The Keswick Convention is an important gathering of evangelical Christians in Keswick, in the English county of Cumbria.

The Keswick Convention began in 1875 as a catalyst and focal point for the emerging Higher Life movement in the United Kingdom. It was founded by the Anglican T. D. Harford-Battersby and the Quaker Robert Wilson. The first Keswick Convention had over four hundred in attendance. They met under the banner of "All One in Christ Jesus".

Among the Keswick Convention's early leading lights were Anglicans J. W. Webb-Peploe, Evan Henry Hopkins, William Haslam, W. Hay M. H. Aitken, and Handley Moule, as well as the Baptist Frederick Brotherton Meyer. John George Govan, who was to go on to found the Faith Mission in Scotland, was in turn influenced by the Keswick Convention. Amy Carmichael was also influenced by this convention.

It was Stephen Olford who introduced Billy Graham to the Keswick message at a Keswick Convention in 1946 over a period of days of Bible study and prayer in a hotel room. This teaching gave Billy Graham the assurance of God's power in his life, which Billy said in his autobiography, "Just As I Am," came to him as a second blessing, and which has empowered his preaching ever since.

Sources

• Harford, C. F., ed. The Keswick Convention; its Message, its Method and its Men, London, 1907.
• Harford-Battersby, T. D. Memoirs of the Keswick Convention, 1890.
• Hopkins, E. H. The Story of Keswick, London, 1892.
• Pierson, A. T. The Keswick Movement, New York.
• Barabas, Steven , So Great Salvation, London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1952 — a friendly overview of half a century of Keswick teaching.
• Drumond, Lewis, "The Canvas Cathedral", Thomas Nelson, Nashville, 2005.

External links

• http://www.keswickministries.org/pages/aboutus.asp
• http://www.frontlinemin.org/higherlife.asp
• Rev William Haslam - of particular interest is the following forum topic William Haslam and the Keswick Movement

Christian evangelicalism | Christian conferences | 1875 establishments