Encounters: The Global Reach of the Local Talcott Church

Encounters is a moderated discussion around a set of short readings on a challenging topic. Participants sit in table groups of 8-10 and are led through a round of discussions by a table moderator. Experts are on hand to share facts and to answer questions. Catered food creates a comfortable, community atmosphere.

This guided community conversation, led by Dr Fiona Vernal, will use the Mars family as a lens for exploring how the congregants of Talcott Street Church cast their advocacy far and wide and weighed in on the emigration debates. This allows us insight into the wider network of the Mars family—particularly, Elizabeth Mars and her years of service in Liberia. It will also allow us to understand the relationship between the Connecticut Colonization society, the Hartford Female African Society, and the Charitable Society in the African Sunday School. These are important lenses for understanding the Christian missionary impulse in the Talcott Church as well as the role of black women as organizers and leaders. Hartford participated in the “The African Mission School” established at Trinity College, which was described as a “short-lived effort on behalf of Connecticut Episcopalians to develop a black leadership for the church in Liberia.”