Keswick Convention

The Keswick Convention and its hymns The Keswick Convention, a non-denominational and evangelical annual meeting, was founded in 1875 by an Anglican, Canon T.D. Harford-Battersby, Vicar of St John’s, Keswick, in collaboration with a Cumberland Quaker, Robert Wilson. It was a product of the ‘Holiness movement’ of the period (see ‘Holiness hymnody, USA*), inspired in part by a book by William Edwin Boardman (1810-1886) called The Higher Christian Life (1859). After a series of revival meetings, including one at Broadlands at which Théodore Monod* wrote ‘O the bitter shame and sorrow’*, and others at Oxford and Brighton, it was decided to hold an evangelical meeting at the beautiful town of...