Newington Green Unitarian Church
Encyclopedia
Newington Green Unitarian Church (NGUC) in north London
is one of England's oldest Unitarian
churches. It has had strong ties to political radicalism for over 300 years, and is London's oldest Nonconformist place of worship still in use. It was founded in 1708 by English Dissenters
, a community of which had been gathering around Newington Green
for at least half a century before that date. The church belongs to the umbrella organisation known as the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
, and has had an upturn in its fortunes since the turn of the millennium.
Its most famous minister was Dr Richard Price
, a political radical who is remembered for his role in the Revolution Controversy
, a British debate about the French Revolution
, but who also did pioneering work in finance and statistics. The most famous member of its congregation was Mary Wollstonecraft
, who drew inspiration from Price's sermons in her work, both in arguing for the new French republic
and in raising the issue of the rights of women
.
The building, which faces the north side of the green
, was extended in 1860, and was listed in 1953. It lies within the London Borough of Hackney
, although the rest of the green is part of the London Borough of Islington
.
's Commonwealth
and the Restoration
of Charles II
, those in England and Wales who were not members of the Church of England
found themselves in an uncomfortable position. Several pieces of legislation, known collectively as the Clarendon Code
, made their lives difficult. The first
restricted public office to Anglicans. The Act of Uniformity
the following year was a step too far for many clergymen, and about 2,000 of them left the established church in the Great Ejection
of 1662. The third act
forbad unauthorised religious meetings of more than five people. The final one
prohibited Nonconformist clergymen from living within five miles of a parish from which they had been banned. Where the ministers went, their flocks tended to follow. Some of these restrictions were ameliorated a generation later, with the passing of the Act of Toleration 1689
, which guaranteed freedom of worship for certain groups. It allowed Nonconformists (or Dissenters) their own places of worship and their own teachers and preachers, subject to certain oaths of allegiance and to the registering of these locations and leaders, but it perpetuated their existing social and political disabilities, including their exclusion from political office and also from universities (Oxford and Cambridge were the only universities in England and Wales at that time).
Roman Catholics were specifically targeted by these acts, and many of them went underground
. Some Christians who had hoped for a more Protestant Reformation
within the Established Church chose to emigrate, especially to the American colonies, as the Pilgrim Fathers had done in 1620. Others maintained their faith openly, and lived with the restrictions the state placed upon them, moving to areas where they were tolerated. Often they set up educational establishments, known in general as dissenting academies
, which were intellectually and morally more rigorous than the universities. One such was at Newington Green
, then an agricultural village a few miles from London, but now within Inner London
. Unitarianism or Rational Dissent – "that intellectual aristocracy in the ranks of Dissent, as historians often characterise it" – had an obvious affinity with education, critical enquiry, and challenges to the status quo, and is "one of the roots of modern English Culture". A critical mass of such people, including "dissident intellectuals, pedagogues with reforming ideas and Dissenters" and "the well-to-do edge of radical Protestantism" clustered around Newington Green. Not all of these free-thinkers were Unitarians, such as Quaker physician John Coakley Lettsome or the Anglican pacifist Vicesimus Knox
, but most had some connections to the chapel on the green.
The original 1708 building was financed with £300 from goldsmith Edward Harrison, equivalent to about £ as of . He leased it to the trustees of the congregation, who furnished it with pulpit, pews, and so on, raising the necessary £96 from about 20 subscribers, primarily by hiring or selling pews. It was a "substantial brick building, of nearly square form, with the high, tiled, projecting roof, common at its era", "Historic views show that the original façade had a small pediment against a large hipped roof, with a central oval window below." It was too plain for Wollstonecraft's Anglican tastes, and one of her biographers thought it defiantly stark. This building was substantially extended and improved in the mid-nineteenth century. An internal gallery was built to increase the seating available, and a few years later the roof and apse
were renewed, and a "stucco
ed frontage" was built, "mirroring the original façade with a three-bay front with two round-headed windows, but with added Tuscan pilaster
s and a large pediment
". In the mid-twentieth century, the building was damaged by enemy action. In 1953 its architectural importance was recognised as a Grade II listed building.
