Clapham Sect

Clapham Sect

Not really a sect, but a close knit family. It was started in a town near London called Clapham and consisted of a number of wealthy and ardent Evangelicals who knew what it was to practice "saintliness in daily life" and to live with eternity in view. John Venn became their spiritual guide and found leadership in William Wilberforce, the parliamentary statesman. Under Wilberforce’s leadership the Clapham friends were knit together in solidarity. At the Clapham mansions they held what they chose to call their "Cabinet Councils". They discussed the wrongs and injustices of their country, and the battles they would need to fight to establish righteousness. They moved as one body, delegating to each man the work he could do best to accomplish their common purposes. As a result a host of evangelical causes sallied forth from quiet little Clapham: The Church Missionary Society (1799), the British and Foreign Bible Society (1804), The Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor (1796), The Society for the Reformation of Prison Discipline and many more. Their greatest labor, though, centered on slavery. Nearly singlehandedly the Clapham Sect secured the end of slave trading through an act of Parliament, and eventually the emancipation of British slaves.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Clapham-Sect, history, Reformation, William-Wilberforce, Clapham, Cabinet-Councils, Church-Missionary-Society, British-and-Foreign-Bible-Society, Society-for-the-Reformation-of-Prison-Discipline, slavery, Parliament, Evangelical[/tags]

 

Leave a Reply

This site is protected by Comment SPAM Wiper.
%d bloggers like this: