Keswick Convention

This annual summer gathering of evangelicals at Keswick in the English Lake District originated in the Moody-Sankey revival of 1875 through the efforts of the then vicar of Keswick, Canon Harford-Battersby. The keynotes of Keswick are prayer-especially invocation of the Holy Spirit to indwell the gatherings-reverent Bible study, addresses, and a marked enthusiasm for foreign missions. The movement aims to promote “practical holiness,” and its motto is “All One in Christ Jesus.” A quantity of literature appears annually, most notably the yearly report Keswick Week, the journal The Life of Faith (from 1879), and the volumes of the Keswick Library (from 1894). Local “Keswicks” or conventions are held in various cities. Supporters come mainly from Christians of the Reformed tradition, especially evangelical Anglicans. Unlike Wesleyan-Arminian concepts of holiness, Keswick maintains that the Christian's tendency to sin is not extinguished but merely counteracted by victorious living in the Spirit.