Other religious institutions existed nearby. Its neighbour on the green was the China Inland Mission
headquarters, an organisation responsible for 18,000 converts to Christianity that had been founded by James Hudson Taylor at the height of the Victorian era
. Jews fleeing the pogrom
s of the Russian Empire
established a congregation nearby by 1876, and built the Dalston Synagogue in adjoining Poets Road in 1885. This Victorian Gothic building became one of the leading synagogues of London, with Jacob Koussevitzsky as its cantor
from 1936. Another Dissenting meeting house was built in Stoke Newington Church Street
about 1700, near the house of Mary Abney, who had inherited the manor. St Matthias
, one of London's foremost High Church
es, was built nearby from 1849–53, partly with money from a rich doctor named Robert Brett, who thought that the Dissenting chapels were attracting so many worshippers in part because the Anglican pews were full.
Pre-dating all of these is the impressive Anglican church in the parish of Stoke Newington
; it is dedicated to St Mary, as is the "new" (1858) church opposite, by Sir George Gilbert Scott
. From the mid-1640s to the mid-1650s, Thomas Manton
, "a principal person among the non-conformist ministers", worked there; a staunch and popular defender of Reformed
principles, he participated in the Westminster Assembly
, acted as chaplain to Oliver Cromwell
, and preached before Parliament
on several occasions.
As the NGUC lacks its own cemetery, some of its congregants, such as the poet and banker Samuel Rogers
, are buried in St Mary's churchyard. However, as the Church of England normally limits its cemeteries to its members, most of the Newington Green Unitarians opted for Bunhill Fields
until the middle of the nineteenth century, and then Abney Park Cemetery
thereafter. (Robert Southey
called the former the Campo Santo of the Dissenters, but the phrase was used for both.) Wollstonecraft was married and later buried at St Pancras Old Church
a few miles away.
(1626–1698), the great educator who ended his career as vice-president of Harvard University
, ran an influential Dissenting Academy
, "probably on the site of the current Unitarian church". One of his friends, James Ashurst, founded a group that worshipped in private houses licensed for the purpose, and, in time, this small congregation decided to build a proper meeting house. (It is worth mentioning here the early religious evolution of this church. It started as Presbyterian, with views on the Trinity
as orthodox as those held by the Church of England. In fact, several of its first ministers chose to conform, i.e. rejoin, the established church: one of these was Richard Biscoe
, who gave the Boyle Lectures
in the late 1730s. However, NGUC soon acquired ministers who were Arian
, that is, who denied the Trinity
, although they retained their belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. Thus was the Unitarian
nature of the church created. In the mid-nineteenth century it was described by a local historian as a Socinian
Independent meeting house.) The author Daniel Defoe
, who attended school at Newington Green, is believed to have attended the church. Isaac Watts
, the "Father of English Hymnody", theologian, logician, and educator, was brought up as a non-Conformist, lived from 1736-1748 at Abney Park
nearby, and during that period "was known to have adopted decidedly Unitarian opinions", so he too may have attended NGUC. Samuel Wright, son of a nonconformist minister in Nottinghamshire, writer on theological issues and "a very eminent divine among the Presbyterians" lived at Newington Green until his death in 1746. Several of the church's ministers were at the same time, or had been, the librarians at the theological collection known as Dr Williams's Library
, an establishment still very much alive.
The minister whose name is still remembered centuries later is Dr Richard Price
, a libertarian and republican who cemented the village's "reputation as a centre for radical thinkers and social reformers". He arrived in 1758 with his wife Sarah, and took up residence in No. 54 the Green, in the middle of a terrace even then a hundred years old. (The building still survives as London's oldest brick terrace
, dated 1658.) In that house, or the church itself, he was visited by Founding Fathers of the United States
such as Benjamin Franklin
, Thomas Jefferson
, and Thomas Paine
; other American politicians such as John Adams
, who later became the second president of the United States
, and his wife Abigail
; British politicians such as Lord Lyttleton
, the Earl of Shelburne
, Earl Stanhope
(known as "Citizen Stanhope"), and even the Prime Minister
William Pitt
; philosophers David Hume
and Adam Smith
; agitators such as prison reformer John Howard
, gadfly John Horne Tooke
, and husband and wife John and Ann Jebb
, who between them campaigned on expansion of the franchise, opposition to the war with America
, support for the French Revolution
, abolitionism
, and an end to legal discrimination against Roman Catholics
; writers such as poet and banker Samuel Rogers
; and clergyman-mathematician Thomas Bayes
, known for Bayes' theorem
.
