Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
Sacred and Anti-Sacred Sites

Sacred and Anti-Sacred Sites

Last updated on: September 1, 2022 at 12:28 am by Dan Peterson

Sacred and Anti-Sacred Sites 2022-09-01T00:28:02-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The first Latter-day Saint baptisms in the United Kingdom were performed in the River Ribble, near Preston, Lancashire.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

We landed at Liverpool this morning, where we were met by Peter Fagg, who is, to my knowledge, far and away the premiere Latter-day Saint tour guide in the United Kingdom. First, we walked about the dock area in Liverpool where the first missionaries to England, led by Elder Heber C. Kimball of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, arrived in 1837. This is also the port from which most British emigrants to America left in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and a nice life-size sculpture of a Latter-day Saint emigrant family stands there.

Then we drove to Preston, where the missionaries had their first significant success and where the oldest historically-continuous congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the Preston Ward — still meets. We looked about in Preston, including the market square where the missionaries used to preach and the house on the corner of Fox Street and St. Wilfrid Street, not far away, where they first lodged. It’s empty and derelict, but it’s still standing — and if I had the money to do so I would buy it. Why? Because there’s a truly remarkable story behind it — see Peter Fagg’s article “A Satanic Attack on the First Missionaries in Preston, England” — and because I’m afraid that it will be demolished if somebody doesn’t step in to save it fairly soon. Then we walked over to Avenham Park, a beautiful green area of trees and grass that runs along the River Ribble, where the very first Latter-day Saint baptisms in Great Britain were performed. Several plaques in the park commemorate the early missionaries and the effects of their work.

We then drove up the Ribble Valley, through the town of Chatburn to the village of Downham. Elder Kimball was told to bother with neither village, because the people in them were irreligious and godless. He went anyway and had phenomenal success. (This is one of the stories that I hope we can cover, to at least some extent, in the docudrama portion of Six Days in August.)

A view of the main street of Downham, Lancashire, with Pendle Hill in the background
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

For now, though, I want to concentrate on another aspect of this particular episode: In April 1838, Elder Kimball was about to return to America, so he came back for a farewell visit to Downham and Chatburn. Their response moved him deeply:

When I left them, my feelings were such as I cannot describe. As I walked down the street I was followed by numbers: the doors were crowded by the inmates of the houses to bid me farewell, who could only give vent to their grief in sobs and broken accents. While contemplating this scene I was constrained to take off my hat, for I felt as if the place was holy ground. The Spirit of the Lord rested down upon me and I was constrained to bless that whole region of country.

Joseph Fielding was also there with Elder Kimball:

It was very affecting to witness our Parting with them. The Streets were almost lined with them weeping and looking after us. Brother K. [Kimball] left his Blessing on them and the Whole place, walking with his hat off. They all followed us with their Eyes as far as they could see us, many of those even that had not been baptized.

Elder Orson Hyde recalled the experience in the October 1853 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

What were our feelings? We felt that the ground upon which we stood was most sacred, and brother Kimball took off his hat, and walked the streets, and blessed the country and the people, and let his peace come upon it. Why? Because the people were ready to receive the word of our testimony, and us for Christ’s sake.

In 1857, Elder Kimball again remembered that farewell visit:

I went through the streets of that town feeling as I never before felt in my life. My hair would rise on my head as I walked through the streets, and I did not then know what was the matter with me.

I felt as if my whole system was alive; I felt quickened by some unseen power.

When Elder Kimball returned to America in 1838, he related his experience in Downham and Chatburn to the Prophet Joseph Smith, whose response was intriguing:

Did you not understand it? That is a place where some of the old prophets travelled and dedicated that land, and their blessing fell upon you.

Let me try, very briefly, to lay out a bit of curious background concerning the area:

Downham sits at the base of Pendle Hill, which remains famous for the 1612 trial of the Pendle witches. That’s certainly worthy of note, but it’s not even remotely the full story.

One day, in (I believe) 1652), George Fox climbed up Pendle Hill and saw what seems to have been a vision of “a people in white raiment, coming to the Lord,” a “great people to be gathered.” This event, and George Fox’s reaction to it, led to the founding of the so-called Society of Friends, which is better known to most people as Quakerism. John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of Methodism (which he never intended to be a distinct denomination), also visited Pendle Hill and felt himself exceptionally moved, spiritually, as he worked in the villages and among the people at its base.

(See Peter Fagg’s “Ribble Valley — Sacred Pendle Hill.”)

So Heber C. Kimball may not have been merely imagining things when he “felt as if the place was holy ground.” Even early seventeenth-century the suspicions of witchcraft seem rather appropriate: Satan always seems to make a grand appearance before a new dispensation (e.g., at Moses 1, in the Judaean desert after Christ’s baptism, and just prior to Joseph Smith’s First Vision).

The second British temple — a third has now been announced for Birmingham — is located near Preston, England. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Leaving Downham, we drove to the Preston England Temple, which is striking and which sits amidst beautiful grounds and gardens and a complex of other Church buildings. When Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was the area president for the United Kingdom, he went into the woods near Downham to pray about where the temple should stand, and he was inspired to recommend the site where, in fact, it does now stand.

Posted from the Irish Sea

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Previous Post

August 26, 2022

County Cork, and Something That, Sadly, Didn't Bob Like One

Next Post

August 28, 2022 "Why the 'Witnesses' Project?"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group believes in the doctrine of transubstantiation?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Catholics Pentecostals Baptists Protestants