Gaskell and Unitarianism:

A reaction from Anne  It was Kelli B. Trujillo, in the original article that said

( Gaskell, who was a Unitarian, further skews Bronte’s beliefs as she interprets them through her own less-than-orthodox theological lens.)

I said

Few also seem to ponder if Mrs G 's attack on Patrick Bronte was in part an attack on the Established church itself...I think that has to be considered. People don't know how bitter the dispute between different groups was.

The reaction of Anne makes me wonder about Elisabeth Gaskell and Unitarisme.

Gaskell and Unitarianism:

During her formative years Gaskell had been brought up amongst Unitarians of a Priestleyan cast. These included Turner, Robberds, and her husband. These "old school" Unitarians believed in a deterministic—called by Priestley "necessarian"—universe in which human error inevitably led to suffering, and suffering infallibly brought about reconciliation with God. The plots of her more serious novels conform to the necessarian pattern, sometimes apparently compromising the logic of her social messages. In a crucial scene in North and South she depicts three people, an Anglican, a Dissenter, and an "infidel," kneeling together in mutual tolerance and reconciliation. According to scholar R. K. Webb, "Mrs. Gaskell's Unitarianism is not to be found in her characters but in the dynamics of her narratives and in her comments upon her characters' actions." Not wishing to be identified as a "Unitarian novelist" as this would severely limit her readership, Gaskell was careful not to tell her stories in explicitly Unitarian terms. In her personal letters, however, there are many clear expressions of her religious opinions and affinities. In a letter to her daughter Marianne she wrote, "one thing I am clear and sure about is this that Jesus Christ was not equal to His father." Gaskell preferred devotional to doctrinal preaching. About doctrines, she wrote to Charles Eliot Norton, "I am more and more certain we can never be certain in this world." She rejected "dogmatic hard Unitarianism, utilitarian to the backbone" and protested that she was not "(Unitarianly) orthodox!" See wrote a friend how she had tried to avoid seeing James Martineau, whom she did not like personally and whose "new school" Unitarian theology differed from her own. Gaskell frequently attended Church (Anglican services) as well as Chapel. She enjoyed the spiritual feeling of the high church service. "I wish our Puritan ancestors had not left out so much that they might have kept in of the beautiful and impressive Church service," she confided to Marianne. "But I always do feel as if the Litany—the beginning of it I mean,—and one or two other parts did so completely go against my belief that it would be wrong to deaden my sense of its serious error by hearing it too often." In Gaskell's estimation, true Christianity was not to be found in organized denominations nor in liturgy nor in theology. She believed and acted on a religion of works, "the real earnest Christianity which seeks to do as much and as extensive good as it can." Local action for change by those most intimately concerned, not government legislation, was her solution to social problems. Those who have should help those who have not. For her such charity began at or near home. She took her motto from Thomas Carlyle, "Do the duty that lies nearest to thee." Unitarian rationalist feminist journalist Frances Power Cobbe, after reading a story by Gaskell, wrote, "it came to me that Love is greater than knowledge—that it is more beautiful to serve our brothers freely and tenderly, than to hive up learning with each studious year." The originals of Elizabeth Gaskell's surviving correspondence are scattered in many collections throughout Britain and America. They have been gathered and issued in print, however, in J.A.V. Chapple and Arthur Pollard, editors, The Letters of Mrs Gaskell (1966). The Knutsford Edition, The Works of Mrs. Gaskell, edited by A.W. Ward (1906), 8 volumes, is the most complete edition of Gaskell's works. It does not, however, include The Life of Charlotte Brontë. Gaskell's novels and Charlotte Brontë are readily available in many editions, notably those issued by Penguin and Oxford University Press. Works not mentioned above include a set of serialized stories, My Lady Ludlow (1858); an historical novel, Sylvia's Lovers (1863), and a short novel, Cousin Phillis (1864). Among Gaskell's short stories are "The Poor Clare" (1856), "Lois the Witch" (1859), and "The Grey Woman" (1861). These and some others are collected in Laura Kranzler, editor, Gothic Tales (2000). The contemporary critical response to Gaskell has been compiled by Angus Easson in Elizabeth Gaskell: The Critical Heritage (1991). Two valuable recent biographies of Gaskell are Winifred Gérin, Elizabeth Gaskell, a Biography (1976) and Jenny Uglow, Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories (1993). Coral Lansbury, Elizabeth Gaskell, the Novel of Social Crisis (1975) and Angus Easson, Elizabeth Gaskell (1979) are works of criticism with a strong biographical emphasis. Easson has a treatment of Gaskell's Unitarian background and beliefs. More theologically sophisticated, however, is Robert K. Webb, "The Gaskells as Unitarians," in Joanne Shattock, Dickens and Other Victorians (1988). There are shorter treatments of Gaskell in Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, Vol. 4: Victorian Writer, 1832-1890 and in Ruth Watts, Gender, Power and the Unitarians in England, 1760-1860 (1998). The fullest treatment of Gaskell's husband is Barbara Brill, William Gaskell, 1805-1884 (1984). The story of her relationship with Charles Dickens is briefly told by Sally Ledger in Paul Schlicke, editor, Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens (1999).
elizabethgaskell
wiki/Unitarianism

Charlotte Brontes radical cour

From
todayschristianwoman/charlotte brontes radical cour:


I’m so thankful that Charlotte Bronte had the courage to follow her calling.
I could go on and on about Charlotte’s courage: her courage to reject two marriage proposals and remain single because of her convictions about love and equality; her courage to press through grief when both sisters and her brother died of illness in a relatively short time frame; her courage eventually to risk her heart and marry a friend she’d grown to love.
Bronte’s courage, both in her literary works and personal life, stemmed from her deeply-rooted faith.
Unfortunately, the spiritual aspects of Bronte’s work are often overlooked or misunderstood. Many movie versions of Jane Eyre seem to be stripped of the Christian themes driving the novel’s narrative (Bronte’s novel quotes Scripture, for goodness sake!). Further, James’s Secret Diaries and Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Bronte both downplay and misstate her faith, portraying it as a fairly unimportant part of her life. (Gaskell, who was a Unitarian, further skews Bronte’s beliefs as she interprets them through her own less-than-orthodox theological lens.)
Yet we know, particularly from Bronte’s letters to her friend Ellen Nussey and correspondence from her eventual courtship and marriage to pastor Arthur Bell Nicholls, that her Christian faith was in fact a profoundly significant part of her identity. This faith in Christ, this deeply ingrained theology, this disciplined spiritual life drove and inspired what some scholars have dubbed Bronte’s “radical Protestant feminism.” Though her views seem tame to us 21st-century readers, it was in fact “radical” in her day to believe that there was an inherent God-given equality between men and women and to assert that women had something important to offer the world and the church.
Charlotte had much cause for discouragement in her life: she lived as a “spinster” in a culture in which singleness was less-than encouraged. She tragically lost close friends and beloved family members to death and disease. She dealt with entrenched gender-barriers as she sought to pursue her call to write. I’m certain—and we can see this in her letters—that Bronte faced periods of intense discouragement. Yet in her pattern of regular Bible reading and memorization, I like to imagine her reading and contemplating these lines: “Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).
I’m thankful that Bronte held such “radical” views about women. I’m glad she created Jane, a protagonist whose passionate personality and Christian virtue continue to inspire women across the globe. And I’m especially grateful that Bronte found the courage to answer God’s call to write—and to make a profound mark on literature that will continue to endure.
Kelli B. Trujillo is a contributing editor to Kyria.com. She is the author of Faith-Filled Moments: Helping Kids See God in Everyday Life and Busy Mom’s Guide to Spiritual Survival. www.kellitrujillo.com