Price was fortunate in forming close friendships among his neighbours and congregants. One was Thomas Rogers, father of the above, a merchant turned banker who had married into a long-established Dissenting family and lived at No. 56 the Green. More than once, Price and the elder Rogers rode on horseback to Wales. Another was the Rev. James Burgh
, author of The Dignity of Human Nature and Thoughts on Education, who opened his Dissenting Academy on the green in 1750 and sent his pupils to Price's sermons. Price, Rogers, and Burgh formed a dining club, eating at each other's houses in rotation. Even when, in 1770, Price became morning preacher at the Gravel Pit Chapel in Homerton
, near another famous Dissenting Academy
, he continued his afternoon sermons at NGUC.
And there were many at a distance who acknowledged their debt to Price, such as the Unitarian theologians William Ellery Channing
and Theophilus Lindsey
, and the formidable polymath
and Dissenting clergyman, Joseph Priestley
, discoverer of oxygen. When Priestley's support of dissent
led to the riots named after him
, he fled Birmingham
and headed for the sanctuary of Newington Green, where Rogers took him in.
The support Price gave to the revolt of the colonies of British North America
, arguing that the American Revolution
was justified, made his name as a famous or notorious preacher. He rejected traditional Christian notions of original sin
and moral punishment, preaching the perfectibility of human nature, and he wrote on theological questions. However, his interests were wide-ranging, and during the decades Price spent as minister of NGUC, he also wrote on finance, economics, probability, and life insurance, being inducted into the Royal Society
in recognition of his work. On the 101st anniversary of the Glorious Revolution
, he preached a sermon titled "A Discourse on the Love of our Country", thus igniting a so-called "pamphlet war" known as the Revolution Controversy
, furiously debating the issues raised by the French Revolution
. Burke's rebuttal "Reflections on the Revolution in France
" attacked Price, whose friends Paine and Wollstonecraft leapt into the fray to defend their mentor. The reputation of Price for speaking without fear of the government on these political and philosophical matters drew huge crowds to the church, and were published and sold as pamphlets
(i.e. publications easily printed and circulated).
Arguably the congregant Price most influenced was the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft
, who moved her fledgling school for girls from Islington to the Green in 1784, with the help of a "fairy godmother
" whose good auspices found her a house to rent and twenty students to fill it. Her patron — or matron — was the well-off Mrs Burgh, widow of the educationalist, who treated her almost as a daughter. The new arrival attended services at NGUC: she was a life-long Anglican, but, in keeping with the church's and Price's ethos of logical enquiry and individual conscience, believers of all kinds were welcomed without any expectation of conversion. The approach of these Rational Dissenters appealed to Wollstonecraft: they were hard-working, humane, critical but uncynical, and respectful towards women, and in her hour of need proved kinder to her than her own family. She, an unmarried woman making her own way in the world, was marginal to the dominant society in just the same way that the Dissenters were.
Wollstonecraft was then a young schoolmistress, as yet unpublished, but Price saw something in her worth fostering, and became a friend and mentor. Through the minister (and through the young Anglican John Hewlett
, who also introduced her to the eminent lexicographer Samuel Johnson
), she met the great humanitarian and radical publisher Joseph Johnson
, who was to guide her career and serve as a father figure. Through him, with a title alluding to the husband of her other benefactor, she published Thoughts on the Education of Daughters
(subtitled: with reflections on female conduct, in the more important duties of life). The ideas Wollstonecraft ingested from the sermons at NGUC pushed her towards a political awakening. A couple of years after she had had to leave Newington Green, these seeds germinated into A Vindication of the Rights of Men
, a response to Burke's denunciation of the French Revolution and attack on Price. In 1792 she published the work for which she is best remembered, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
, in the spirit of rationalism extending Price's arguments about equality to women: Her biographer Claire Tomalin
argues that just as the Dissenters were "excluded as a class from education and civil rights by a lazy-minded majority", so too were women, and the "character defects of both groups" could be attributed to this discrimination.
