The people we’ve come to know as Pilgrims always considered themselves English subjects. They did not want to leave their heritage and country, but as the tumultuous events of the late 16th and early 17th centuries unfolded, leaving became increasingly necessary to protect their lives. The Mayflower story begins in the tiny village of Scrooby, in northern England. It was a small community then and remains a little village today. According to a Legacies of […]
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Mother Mary Brewster
Historians believe Mother Mary Brewster was probably born in 1569, most likely in Northern England. We do not know her last name prior to becoming Mrs. William Brewster. Genealogists are fairly certain she married William in 1591 in a small country church in Scrooby. She became Mother Mary Brewster with the birth of Jonathan, born on August 12, 1593. Confirming the value placed on the firstborn male child, his birthdate is the only Brewster child […]
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Labor Day Today
“Each morning sees some task begin, Each evening sees it close; Something attempted, some done, Has earned a night’s repose.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Labor Day Today As we head into the beloved Labor Day weekend and transition from summer to fall and another academic year, let’s pause and consider the ancient tensions between those who do the manual work that keeps society going and those who finance that work. Labor Day today is more about […]
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Hope and Wonder
With all the astonishing events unfolding in recent weeks, I’ve been thinking about hope and wonder, the difference between them, and the importance of both of them. A couple of weeks ago, those churches that follow the common three-year lectionary cycle heard, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1). Hope is a simple four-letter word that carries an ocean’s worth of depth and a mountain’s […]
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William and Dorothy Bradford – Mayflower Voyagers
In 1620 William and Dorothy Bradford sailed on Mayflower from England to New England. A great deal of what we know about the establishment of the Plymouth colony comes from Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation. Four hundred years later this book is still a good source of information about the Pilgrim story, though it is obviously written from the English perspective. Today historians go to great lengths to tell the same story from the Native perspective. History has preserved […]
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