Posted by Ashley Moore on December 6, 2011

Religion in Victorian Britain

General A Timeline of Religion and Philosophy The Warfare of Conscience with Theology in Victorian Britain Victorian Science and Religion The Church of England — the Anglican or Established Church An Introduction and Brief History The 39 Articles of Religion The Anglican Book of Common Prayer and Victorian Values The Book of Common Prayer: Its Literary and Cultural Influences "Parish": a definition The Evangelical Movement Introduction Evangelicalism (Overview/Sitemap) Evangelical Doctrine The Evangelical Movement in the Church of England (extended discussion) The Olney Hymns Evangelical Popular Science Publishing Positive Influence on English Society Sabbatarianism, Sabbath Observance, and Social Class High Church (Tractarians, Oxford Movement) Sitemap Introduction The Tractarian Movement John Henry Newman John Keble Edward Pusey Isaac Williams' Tractarian Cathedral The Ritualist Movement The Broad Church, or Liberal Anglicanism Introduction Sitemap Thomas Arnold Dr. Arnold and the Meaning of Anglican Liberalism Frederick W. Robertson Essays and Reviews Muscular Christianity and Christian Socialism F. D. Maurice Charles Kingsley Muscular Christianity Roman Catholicism Introduction Catholicism in Britain: An Overview Old Catholics New Converts Papal Infallibility Reestablishment of the Catholic Hierarchy in Britain Dissenters Introduction The Dissenting Ethos Baptists Congregationalists Covenanters Methodism Introduction Life and Works of John Wesley George Whitefield The Cultural Influence of Methodism Moravians Plymouth Brethren Presbyterianism Henry Irving and the Catholic Apostolic Church Puritanism in England Puritanism in America Quakers, or the Society of Friends Politics and Theology in Victorian Dissent The Protestant Fight for Jewish Civil Liberties in Victorian England The Salvation Army victorianweb

Traditions, Alternative Agnosticism Arminianism Atheism Boehme Comteian Positivism Deism The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Judaism in Nineteenth-Century England Occultism William Paley and Natural Theology Philosophy Overview Socinianism Spiritualism Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky Anna Kingsford Emanuel Swedenborg and Swedenborgians Unitarianism Ethical Arguments against Religion in Victorian Britain The Bible, Interpretation, and Religious Symbolism Revelation defined Apocalyptics Victorian Apocalyptics Three Victorian Schools of Interpretation Historical Approaches Prophecy The Four-part Pattern of Prophecy Thomas Scott on Prophecy Typology (Figuralism) Sitemap Moses Striking the Rock Pisgah Sight Ruskin and the Rainbow Broad Church, Historicist, and Rationalist Approaches The Higher Criticism Bishop Colenso and Literal Truth of Bible Frederick Temple and Broad Church Conceptions of the Bible Liturgical Colors The Gutenberg Bible (British Library) Related Literary Genres and Modes Commentaries Hymns Religious poetry Sermons Tracts Bibliography Suggested Readings Victorian Religious Periodicals Some Pre-Victorian Religious Texts (Including Scripture) Available On-Line

Haworth

miladysboudoir/a-literary-pilgrimage-in-yorkshire

The Language of Flowers in the Victorian Knowledge Age

The Language of Flowers in the Victorian Knowledge Age
Molly Engelhardt
Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
Victoriographies. Volume 3, Page 136-160

The language of flowers is typically dismissed as a subgenre of botany books that, while popular, had little if any influence on the material culture of Victorian life. This article challenges this assumption by situating the genre within the context of the professionalisation of botany at mid-century to show how efforts to change attitudes towards botany from a fashionable pastime for the gentler sex to a utilitarian practice in service of humanity contributed to the revitalisation and popularity of the language of flowers. While scientific botanists sought to know flowers physiologically and morphologically in the spirit of progress and truth, practitioners of the language of flowers – written primarily for and by women – celebrated uncertainty and relied on floral codes to curtail knowing in order to extend the realm of play. The struggle for floral authority was centred in botanical discourses – both scientific and amateur – but extended as well into narrative fiction. Turning to works by Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë, and George Eliot, I show how Victorian writers expected a certain degree of floral literacy from their readers and used floral codes strategically in their fiction as subtexts for practitioners of the language of flowers. These three writers, I argue, took a stand in the gender struggle over floral authority by creating scientific botanists who are so obsessed with dissecting plants to reveal their secrets and know their ‘life truths’ that they become farsighted in matters of romantic love and unable to read the most obvious and surface of floral codes. The consequences of the dismissal of the superficial are in some cases quite disastrous.
bronteblog/feminism-flowers-and-secularity

