| Description | The Monthly Meeting of the Protestant Dissenting Ministers of Warwick and Neighbouring Counties first met at West Bromwich on 7 May 1782. It was resolved at that meeting (see UC 2/3/2/1/1) that the ministers meet once a month 'for the purposes of mutual Instruction & Edification'. During the morning ministers were to meet together for public prayer and preaching at each others' meetings. In the afternoon it was resolved to meet privately to discuss any matters and questions proposed at the preceding meeting, and brief minutes were to be taken on each day's proceedings in small notebooks.
The meeting appeared to be as much a forum for solidarity for Nonconformist Ministers of various denominations, mainly Unitarian and Presbyterian, at a time when Dissenters were increasingly associated with political radicalism and sedition. They also sought to discuss and challenge some of the fierier preaching espoused by neighbouring meetings and congregations. At the first meeting the Reverend W. Brabrooks posed the question: 'What are the best methods to be taken in order to prevent the bad influence of those rigid & bigoted principles which some of our neighbouring brethren advance?'
The ministers also discussed how they ought to conduct themselves and how they might provide an example to their congregations, particularly the young. Events of importance were also recorded outside the business of meetings. An entry in the first minute book dated 14 July 1791 noted the destruction of the Reverend Dr Joseph Priestley's house and library and the Old and New Meeting Houses in Birmingham that month (UC 2/13/2/1/1, p. 52). |