was born in about 1738, the son of a poor bookseller, and was apprenticed as a printer to Robert Goadby
of Sherborne
. Lacking formal education, he read all he could and educated himself, eventually writing learned works such as Criminal Libel and the Duty of Juries, and being awarded a Doctor of Law degree by Edinburgh University. Towers assisted fellow minister Andrew Kippis
in developing the Biographia Britannica, a forerunner of the Dictionary of National Biography
. He was secretary of the highly respectable Society for Constitutional Information
, which lobbied for political liberties, but it was suppressed by the authorities, who lived in fear of the Reign of Terror
crossing the Channel. Towers was put under arrest until the Archbishop of Canterbury
intervened on his behalf.
In 1808, Rochemont Barbauld was appointed minister, first as the morning preacher. His wife, Anna Laetitia Barbauld
(1743–1825), was a prolific writer, admired by Samuel Johnson
and William Wordsworth
. She enjoyed a long friendship with Joseph Priestley
and William Enfield
, starting from their years together at the Warrington Academy
in the 1760s, where her father John Aikin
was tutor. She wrote poems (including a tribute to Priestley), hymns, children's literature
, and political and religious tracts. She was an abolitionist, addressing one of her works to William Wilberforce
. 1793 saw her contribution to the Pamphlet War, "Sins of the Government, Sins of the Nation". Two years later she wrote The Rights of Women, but this was not published until her death thirty years later.
Rochemont eventually went violently insane, attacked his wife, and committed suicide by drowning himself in the New River
that runs through Islington. Anna remained a member of the congregation until her death and is commemorated in the church with a plaque which praises her work for "the Cause of Humanity, Peace, and Justice, [and] of Civil and Religious Liberty". Her brother Dr John Aikin
lived nearby, and together they co-authored books such as Evenings at Home
. As he had been a Unitarian minister in his youth, it is likely that he worshipped at NGUC, with his son Arthur
, a prominent scientist, and his daughter Lucy
, a biographer. They lived in a house previously occupied by Adam Anderson, clerk to the South Sea Company.
took over after Barbauld's death. He was a leading authority of the history of Unitarianism
, and made connections with the Unitarian Church of Transylvania
. In 1813 two things occurred, key to the understanding of the development of the church: Parliament passed the Doctrine of the Trinity Act
, and Rees was succeeded by James Gilchrist, who remained for 15 years. (His son Alexander
wrote the standard biography of poet and artist William Blake
.) The larger public event meant that the civil and religious liberties that Dissenters had been fighting for were won, the battle of a century and a half was over. The more particular event sowed its own seeds of destruction, as Gilchrist gradually changed his opinions and eventually wrote a pamphlet called "Unitarianism Abandoned", which infuriated his very Unitarian congregation. For a long time he refused to resign, but in the end he was forced out, and the church built a safeguard against such a future occurrence by holding annual elections for the minister. NGUC then entered a very low ebb, with at one point as few as nine subscribers and a rapid turnover of ministers. The causes it had agitated for had been successful, and the church looked backwards with pride, but saw little to look forward to. Energy drained away. "Legal recognition did not propsper the cause of the church, however, which at this time began to decline."
. A hundred years before, the ethos had been one of almost Puritan
self-reliance, but now the Dickensian poverty, evident in cholera epidemics and rampant malnutrition, made social responsibility an urgent necessity. The minister who guided the first 25 years of this (1839–64) was Thomas Cromwell
, FSA
(1792–1870). (Like many Anglican vicars, one of his hobbies was local history
.)
A charity school for 14 girls and a monitorial Sunday school for 150 children had been set up in the vicinity by Dissenters in 1790 and 1808 respectively, but these efforts were augmented in the middle of the century. In 1840, a Sunday school
was set up for poor children, and soon thereafter a Domestic Mission Society, to visit the poor in their homes. A library and a savings club emphasised self-help. A regular day school ran from 1860 for ten years, until primary education became the responsibility of the state with the passing of the Elementary Education Act 1870
.