Patrick Bronte and Mary Fletcher. The 'Madeley Circle'

 

Portrait of Mary Bosanquet, later Mary Fletcher (c1739-1815), who lived for 14 years at Cross Hall in Morley and was one of the pioneers of Methodism in the town; John Wesley is known to have been a visitor there. Born in London about 1739, Mary came to Morley in 1768 and bought Cross Hall as a home for the 14 orphan girls she had taken into her care. In 1781 she married the Rev. John Fletcher of Madeley in Shropshire and left Cross Hall to move there with him, but not before finding homes with local families for the orphans in her care. Photograph from the David Atkinson Archive.

leodis

Patrick Bronte left Cambridge in 1806 and, after being ordained, took up a curacy in Wethersfield, Essex. He arrived in Shropshire three years later in a move he may have secured through John Nunn (his former college room mate at Cambridge) the curate of St Chad's, Shrewsbury. In Wellington, Bronte served under the Rev John Eyton, a powerful preacher in the evangelist tradition whose sermons were among the first to be published by Houlston's printers. Eyton's own failing health ensured that Bronte was charged with a wide range of duties, both in the town itself and in the nearby parish of Eyton-Upon-The-Weald-Moors where, on one occasion, the young curate made an assessment for the relief of the local poor. During Bronte's short tenure at All Saints, the friendships of local schoolmaster John Fennell and William Morgan, his fellow curate at the church, proved particularly valuable.

Morgan was responsible for introducing Bronte to the 'Madeley Circle',
A group of like-minded individuals who met in the nearby town at the home of Mary Fletcher, the widow of prominent Methodist preacher Rev John Fletcher. It is probable that Bronte learnt of and successfully applied for the position of Curate at Dewsbury through the group, whose members included John Crosse, Vicar of Bradford. Yorkshire was regarded as a 'promised land' for those practicing the evangelical tradition and Bronte may eventually have ended up in the county at some point anyway. Indeed, it seems to have been a long-held ambition of the young curate. madeley_circle

The Methodists in Bradford
have, like other places around, opened their chapels for services in Church hours and are become wholly dissenters. What reason they had for so doing in Bradford, I could never learn: tho Mr [John] Crosse and his curates are acknowledged by the Methodists as preaching and acting as the Gospel requires, yet they have left us! We have our church as full as ever & the new church is rapidly rising with every appearance of being filled. I am sorry to say that the majority of the committee at Woodhouse Grove [School] did not act towards Mr Fennel as they ought to have done and as they promised to do. I shall not enter into detail on that subject . If however you wish to know the particulars, I have stated them in a letter to Revd. Mr Gilpin…Mr F. may perhaps write to you himself.’ archives

