Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion explained

The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion is a small society of evangelical churches, founded in 1783 by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, as a result of the Evangelical Revival. For many years it was strongly associated with the Calvinist Methodist movement of George Whitefield.

History

The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion was founded in 1783 by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, as a result of the Evangelical Revival. It seceded from the Church of England, founded its own training establishment – Trevecca College – and built up a network of chapels across England in the late 18th century.^[1]

In 1785 John Marrant (1755–1791), an African American from New York and the South who settled in London after the American Revolutionary War, became ordained as a minister with the connexion. He was supported in travel to Nova Scotia as a missionary to minister to the Black Loyalists who had been resettled there by the Crown. Many of the members of the congregation which he organized in Birchtown, Nova Scotia later chose to emigrate and resettle in Sierra Leone, the new British colony in West Africa. What was called a Province of Freedom was founded in 1792.^[2] Additional Connexion churches were founded in Sierra Leone (see below), and the British and Sierra Leone movements re-established contact in 1839.^[3]

The connexion had earlier efforts at congregation building in Canada. In the 1850s, the entrepreneur Thomas Molson built a church for the connexion near his brewery in Montreal. It was poorly attended as the city's population was predominantly Catholic. The building was adapted for use as a military barracks.^[4]

The Countess of Huntingdon's gave strong support to the Calvinistic Methodist movement in Wales in the 18th and early 19th centuries, including the foundation of a theological college at Trefeca (Trevecca) in 1760.^[5]

Churches

Active

the connexion has 22 congregations in England and "more than 30" in Sierra Leone.^[6] A UK-registered charity provides financial help with ministers' wages and training and for Connexion schools and teaching salaries in the latter country.^{[7] [8] [9]}

Of the UK churches, seven normally have full-time pastors: Eastbourne, Ely, Goring, Rosedale, St. Ives, Turners Hill and Ebley. Total regular attendance at all churches is approximately 1,000 adults and children.

Church	Location	Founded	Link	Minister
Bells Yew Green Chapel	Bells Yew Green, Kent		https://www.cofhconnexion.org.uk/fellowships/connexion-network/bells-yew-green-chapel
Bolney Village Chapel	Bolney, West Sussex		http://www.bolneyvillagechapel.co.uk/	Simon Allaby
Broad Oak Chapel	Broad Oak, Kent	1867
Copthorne Chapel	Copthorne, West Sussex	1822	http://www.copthornechapel.org.uk/
Cradley Chapel	Cradley, Herefordshire	1823		Ken Hart
South Street Free Church	Eastbourne, East Sussex	1897	http://www.southstreetfreechurch.org/	David Batchelor
Ebley Chapel	Ebley, Stroud, Gloucestershire		http://www.ebleychapel.co.uk/
Countess Free Church, Ely	Ely, Cambridgeshire	1785	http://www.countessely.co.uk/	Karl Relton
New Connexions Free Church, Ely	Ely, Cambridgeshire		http://newconnexionschurch.org.uk/	Keith Waters
Goring Free Church	Goring-on-Thames, Berkshire	1788	http://www.goringfreechurch.org.uk/	Nigel Gordon-Potts
Hailsham Gospel Mission	Hailsham East Sussex
St Stephen's Church, Middleton	Middleton, Greater Manchester
Mortimer West End Chapel	Mortimer West End, Hampshire		http://www.thechapel.org.uk/
Rosedale Community Church	Cheshunt, Hertfordshire		http://rosedalechurch.org	Bethany Green
Sheppey Evangelical Church	Leysdown-on-Sea, Kent		http://sheppeyevangelicalchurch.com/	Joe Gregory
Shoreham Free Church	Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex		http://www.shorehamfreechurch.co.uk
Slough Community Church	Slough, Berkshire		http://www.sloughcommunitychurch.co.uk/
Zion Community Church St Ives	St Ives, Cornwall			Tim Dennick
Turners Hill Free Church	Turners Hill, West Sussex		http://www.turnershillfreechurch.org.uk/	Geoff Chapman
Ote Hall Chapel	Wivelsfield, East Sussex
Woodmancote Evangelical Free Church	Woodmancote, Gloucestershire		http://www.woodmancotechurch.org.uk/welcome.htm	Andrew Hiscock
Wormley Free Church	Wormley, Hertfordshire	1834	http://www.wormleyfreechurch.org.uk	Ben Quant

