Hat tip:  777

Richard Pickering is the Deputy Executive Director and Senior Historian at Plimoth Patuxet Museums, the living history museum of 17th-century Plymouth Colony and the Wampanoag Homeland. www.plimoth.org He has been with the Museum for more than 40 years and has also served as a historical role player, research associate, Director of Education and Director of Special Projects. He studied English and American Studies in graduate programs at the College of William & Mary and the University of Connecticut. He holds a BA in English from Bridgewater State University. Richard oversees the Museum's ongoing research as well as educational and theatrical programs. He has spoken at the United Nations and Smithsonian National Museum of American History and has appeared on C-SPAN, NPR, PBS, History Channel, NECN, NBC News, and the Smithsonian Channel.

 

• From: Richard Pickering <rpickering@plimoth.org>;
  Date: October 23, 2023 at 10:41:13 MDT
  To: Dell Fuller <dellfuller@gmail.com>;
  Subject: Program Description: "To Walk in all His Ways: John Robinson's Ministry and the Mayflower Compact
  
  

  "To Walk in all His Ways: John Robinson's Ministry and the Mayflower Compact"

   

  John Robinson, the Pilgrims' pastor, served the English Separatist Church in Leiden, Holland until his death in 1625. He had longed to lead his congregation to America, but circumstances prevented him from sailing aboard Speedwell and Mayflower with his parishioners. Robinson, describing himself as "an unfeigned well-willer of your happy success in this hopeful voyage," wrote a pastoral letter that was read to all the passengers before the two ships departed the English port of Southampton in August 1620. The minister encouraged his listeners to exercise forbearance and forgiveness as they undertook the new responsibilities of "civil government" and said, "let your wisdom and godliness appear ... in choosing such persons as do entirely love, and will diligently promote the common good..." His description of a civil community held together by commitment to one another would shape the vision and language of the Mayflower Compact. It is the guiding document behind a foundational document. Robinson's letter was revered by the colonists. It was first printed in London in February 1622, in the 1630s William Bradford copied the letter into his manuscript Of Plimoth Plantation, and Bradford's nephew Nathaniel Morton printed the letter in New England's Memorial (1669), the first published book on Plymouth Colony's history.

   

  Richard Pickering, the Museum's Deputy Executive Director and Chief Historian, will explore church covenants, congregational administration, and their influence on the Mayflower Compact and Plymouth Colony's groundbreaking experiment in self-government. His brief talk will be followed by the chance to ask questions on legal, economic, and church history in the colony.

  
  

  Richard Pickering
  Deputy Executive Director
  (508) 746-1622 ×8345