Letter from William Morgan in Bradford to Mary Fletcher.
Morgan is sending a few lines to inform her how he has been since leaving Shropshire. He has much to be thankful for. ‘I have great cause to bless God for my leaving Wellington. The means which led to that circumstance though crooked led me I trust strait forward in the way I should go. I see more and more that men, both good and bad, are instruments in God’s hands & that “He doth all things well”…’
He found that the Methodists at first were ‘remarkably shy; but now we go on well. The different denominations in Bradford act towards each other in a manner highly consistent with those whose religion is – love.’
[John] Crosse left him soon after he arrived, intending to go to Bath and London for two months, but he went no further than Manchester where he stayed to assist Dr [Cornelius] Bayley who has been very unwell for a long time. Crosse has returned but is to leave again for three weeks to help Bayley.
Morgan finds that his health is very good. He likes the people here very much and the work load is not heavy. ‘Religion is flourishing among us’ – Morgan has heard some speak of Fletcher and there are some now in Bradford who were once her ‘fellow pilgrims.’
Mr [Patrick] Bronte has got a living within seven miles of Bradford [Hartshead near Dewsbury, Yorkshire.] where he ‘resides very comfortably and is very useful among his people. He desired me to present his Christian regards…He and I often meet…’ [John] Crosse sends his regards and was pleased to hear how she is doing. Crosse is very ‘hearty’ in all respects other than his near blindness. Morgan boards with him at the Vicarage and they enjoy much conversation together. ‘He still retains all the correctness of a gentleman with the graces of a Christian. He is universally respected by rich and poor. And I fear that they will not fully learn his value, but by his loss.’
Morgan would be pleased to receive a letter from Fletcher. He will also write to Mr Walters. [The Anglican curate at Madeley]
His regards should be passed to [Mary] Tooth.
Annotated by Fletcher – ‘Letters to answer July 18 – [Anne] Tripp, [William] Morgan, [Eleanor] Dickinson’
[ Note: Notes William Morgan was born probably in Bradford, Yorkshire. He was educated at Cambridge University and was ordained into the Anglican ministry. Morgan was the curate of Bradford between 1815 and 1851 and was closely associated with the noted evangelical Rector of the parish John Crosse, whose biography he wrote in 1841. Morgan was Rector of Hulcott in Buckinghamshire from 1851 to 1858 and vanished from the Clergy List in 1867. Source: Dictionary of National Biography under John Crosse and J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses (1951) John Crosse (1739-1816) was the son of Hammond Crosse, gent. of Kensington, London. He was educated at a school near Barnet, Hertfordshire. It is not known when and by whom Crosse was ordained into the Anglican Church but as a young man he occupied curacies in Wiltshire and the Lock Chapel in London. From 1765 for three years he traveled around Europe and then completed studies at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, from where he graduated B.A. in 1768. In 1776 Crosse was incorporated B.A. at Cambridge and later took the degree of M.A. at King's College. After graduation Crosse held several curacies in the north of England before being appointed Vicar of Bradford in 1784. Crosse was a well-regarded evangelical who despite being afflicted with blindness during the last years of his life, continued to perform the offices of the Church until a fortnight before his death. Under the terms of his will, Crosse founded three theological scholarships at Cambridge University and left money in trust for the promotion of the 'cause of true religion'. His life was made the subject of a book by Rev. William Morgan in 1841. Source: Dictionary of National Biography Cornelius Bayley (1751-1812) was born at Ashe near Whitchurch in Shropshire. His father was a leather breeches maker who appears to have moved to Manchester while Bayley was very young. Cornelius was educated at Whitchurch Grammar School and subsequently worked there as a master. He is referred to in Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses and the Dictionary of National Biography as being a Methodist preacher, but he is not recorded in the printed lists of early itinerants. Bayley was ordained deacon in the Church of England in 1780. He moved to Manchester and was the first incumbent of the 'proprietary church' of St James, which he built in 1787. The degree of B.D. was conferred on him at Cambridge in 1792, and that of D.D. in 1800. Bayley published an Hebrew grammar in 1792 and a preface to an edition of the 'Homilies' of the Church, published at Manchester in 1811. His other writings include sermons and pamphlets. Bayley's wife Rachel was a close friend of Mary Bosanquet-Fletcher. After her husband's death, she was involved in controversies regarding ministerial oversight of Manchester St James. Source: Fletcher-Tooth collection, Alumni Cantabrigienses compiled by J. A. Venn (1940) and Dictionary of National Biography Patrick Bronte (1777-1861) was born at Emnath, Drumballrooney, Ireland. He was educated at St John’s College Cambridge where he was supported financially by the evangelicals William Wilberforce and Henry Thornton. Bronte was ordained in 1806 and served a curacy in Essex until 1809, after which he became a curate at Wellington in Shropshire for a short time. During his time in Wellington, Bronte made the acquaintance of the prominent lay Methodist Mary Fletcher. In December 1809 he moved to West Yorkshire and occupied curacies in several parishes until 1820 when he was appointed Perpetual Curate of Haworth where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He maintained very friendly relations with Methodists and served for a time as examiner at Woodhouse Grove School near Leeds. During his visits to the school, Bronte met Maria Branwell who he later married. Bronte was a published poet in his own right but his chief claim to fame lies in his daughters, the famous Bronte sisters of Haworth. Source: Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, edited by Donald Lewis (1995) and The Story of Woodhouse Grove School by F. C. Pritchard (1978), 19-20. Eleanor Dickenson (1747-1815) was born at Horsforth near Leeds, Yorkshire, the daughter of Robert and Anne Thornton. Orphaned by the age of nine, Eleanor was converted at an early age and was a devout member of the Church of England. At the age of 21 she began to attend Methodist preaching and in 1773 married Abraham Dickinson (d.1804), a member of the Leeds Methodist Society. Eleanor was a close friend and regular correspondent of Mary Bosanquet-Fletcher. A generous giver to the poor, Eleanor acted as a class leader for many years and enjoyed a wide reputation for saintliness of character. Source: Methodist Magazine 1819, 683ff ] archives

Patrick and Maria Brontë’s strong religious faith

Maria Branwell was the eighth child of twelve born to Thomas Branwell and Anne Carne in Penzance, Cornwall, England, The family were prominent Methodists, Thomas's sister and two of his daughters marrying clergymen of Wesleyan leanings. With the Carne family and others, they initiated and developed the first Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Penzance.

 He moved to England in 1802 to study theology at St. John's College, Cambridge, and received his BA degree in 1806. he was then appointed curate at Wethersfield, Essex, where he was ordained a deacon of the Church of England in 1806, and into the priesthood in 1807.^[3]

Read: google.nl/brontes and religion 

Patrick Brontë’s strong religious faith was firmly based on the King James Bible, quotations from which are freely found in his correspondence and fictional works. Doubts about the reliability of this version or the veracity of some of its statements do not seem to have troubled him. Unlike his daughters he seems to have had no difficulty with the Old Testament doctrine that the wicked will be punished in this world or the New Testament doctrine of eternal punishment hereafter, but he did reject predestination to damnation and was no mean bigot in dealing with Catholics or Nonconformists. Nor would he have approved of the facile optimism of some modern Christian thinking which he would have dismissed as unscriptural.  ingentaconnect

1806 April - Graduated as Bachelor of Arts. Aug - Ordained deacon by The Bishop of London. Oct - Took his first duties as curate in Wethersfield, Essex.
1807 Ordained priest by the Bishop of Salisbury at St. James' Palace
1809 Jan - Started curacy at Wellington, under the Rev'd John Eyton. Nov - Offered the post of chaplain to the Governor of Martinique. Dec - Started curacy at All Saints', Dewsbury, under the Rev'd John Buckworth. Proceeded to an active, caring ministry
 

When I read about the Brontes and the religious influences of their time it dazzles me: What are Wesleyans, Methodists, Nonconformists?

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church^[2][3][4][5] in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by Saint Augustine of Canterbury in AD 597.
As a result of Augustine's mission, the church in England came under the authority of the pope. Initially prompted by a dispute over the annulment of the marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon, the Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 and became the established church by an Act of Parliament in the Act of Supremacy, beginning a series of events known as the English Reformation.^[6] During the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip, the church was fully restored under Rome in 1555. Papal authority was again explicitly rejected after the accession of Queen Elizabeth I when the Act of Supremacy of 1558 was passed. Catholic and Reformed factions vied for determining the doctrines and worship of the church. This ended with the 1558 Elizabethan settlement, which developed the understanding that the church was to be both Catholic and Reformed:

• Catholic in that it views itself as a part of the universal church of Jesus Christ in unbroken continuity with the early apostolic church. This is expressed in its emphasis on the teachings of the early Church Fathers, as formalised in the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds.^[7]
• Reformed in that it has been shaped by some of the doctrinal principles of the 16th century Protestant Reformation, in particular in the Thirty-Nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer.^[7]

During the 17th century, political and religious disputes raised the Puritan and Presbyterian faction to control of the church, but this ended with the Restoration. The contemporary Church of England still continues to contain several doctrinal strands, now generally known as Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical. This reflects early divisions. In recent times, tensions between theological conservatives and progressives find expression in debates over women's ordination and homosexuality within the church. The Church of England has ordained women as priests since 1994. A proposed measure which would have allowed the consecration of female bishops was lost by a narrow margin in the General Synod of the Church in 2012.^[8]
Since the Reformation, the Church of England has used an English liturgy. The Book of Common Prayer was based on original writings and translations from the Latin services by Thomas Cranmer. This liturgy has been updated and modernised at various times. The church also adopted congregational singing of hymns and psalms.
The governing structure of the church is based on the traditional parishes which are gathered into dioceses presided over by a bishop. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the Primate of All England and a focus of unity for the whole Anglican Communion worldwide. The General Synod is the legislative body for the church and comprises bishops, clergy and laity. Although it is only the established church in England, its measures must be approved by both Houses of Parliament including the non-English members.
The Church of Ireland and the Church in Wales separated from the Church of England in 1869^[9] and 1920^[10] respectively and are autonomous churches in the Anglican Communion; Scotland's national church, the Church of Scotland, is Presbyterian but the Scottish Episcopal Church is in the Anglican Communion.^[11]

