A Variety of Religious Experiences: Natives, Africans and Europeans in Early Virginia

2021 Sunday Speaker Series - "A Variety of Religious Experiences: Natives, Africans and Europeans in Early Virginia"

April 25: Ed Bond - "The Church of England in Early Virginia: The Essentials" Historian Ed Bond investigates the Church of England, which arrived with the first colonists who settled Virginia. As it struggled to gain a solid footing and transfer its administrative structure to North America, the church became dominated by the laity but for many years continued to carry out numerous secular duties just as the Church of England did in England. *Presented via Zoom*

May 16: Margaret Williamson Huber - "Religion of the Powhatan Indians of Virginia" Anthropologist Margaret Williamson Huber explores the religious ideas and practices of the Powhatan Indians, both those of lay people and the shamans, or quiocosucks, including their importance in Powhatan governance. Huber will describe Indian rituals and symbolism as well as Powhatan reactions to Spanish and English attempts to convert them to Christianity.  

October 17: James Ingram, Jr. – "The Revolutionary Black Baptist Preacher Gowan Pamphlet" Colonial Williamsburg historian James Ingram, Jr. shares the inspiring story of Gowan Pamphlet, an enslaved preacher who gained his freedom, became one of the country's first black ordained ministers, and helped found First Baptist Church in Williamsburg, one of the nation's oldest African American congregations. Ingram will show how Pamphlet negotiated strictures imposed by the law and slave owners to lead a ministry that thrives to this day.

November 7: John Ragosta - "Hornets, Snakes, Baptists & Presbyterians: Winning the Contest for Religious Freedom” Monticello historian John Ragosta traces the relatively unknown role of Virginia’s religious dissenters, primarily Baptist and Presbyterian evangelicals, in both winning the American Revolution and in establishing religious liberty, creating the strict separation of church and state embodied in Thomas Jefferson’s eloquent “Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom.”

• All presentations (*unless noted*) are Sundays at 2:00 p.m. at Historic Christ Church & Museum, 420 Christ Church Road, Weems. 
• Wine & Cheese Reception with speaker follows each presentation. 
• $25.00 per talk or $70.00 for series. Tickets non-refundable and do not include any book purchases.
• All proceeds benefit preservation and education programs at Christ Church (1735), a National Historic Landmark.