John Bunyan

John Bunyan (1628-88) ministered to the Old Meeting (later called the Bunyan Meeting) in Bedford from 1672 to 1688. His congregation consisted of Baptists and Independents, a mixture reflected in some of his own writings, especially his important pamplet, Differences in Judgment about Water Baptism no Bar to Communion (1673). Today the Bunyan Meeting remains a member of both the Baptist Union and the Congregational Federation. During Bunyan’s twelve-year imprisonment in the Bedford Gaol, he wrote his most famous work, Pilgrim’s Progress (published in 1678), and his spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666).