British and Foreign Unitarian Association
Encyclopedia
The British and Foreign Unitarian Association was the major Unitarian
body in Britain
from 1825. The BFUA was founded as an amalgamation of three older societies: the Unitarian Book Society for literature (1791), The Unitarian Fund for mission work (1806), and the Unitarian Association for civil rights (1818 or 1819). Its offices were shared with the Sunday School Association at Essex Street, on the site of England's first Unitarian church. In 1928 the BFUA became part of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
, still the umbrella organisation for British Unitarianism, which has its headquarters, Essex Hall, in the same place in central London
.
, 26 May 1825. (The AUA is one of two bodies that merged in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association
.)
, the first minister of the Essex Street Chapel
, and his colleague John Disney
, in 1791 the "first organized denominational Unitarian society" was formed, with the cumbersome name of The Unitarian Society for promoting Christian Knowledge and the Practice of Virtue by the Distribution of Books.
The earliest notable publication was Thomas Belsham
's The New Testament in an Improved Version Upon the Basis of Archbishop Newcome's New Translation (1808), which was continued by the British and Foreign Unitarian Association. At the end of 1826 the Association acquired the Monthly Repository
magazine, formerly edited by Robert Aspland
. The Association contracted the French historian Gaston Bonet-Maury
to write a history of French radical Protestantism
.
In March 1876 Robert Spears
resigned from the Association in objection to proposals to publish the works of Theodore Parker
. Spears started the Christian Life as a rival magazine to the London Inquirer, becoming the voice of conservative late Biblical Unitarianism
with Samuel Sharpe
, till the two publications were merged in July 1929, and ran for a short time as The Inquirer and Christian Life. Another magazine, the Unitarian Herald, ran from 1861 to 1889.
as an itinerant missionary. Foreign Secretaries of the Association included Sir John Bowring
, till 1832, then Edward Tagart.
of 1662 to the passage of the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
, which granted toleration for Unitarian worship; the so-called Act of Toleration 1689
had only worked to the favour of those Protestant dissenter
s who accepted the Trinity
. This victory for Unitarians -- largely pushed forward in Parliament by William Smith
, and thus known sometimes under his name, or as the Unitarian Relief Act (Trinity Act) or The Unitarian Toleration Bill -- did not grant them full civil rights
while the oppressive Corporation Act and Test Act
remained. The Association for the Protection of the Civil Rights of Unitarians was established in 1819.
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
body in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
from 1825. The BFUA was founded as an amalgamation of three older societies: the Unitarian Book Society for literature (1791), The Unitarian Fund for mission work (1806), and the Unitarian Association for civil rights (1818 or 1819). Its offices were shared with the Sunday School Association at Essex Street, on the site of England's first Unitarian church. In 1928 the BFUA became part of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662...
, still the umbrella organisation for British Unitarianism, which has its headquarters, Essex Hall, in the same place in central London
Central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, England. There is no official or commonly accepted definition of its area, but its characteristics are understood to include a high density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally,...
.
Dates
The History of Essex Hall, written in 1959 by Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary (i.e. chief executive) of the General Assembly for its first twenty years, claims that the British and Foreign Unitarian Association was founded, entirely coincidentally, on the same day as the American Unitarian AssociationAmerican Unitarian Association
The American Unitarian Association was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.According to Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary...
, 26 May 1825. (The AUA is one of two bodies that merged in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association , in full the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in North America, is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalist congregations formed by the consolidation in 1961 of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of...
.)
Publishing
Under the impetus of Theophilus LindseyTheophilus Lindsey
Theophilus Lindsey was an English theologian and clergyman who founded the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country, at Essex Street Chapel.-Life:...
, the first minister of the Essex Street Chapel
Essex Street Chapel
Essex Street Chapel, also known as Essex Church, is a Unitarian place of worship in London. It was the first church in England set up with this doctrine, and was established at a time when Dissenters still faced legal threat...
, and his colleague John Disney
John Disney (Unitarian)
John Disney was an English Unitarian minister and biographical writer, initially an Anglican clergyman active against subscription to the Thirty Nine Articles.-Life:...
, in 1791 the "first organized denominational Unitarian society" was formed, with the cumbersome name of The Unitarian Society for promoting Christian Knowledge and the Practice of Virtue by the Distribution of Books.
The earliest notable publication was Thomas Belsham
Thomas Belsham
Thomas Belsham was an English Unitarian minister- Life :Belsham was born in Bedford, England, and was the elder brother of William Belsham, the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry, where for seven years he acted as assistant tutor...
's The New Testament in an Improved Version Upon the Basis of Archbishop Newcome's New Translation (1808), which was continued by the British and Foreign Unitarian Association. At the end of 1826 the Association acquired the Monthly Repository
Monthly Repository
The Monthly Repository was a British monthly Unitarian periodical which ran between 1806 and 1838.The Monthly Repository was established when Robert Aspland bought William Vidler's Universal Theological Magazine and changed the name to the Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature...
magazine, formerly edited by Robert Aspland
Robert Aspland
Robert Aspland was an English Unitarian minister, editor and activist. To be distinguished from his son Robert Brook Aspland .-Life:...
