Monthly Archives: October 2025

Preparing for a podcast with a guy in the US which may happen soon, I thought I’d try to understand a little more about the first wave of the Charismatic movement (aka the second wave of Pentecostalism) over here in England. The story is rather different from, though linked to, that in America, in that it arises firstly among conscientious and godly clergymen, predominantly Anglican and often Oxbridge trained, rather than among the entrepreneurial and often narcissistic characters so prevalent in America, from John Dowie through to Benny Hinn.

Part of my low output here recently (apart from a cold, driving my car into a ditch, and dealing with a broken washing machine) is down to transcribing the second volume of the proceedings book of my Baptist Church, 131 pages of hand-written entries from 1778-1904. It is generally in pretty legible copper-plate script compared to the mere 58 pages of Volume 1, from 1653, which are largely in the crabbed handwriting of that period and considerably more difficult for a modern transcriber.

It’s astonishing how Scripture surprises you every time you read it, even after a lifetime of familiarity.