The Wesleyan Methodist Church was the name used by the major Methodist movement in Great Britain following its split from the Church of England after the death of John Wesley and the appearance of parallel Methodist movements. "Wesleyan" was added to the title to differentiate it from the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, founded by George Whitefield who like Wesley and his brother Charles had been a member of the Holy Club in Oxford to which the (originally derogatory) epithet "Methodist" was first applied, and from the Primitive Methodist movement which separated from the Wesleyans in 1807.^[1] The Wesleyan Methodist Church followed the Wesleys in holding to an Arminian theology, as against Whitefield's Calvinism; its Conference was also the legal successor to John Wesley as holders of the property of the original Methodist Societies.^[2]
The title "Wesleyan Methodist Church" remained in use until the Methodist Union of 1932, when the church re-united with the Primitive Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church to form the current Methodist Church of Great Britain.

Nonconformist, also called Dissenter, or Free Churchman,  any English Protestant who does not conform to the doctrines or practices of the established Church of England. The word Nonconformist was first used in the penal acts following the Restoration of the monarchy (1660) and the Act of Uniformity (1662) to describe the conventicles (places of worship) of the congregations that had separated from the Church of England (Separatists). Nonconformists are also called dissenters (a word first used of the five Dissenting Brethren at the Westminster Assembly of Divines in 1643–47). Because of the movement begun in the late 19th century by which Nonconformists of different denominations joined together in the Free Church Federal Council, they are also called Free Churchmen.
The term Nonconformist is generally applied in England and Wales to all Protestants who have dissented from Anglicanism—Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Unitarians—and also to independent groups such as the Quakers, Plymouth Brethren, English Moravians, Churches of Christ, and the Salvation Army. In Scotland, where the established church is Presbyterian, members of other churches, including Anglicans, are considered Nonconformists.
Nonconformist

Churches in the neighbourhood of Haworth in the time of the Brontes II

From the interesting website: valendale


Devonshire Street New Church The society's first place of worship in a house in Beckside which was then situated in green fields. The most well known minister of Keighley New Church was the Rev. Joseph Wright who was ordained as the third minister of the New Church in 1790 - the other two being Hindmarsh and Samuel Smith. who had also served in the Great Haworth. Round. The New Church opened its first Sunday school in 1791. In 1805 the society built its first chapel in King Street, on the 1852 map we see it with a grave yard and titled "The Lords Church".  The premises in Devonshire Street were opened in 1891.


Hainworth Wesleyan Methodist Chapel built 1847
Taken from Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education: Volume 2: This is at the little hamlet of Hainworth, two miles up a packhorse route, along; the moors from Keighley towards Halifax, and is in circumstances somewhat similar to the preceding, being used only for a chapel and Sunday-school. It is conveyed to trustees expressly for chapel purposes, with a proviso that it may also be used for a day-school, under the direction of the trustees and the superintendent preacher, unless they should think well to remove the school to some other place. It has never, however, from the first been opened for the purposes of a day-school; and other day-schools having arisen in neighbouring localities, it is not now contemplated to open it for them. The last service at Hainworth Chapel was on 10th April 1977

