In October 2019, nearly 90 UUs gathered at the Maritime Conference Center near Baltimore to share their research in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of William Ellery Channing’s 1819 sermon on Unitarian Christianity and the 250th anniversary of John Murray’s arrival in North America. In four days, we heard intriguing and inspiring presentations from our Keynote Speakers, Christopher Cameron and Mark Harris, whose first two lectures will appear in our spring 2020 issue of the Journal of UU History: “Bringing up the Bodies” and “Liberal Religion and Abolitionism.” We also heard a provocative lecture on contemporary perceptions of Channing’s sermon by Dan McKanan, delivered from the Channing pulpit to a packed audience at the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore. This will also appear in our next journal.

Numerous other papers were presented by conference attendees on such topics of interest as George Pullman, William Sullivan, Emily Cogswell and other women who ministered in some way in western states, and the origins of Unitarianism and Universalism in New Orleans. You will see selections of these lectures and papers published in the spring 2020 journal or on the Convo website (2019 Convo.org).

Some Convo participants came early for a trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Wash., DC; others traveled afterward to the Murray Grove Retreat and Renewal Center. Also, a very special part of this conference was the presence of many seminary students, made possible with the