NON-SEQUITURS #1

The COMMUNIST CHURCH

1840s: Idealists in Britain,

By principles Chartist were smitten,

Such as John Goodwyn Barmby,

Who asked, "What could the harm be

In a Communist Church?" So it's written.

Dr G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2023

Authors' Note: Liberal thinking seized Europe towards the middle of the nineteenth century. Emboldened by the partial successes of the politically-targeted Chartists, intellectuals were drawn to idealistic social movements such as communitarianism. According to Wikipedia, John Goodwyn Barmby (1820 – 1881), one of its principals, introduced the term 'communist', based on the French le communisme and founded a revue called The Communist Chronicle. Seeking a spiritual path, he later founded the Communist Church, a sect that had congregations numbering in the teens at its peak. When the church folded in 1849, Barmby became active as a Unitarian minister.

This collection is arranged pretty much alphabetically. If you want to see its second instalment, click HERE.

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

To resume daily titillations on our blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense', click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of December 2022, there are over 1000 entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.)