New Jerusalem Church,  King-street 

Emanuel Swedberg,  scientist and philosopher  Formed the first New Jerusalem Society in Yorkshire. The temple was built in 1805 in King Street adjoining Acers Mill, owned by Barry Smith, who was a member.   See entry for The Lords Church NOTICE is hereby given, that a separate building, named New Jerusalem Church, situated at King Street, Keighley, in the parish of Keighley, in the county of York, in the district of Keighley, being a building certified according to law as a place of religious worship, was, on the 13th day of January, 1870, duly registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th Wm. IV., cap. 85. Witness my hand this  21st of January, 1870. Geo. Spencer, Superintendent Registrar.  Quaker Meeting House   Mill Street building bore the date 1709 yet in the Keighley year book for 1950 we find an entry which says it was established in 1690, demolished in 1938. The Upper green Congregational Chapel shared the same yard was not demolished in the clearance. The Society of Friends moved into their Skipton Road meeting house in 1936. Briggs opened a grave yard for friends on land just off North Dean Road which still exists. There used to be a friends burial ground near the Independent Chapel, the 1852 shows their grave yard to be a separate entity. The first one was established in 1690 on Mill Lane and demolished in 1937, the replacement built on Skipton Road in 1936. A reader send me an email about the two different dates. Thank you very much for letting me know.    I was browsing through your blog and noticed the part about Keighley Quakers and your comments about the dates. The first date was when they started using  the first existing building on the site, the second date was the rebuilt building on the same site.   This seemed to be common practice for them, sometimes they would use material  from another building, including the date stone, which can cause confusion later.

Churches and other places of believe in the time of the bronte family in Haworth I

brontesremembered

St Michael and All Angels

In 1742 William Grimshaw, who was a close friend of John Wesley, became curate at Haworth. He was an enthusiastic and hard working curate, preaching as many as 30 times a week. He was also not averse to leaving his services and driving men out of the many public houses at the top of Haworth to listen to his long sermons. Haworth legend says that he even used a whip in order to encourage people out of the pubs into the church. Grimshaw attracted huge congregations with up to 500 communicants and in 1755 the church was enlarged to accommodate the many people who wanted to attend.

In 1820 Patrick Bronte accepted to living of Haworth and moved to the Parsonage with his family. He was a conscientious parish priest who walked many miles a day to tend to his large flock in the neighbouring villages as at the time many people would have come to the services in Haworth from the nearby villages. He baptised an average of 290 people per year, but due to the high mortality rate and the fact that the average life expectancy was just 22 years of age with 40% of children dying before the age of 6, Bronte also performed over 100 funerals per year. There are estimated to be 42,000 burials in the graveyard, many of the graves from the time of the Bronte family hold entire families including a number of infants.
In 1845 Arthur Bell Nicholls, who would later marry Charlotte Bronte, arrived in Haworth. He was appointed as a curate, and due to Patrick’s failing eyesight he soon took over the bulk of the official church duties. Patrick Bronte died in 1861 at the age of 84, having outlived his entire family and having served the Parish of Haworth for 41 years. He is still the longest serving incumbent of Haworth Parish Church. Read more: haworthchurch

Hall Green Baptist Church

The village of Haworth was a major centre of the 18th Century Evangelical Methodist Revival. The Wesley Brothers, Henry Venn and John Newton came to Haworth to preach along with the local Anglican minister, William Grimshaw.
The impact of the revival saw thousands of people from Haworth and the surrounding areas being transformed by the message that they heard. Among those affected by the Gospel ministry in the village were a group of Baptists who initially met some 10 miles away in the village of Sutton-in-Craven. Encouraged by Grimshaw, the Baptists began to meet in Haworth in 1752 at West Lane.
By 1785 some of the Baptists had begun to meet in the barn at the bottom of Brow Road in Haworth. In doing so they began to become established as an integral part of the village community.
The barn was convenient in that it was adjacent to the premises of local mill owner and Baptist John Greenwood as well as being near to Bridgehouse Beck, which was most likely used by the Baptists for the total immersion baptism of believers. hallgreenchapel

The Masonic Lodge of the Three Graces

Haworth itself is composed of the Main Street, plus cobbled roads lined with 18th and 19th century stone cottages.

“Lodge Street, leading off Main Street, takes its name from the fact that meetings of the Masonic Lodge of the Three Graces, to which Branwell was initiated in 1836, took place here,” writes Dinsdale in regards to the photo above. “The house facing was the home of William Wood, joiner and cabinet maker. The blocked-up doorway formerly led to his workshop on the second floor.”
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