the Congregationalist Standing Order. Congregationalism was dominant on the religious landscape and enjoyed tax‐supported benefits as the religious establishment in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Universalists were new to this religious landscape, enjoyed no tax-supported benefits, and were generally viewed as suspicious Christians. The Oxford society, seeking support, invited John Murray and Elhanan Winchester to attend an October 1785 organizational meeting of New England Universalists. In their letter to Murray, they wrote that the government "will make the most scrutinous investigation . . . to know who are to be denominated Christians in the Commonwealth." They stressed, "our strength depends on our being cemented together in one united body." Rev. Murray had only six years earlier, in 1779, organized dissident members of the Gloucester First Parish Church into the Independent Christian Church, considered the first Universalist society in America. The objectives of the Oxford meeting were modest—determine a name for the collective association, explore common interests, consider holding a yearly gathering of society representatives and establish correspondence secretaries to maintain regular contact. Winchester served as the moderator. Representatives named their association the Independent Christian Societies, Commonly Called Universalists, with each society pledging "to assist each other at any and all times when occasion shall require." The association of Independent Christian Societies held only three annual meetings before dissolving. London (1781-1794) His American biographer, Edwin Martin Stone, provided only limited insight into why Winchester moved to London with his fifth wife in September 1787. He observed that "For a number of years. Mr. Winchester has been impressed that it was his duty to preach the gospel in England." Winchester's later correspondence from London revealed that he had planned to spend only "a season” in London. Winchester confessed that he booked his passage to London on a rather impulsive response to an advertisement for a ship soon to sail. However, Winchester's actions appear less impulsive and more calculated when his relationship with English Universalists is understood. London Universalists The first London Universalist society was organized in 1778. British Universalists differed from their American counterparts both on the source of their inspiration and the outcomes they wished their religion to achieve. British Universalists drew less from the writings of Klein-Nicolai and more from the mystic writings of William Law and Jakob Böhme. Their Universalism was syncretic, an amalgamation of Renaissance enlightenment and biblical prophecy that proclaimed the imminence of the millennium and the restoration of