Baptists in Sacred Space? Worship, Buildings, and Belonging

Abstract

ABSTRACT An exploration, with particular reference to one Yorkshire chapel and families associated with it, of Baptists’ need for buildings to fit their worship, fellowship, and polity. The first section introduces theme, builders, architects, benefactors, noting James Cubitt and Thomas Harwood Pattison, men sensitive to aesthetics. The second outlines the development of Wainsgate. The third is about ‘belonging’. Family connections are explored, including the Mitchells and the Fawcetts who provide the focus for the fourth and fifth sections: John Fawcett, Wainsgate's first minister, and great-grandson William Mitchell Fawcett, barrister, friend of T.H. Pattison, contributing with him to Religious Republics (1869), considered in the final section. Fawcett's contribution, might be seen as an essay on belonging. What he analysed in 1869 remains relevant and explains Wainsgate, unique yet representative.