Anne Lister's religion

Published on 14 December, 2020 · Last updated on 6 September, 2022

Religion was a big part of Anne Lister's life.

Mentions of Anne Lister spending time in church aren't uncommon in her journals. Whether she is attending a religious service (and often sleeping through it), visiting places of worship or commenting on the quality of a sermon, there are always interesting details to be read.

This project collects references to Anne Lister's time in church, her opinions about the services she attends, and commentary about the religious places she visits throughout her life.

Anne Lister's own Rate My Preacher

Was the service good enough to warrant her attention? What about the clergyman? Is the sermon preached proper? Anne Lister had many opinions regarding what constituted a good sermon. When sleep didn't beckon during her time at church, she kept an eye and ear on the sermon and wasn't shy to add her commentary to her journal entries. When she travelled, Anne wasn't shy to note every detail she found interesting in other religions and places of worship, often providing a very rich view of how religion was seen and practiced at home and abroad.

The spreadsheet below is a collaborative effort to compile as many references of Anne's mentions of religious places, services and preaching styles, among others.

Reference tracker: Anne Lister & religion

Contributors

This project is made possible through ongoing contributions from the following people:

  • Adeline Lim

  • Alison Kirchgasser

  • Amanda Pryce

  • Dawn Susan

  • Francesca Raia

  • Jan Webster

  • Janneke Van Der Weijden

  • Jenna Beyer

  • Karen Trillo

  • Kathrynn Williams

  • Leila Straub

  • Lívia Labate

  • Marlene Oliveira

  • Pauline M.

  • Shantel Smith

  • Susan Miller

  • Susanne Piotrowski

  • Steph Gallaway

  • Ylva Nilson

How to contribute to this project

  1. Request access to edit the spreadsheet. Please include an email address that is associated with a Google account (this is the only requirement to participating in this project). If you don't have one, here's how to do it.

  2. You will receive an email confirming you have editorial access.

  3. Once granted access, you can add a new item to the bottom of the list.

Tip: Don't worry about redundancy; enter any information you have and we'll reconcile duplicates later.

All information in this spreadsheet is in English, but please preserve the names of the people and places as written by Anne Lister.

Anyone can help research and add additional information for each references in this spreadsheet.

If you want to help research information about these references, please follow the steps above and note you would like to contribute.

Cover photo: Michael D. Beckwith