men like Columbus to impose autocracy – an old stereotype often applied to Catholicism. Unlike larger civic celebrations, those at Baxter Church, Kidderminster were very focused and even educational, placing great emphasis on the religion of the Pilgrim Fathers and the link between religious communions past and present.
Source
Kidderminster Shuttle, “The ‘Mayflower’ Tercentenary”, 25 September 1920
Kidderminster Shuttle, “‘Mayflower’ Celebrations”, 9 Oct 1920
Baxter Church
N.H. Keeble, “Richard Baxter (1615-1691), ejected minister and religious writer”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Kidderminster Shuttle, “‘Mayflower’ Celebrations”, 9 Oct 1920
Baxter Church
N.H. Keeble, “Richard Baxter (1615-1691), ejected minister and religious writer”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.