2 - The Islington Conference

Summary

The Islington Conference (usually called in earlier years the Islington Clerical Meeting or Clerical Conference) existed for over a century and a half, beginning in 1827. Every year it was a central meeting place for Anglican evangelicals, rivalling the May Meetings of the religious societies in the Exeter Hall. According to an editorial in their own newspaper, The Record, in 1872, the gatherings at Islington contained ‘the very essence of Evangelicalism’. It was recognised in the newspaper that the addresses given at this annual event, held each January, provided the opportunity for evangelical leaders in the Church of England to expound an authoritative view of contemporary issues. The gatherings, according to The Record, ‘form a test of the position of the party and a gauge of its opinions and prospects such as no other Meeting supplies’. Country clergy would come up on the train, sometimes for a day, sometimes for more than one day, to enjoy themselves fraternising, but also to hear the leaders announce what evangelicals should endorse. The conference was not necessarily held at Islington, despite the name, but it was still called the Islington Conference because the suburb was the early evangelical centre within the capital where the gathering began. The Islington Clerical Conference is the best index of the Anglican evangelical standpoint over a very long period.

The conference maintained its existence into the 1980s, and it retained its role for much of the twentieth century. At a time when evangelicals in the Church of England were pulled in different directions, Islington continued to provide a common hub for their activities. But in order to understand the role of the conference in the twentieth century, its development in the nineteenth deserves attention. The gathering grew from a minor conversation between colleagues into an institution carrying great weight. Four of the nineteenth-century conferences are examined here in order to reveal something of its gathering significance. There is also, where appropriate, some reference to adjacent conferences both before and after the ones that have been selected as the focus of discussion. During the twentieth century Islington continued its evolution, for many years adapting with the times but eventually appearing to lose its usefulness. Six of the twentieth-century conferences are scrutinised here, again with allusions to certain earlier and later gatherings. These cameos provide a series of windows into the changing Anglican evangelical world.