Earlier churches

Connexion churches were formerly active in:

• Bath, Somerset

founded in 1765, later Trinity United Reformed Church and now the Museum of Bath Architecture

• Bodmin, Cornwall: in January 1880 the congregation bought the "very desirable" property known as Springfield for a minister's residence.^[10]
• Brighton, East Sussex, the first of the churches, was founded at North Street in 1761.^[11]
• East Grinstead, West Sussex: Zion Chapel founded in 1810, now the West Street Baptist Church
• Cheltenham, Gloucestershire Portland Chapel, North Place was built at the expense of Robert Capper in 1816 for a Connexion congregation. It was later joined by and then merged with a Baptist Congregation from Golden Valley, Cheltenham.
• Fordham, Essex was active in the 19th century.^[12]
• Preston, Lancashire, founded before 1826, in Pole Street, is now closed.^[13]
• South Stoke, Oxfordshire, founded in 1820,^[14] is now a private house.^[15]
• Steyning, West Sussex: Jarvis Hall, a Connexion church from 1835 to 1841
• St John's Free Church, Westcott, Surrey remains as a community centre.^[16]
• Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, founded in 1789, known as Tyldesley Top Chapel, now belongs to a Pentecostal congregation.
• Worcester, Worcestershire had closed as a chapel by 1970. It is now a concert hall known as Huntingdon Hall.^[17]
• York Street, Dublin, built in 1808

External links

• Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion  - official website
• Countess of Huntingdon Connexion History  - South Street Free Evangelical Church
• An Introduction to 'The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion'
• New Connexions - New Connexions Group of Churches
• G.W. Kirby (1972), The Elect Lady

Notes and References

1. https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0198263694.001.0001/acprof-9780198263692 Abstract of history. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
2. Web site: Connexion Fellowships. Retrieved 18/12/2019. . 18 December 2019 . 19 August 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190819153750/https://www.cofhconnexion.org.uk/fellowships/global-connexion . dead .
3. https://www.cofhconnexion.org.uk/images/pdfs/The-Elect-Lady-book.pdf The Elect Lady
4. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VIkxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=66UFAAAAIBAJ&dq=bishop-fulford&pg=4431%2C2334187. Montreal Gazette, 15 February 1986. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
5. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/howell-harris-and-the-evangelical-revival-in-wales The Gospel Coalition Retrieved 20 May 2017.
6. https://www.cofhconnexion.org.uk/ Connexion site. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
7. https://sierraleonemission.org.uk/?cat=220 Charity site. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
8. There were said to be 16 congregations in Sierra Leone in 2003.Retrieved 30 January 2019.
9. Web site: Connexion Network . www.cofhconnexion.org.uk . 2019-01-30 . 19 August 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190819153747/https://www.cofhconnexion.org.uk/fellowships/connexion-network?radius=-1&filter_catid=20&limit=0&filter_order=alpha&searchzip=United%20Kingdom . dead .
10. News: Bodmin . The Cornishman . 81 . 29 January 1880.
11. Web site: North Street: The Countess of Huntingdon's Church, by Jennifer Drury . 24 August 2012 . 15 January 2013.
12. A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
13. Web site: St Mark, Preston- Lady Huntingdons Connexion . genuki.org.uk . 2 April 2012 . 2 March 2013.
14. Book: Sherwood . Jennifer . Pevsner . Nikolaus . Nikolaus Pevsner . . Oxfordshire . 1974 . . Harmondsworth . 0-14-071045-0 . 774.
15. Web site: Oxfordshire Churches & Chapels website: South Stoke . Oxfordshirechurches.info . 2012-06-06 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120220122054/http://www.oxfordshirechurches.info/SouthStoke.htm . 20 February 2012 . dmy-all .
16. Web site: Community Centre. . 9 January 2021 . 28 June 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130628093644/http://www.stjohnswestcott.org.uk/ . dead .
17. Web site: About us Worcester Live - Home to Swan Theatre and Huntingdon Hall . www.worcesterlive.co.uk . 2020-01-15.