. The Association contracted the French historian Gaston Bonet-Maury
Gaston Bonet-Maury
Amy Gaston Charles Auguste Bonet-Maury was a French Protestant historian.He studied at the University of Strassburg, graduating 1867, then was a Protestant pastor at Dordrecht, 1869–1872; followed by Beauvais, 1872–1876, and St. Denis, 1877...
to write a history of French radical Protestantism
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
.
In March 1876 Robert Spears
Robert Spears
Robert Spears was a British Unitarian minister who was editor of the confessedly "Biblical Unitarian" Christian Life weekly.-Life:...
resigned from the Association in objection to proposals to publish the works of Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church...
. Spears started the Christian Life as a rival magazine to the London Inquirer, becoming the voice of conservative late Biblical Unitarianism
Biblical Unitarianism
Today, biblical Unitarianism identifies the Christian belief that the Bible teaches God is a singular person—the Father—and that Jesus his son is a distinct being...
with Samuel Sharpe
Samuel Sharpe (scholar)
Samuel Sharpe was an English Unitarian Egyptologist and translator of the Bible.-Life:He was the second son of Sutton Sharpe , brewer, by his second wife, Maria , and was born in King Street, Golden Square, London, on 8 March 1799, baptised at St. James's, Piccadilly...
, till the two publications were merged in July 1929, and ran for a short time as The Inquirer and Christian Life. Another magazine, the Unitarian Herald, ran from 1861 to 1889.
Mission work
The Unitarian Fund "for the Promotion of Unitarianism by means of Popular Preaching" was founded in 1806, largely by laypeople. It gave money to congregations that needed it and employed Richard WrightRichard Wright (Unitarian)
Richard Wright was a Unitarian minister, and the itinerant missionary of the Unitarian Fund, a missionary society established in 1806.-Life:...
as an itinerant missionary. Foreign Secretaries of the Association included Sir John Bowring
John Bowring
Sir John Bowring, KCB was an English political economist, traveller, miscellaneous writer, polyglot, and the 4th Governor of Hong Kong.- Early life :...
, till 1832, then Edward Tagart.
Civil rights
It took about 150 years from the Great EjectionGreat Ejection
The Great Ejection followed the Act of Uniformity 1662 in England. Two thousand Puritan ministers left their positions as Church of England clergy, following the changes after the restoration to power of Charles II....
of 1662 to the passage of the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
The Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
, which granted toleration for Unitarian worship; the so-called Act of Toleration 1689
Act of Toleration 1689
The Act of Toleration was an act of the English Parliament , the long title of which is "An Act for Exempting their Majestyes Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certaine Lawes".The Act allowed freedom of worship to Nonconformists who had pledged to the...
had only worked to the favour of those Protestant dissenter
English Dissenters
English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.They originally agitated for a wide reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell....
s who accepted the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
. This victory for Unitarians -- largely pushed forward in Parliament by William Smith
William Smith (abolitionist)
William Smith was a leading independent British politician, sitting as Member of Parliament for more than one constituency. He was an English Dissenter and was instrumental in bringing political rights to that religious minority...
, and thus known sometimes under his name, or as the Unitarian Relief Act (Trinity Act) or The Unitarian Toleration Bill -- did not grant them full civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
while the oppressive Corporation Act and Test Act
Test Act
The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and Nonconformists...
remained. The Association for the Protection of the Civil Rights of Unitarians was established in 1819.
Presidents
- 1869–70 Samuel Sharpe Samuel Sharpe (scholar)Samuel Sharpe was an English Unitarian Egyptologist and translator of the Bible.-Life:He was the second son of Sutton Sharpe , brewer, by his second wife, Maria , and was born in King Street, Golden Square, London, on 8 March 1799, baptised at St. James's, Piccadilly...
- 1898-99 Herford Brook (1830–1903)
- 1921 Charles Sydney JonesCharles Sydney JonesSir Sydney Jones was an English shipowner and Liberal Party politician.-Family and education:Jones was the son of Charles William Jones, a shipowner from Liverpool. He attended Charterhouse School and Magdalen College, Oxford. He never married. In religion Jones was a Unitarian, a member of the...
Secretaries
- 1834 James Yates (Unitarian) (1789–1871)
- 1835-1842 Robert AsplandRobert AsplandRobert Aspland was an English Unitarian minister, editor and activist. To be distinguished from his son Robert Brook Aspland .-Life:...
- 1842-1858 Edward Tagart (1804–1858)
- 1859-1868 Robert Brook AsplandRobert Brook AsplandRobert Brook Aspland was an English Unitarian minister and editor. To be distinguished from his father Robert Aspland .-Life:...
, son of Robert AsplandRobert AsplandRobert Aspland was an English Unitarian minister, editor and activist. To be distinguished from his son Robert Brook Aspland .-Life:... - 1869-1876 Robert SpearsRobert SpearsRobert Spears was a British Unitarian minister who was editor of the confessedly "Biblical Unitarian" Christian Life weekly.-Life:...
- 1912 W. Copeland Bowie (1855–1936)
Further reading
- Liberty and Religion, by Dr. S. H. Mellon. A centenary history of the BFUA, published 1925.