Glasite
[note 1][1] Glas's faith, as part of the First Great Awakening, was spread by his son-in-law Robert Sandeman into England and America, where the members were called Sandemanians.
But Sandeman added a distinctive doctrine as to the nature of faith which is thus stated on his tombstone:[3] In a series of letters to James Hervey, the author of Theron and Aspasio, Sandeman maintained that justifying faith is a simple assent to the divine testimony concerning Jesus, differing in no way in its character from belief in any ordinary testimony.
Each congregation had a plurality of elders, pastors, or bishops, who were chosen according to what were believed to be the instructions of Paul, without regard to previous education or present occupation, and who enjoy a perfect equality in office.
The Lord's Supper was observed weekly; and between forenoon and afternoon service every Sunday a love feast was held at which every member was required to be present.
[3] This took the form not of symbolic morsels of wine and bread, as in other communions, but a (relatively) substantial meal, a custom leading to the Glasites' nickname of "Kail Kirk" for the Scotch broth that was served at this setting.
[9] Glasite churches were also founded in Paisley, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leith, Arbroath, Montrose, Aberdeen, Dunkeld, Cupar, and Galashiels.
The resulting correspondence between the leading church elders, Glas and Sandeman, and English pastors, Samuel Pike, John Barnard, and William Cudworth among others, led to the adoption of this primitive form of Christianity for their London congregations beginning in the early 1760s.
[12] To accommodate larger gatherings, this congregation moved initially to the Bull and Mouth-Street, St. Martin's Le Grand, and then to Paul's Alley in the Barbican in the autumn of 1778.
Michael Faraday was a Deacon at Paul's Alley in the Barbican during the 1830s, an Elder there from 1840 to 1844 and again from 1860 to 1864, the final two years of which were at the Barnsbury Grove meeting house (see 2008 photograph[15]).
As the congregation at the Bull and Mouth-Street, St. Martins-le-Grand, London solidified through the inclusion of noted pastors like Samuel Pike in 1765, other English parishes followed their Sandemanian lead.
By 1768 Allen, together with John Barnard and William Cudworth from London, helped establish congregations in York, Norfolk, Colne, Wethersfield, Liverpool, Whitehaven, Trowbridge and Nottingham.
Over the next four months, Sandeman and his party traveled to New York, Philadelphia, New London, Connecticut, Providence, Rhode Island, and finally Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
This lack of a central authority challenged the existing social fabric throughout New England, which relied upon the state to enforce church orthodoxy.
"[35] Prominent Sandemanian families include the surnames Barnard, Baynes, Baxter, Boosey, Bell, Deacon, Faraday, Leighton, Mann, Vincent, Whitelaw and Young.
Notable members of the Sandemanian Church include William Godwin, Michael Faraday,[36] Charles Wilson Vincent and James Baynes.
