Papers of Christopher James Street

Scope and Content

Collection of manuscript notebooks produced by Christopher J. Street containing his lecture notes whilst a student at Manchester New College, London. There is also a typescript produced by Street of extracts from his father's diary from 1857.

Administrative / Biographical History

Christopher James Street was born on 23 November 1855. His father was the Rev James Street. He was educated at Queen's College Belfast and Manchester New College, London between 1871 and 1879. He was awarded an MA by Belfast in 1878. Later, in 1892, he obtained an LLB. Between 1879 and 1883 he was a minister at Padiham, leaving to become a lecturer for the Scottish Unitarian Association in 1883. He returned to the ministry in 1886 in Croydon, moving to Upper Brook Street Chapel, Manchester in 1892, after which he spent a year working as a temporary minister at Ramsgate and Margate. In 1896, he became minister at Bank Street Chapel, Bolton, where he also had responsibility for Halliwell Road Chapel. In 1903 he moved to Sheffield where he was minister for Upper Chapel and Attercliffe Church.

Street was particularly concerned for the welfare of Unitarian ministers, and played a prominent role in leading Unitarian bodies. He was one of the founders of the Ministerial Fellowship in 1899, and he was the secretary of the Ministers' Pension and Insurance Fund. He was President of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association between 1926 and 1928, and he was instrumental in the amalgamation of the Association with the National Conference, it becoming the General Assembly of the Unitarian and Free Christian Churches in 1928; he was joint president of the new body in the year following its formation. He published several books, including Jesus the Prophet of God (Croydon: 1890), Religion, its basis development, and application (London: Sunday School Association, 1920), A Unitarian's thought of God (London: Lindsey, 1920), and a history of Bank Street Chapel, Bolton. He married Annie Lipsey in 1879 and died on 11 February 1931 in London.

Bibliography

The Unitarian and Free Christian Churches Yearbook for 1932 (London: The General Assembly of the Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, 1932).

Obituary, The Inquirer, 21 February 1931.