One of the first actions of Cromwell's tenure, in terms of changing the church services, was to introduce the hymnbook of James Martineau
. Samuel Sharpe, named after his uncle, the poet Samuel Rogers
, came to Newington Green in 1828, and maintained his connection for 30 years, sometimes as treasurer. He was an erudite and generous man, and in 1870 he was elected Chairman of the British and Foreign Unitarian Society. Andrew Pritchard
(1804–1882) was treasurer of NGUC 1850-73, during which time donations doubled. He was a microscope and slide maker who made significant improvements to microscopy
and studied microscopic organisms; he was a friend of Michael Faraday
and for him, science and religion
were one. He led the Newington Green Conversation Society, membership restricted to 16, a successor to the Mutual Instruction Society. The "small but energetic community" continued to campaign on the larger political stage, presenting petitions to Parliament on subjects touching religious matters, such as the Dissenting Chapels Bill (made law as Nonconformists Chapels Act 1844), the removal of civil disabilities from the Jews
(1847), permission for Dissenters to attend Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and the revision of the King James Bible. Religious freedom and self-improvement were their watchwords.
, and teetotalism
(abstinence from alcohol) support for adults
and children
. Other issues of concern were education, social reform, and women's suffrage
.
Sister and brother Marian and Ion Pritchard continued the work of their father. The cause of liberal religion
in general, and the development of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
, were overarching themes. Marian in particular is described as an unsung heroine, and "one of the leaders of modern Unitarianism". She set up Oxford Summer Schools for the training of Sunday School teachers, and Winifred House Invalid Children's Convalescent Home.
and the League of Progressive Thought and Service. This Social Gospel
movement was not to the taste of all his congregants, and Foat left for the Richmond Free Christian Church. Then came 1914, and
Christian faith all over the world was shaken by the horrors of World War I. Unitarians as a body have never been pacifists, unlike the Quakers, and some fifteen members of the congregation and Sunday School fell during the war. Society as a whole found less solace in religion, perhaps particularly liberal religion, with its message of human dignity ringing hollow beside the great guns. Meanwhile, many of the older people with long family ties to Newington Green simply died. The professional middle class had largely left the area. Numbers in the pews dropped. By 1930 "it was whispered that the church could not survive".
Nonetheless, survive it did. One influential supporter was an alderman and councillor in the Borough of Stoke Newington, and in 1938 a new lay pastor and his family breathed new life into the church. Although attendance at services was low, other activities drew in crowds: 100 to the temperance meetings, for example. The outbreak of World War II meant that children were evacuated temporarily from London, so the Sunday Schools and Young People's Leagues ceased for a time. The Sunday services never missed a week, however, even when the building was badly damaged by a landmine blast: they just moved to the schoolhouse. After the war, the ministry focused on building bridges between races and faiths, e.g. with the Jewish community of North London, and was recognised by the World Congress of Faiths, an organisation founded by Francis Younghusband
. Services were often attended by local politicians, including the Mayor of Stoke Newington. Leaders for the national Unitarian movement
continued to be found within the congregation at Newington Green.
In the late twentieth century, faced with declining numbers, Newington Green Unitarian Church developed closer ties with Islington Unitarian Church a couple of km away. They started to share a minister and publicise events together under the name New Unity, while remaining legally distinct entities.
By the turn of the millennium, NGUC's community was reduced in numbers. A small congregation of half a dozen elderly women persisted, and a new burst of energy arrived with the appointment of Cathal (Cal) Courtney, first as student pastor in 2002 and then as minister in July 2004. He came from an Ireland of divided communities; he was characterised as a "radical spirit" who had made a "remarkable spiritual journey", and his weekly sermons soon attracted twenty people. In the tradition of Unitarian social action, he led a silent vigil through the night before the huge march against the Iraq War
, "protesting against the US-led incursion with, among others, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Jews present" Later made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, during his time at NGUC he wrote Towards Beloved Community and was written about as the Right-On Reverend in The Oldie
s monthly "East of Islington" column.
The incumbent is Andrew Pakula
, an American who grew up in a Jewish family in New York
. His MIT doctorate in biology and master's degree in business led to his first career in biotechnology management and business development, before he undertook ministerial training, completing his studies at Unitarian College, Manchester. He began serving in October 2006, was inducted as full minister in January 2010, and was elected to the executive committee
of the British Unitarians. He was described – sympathetically – in the local press as "controversial" when he did a reverse collection plate, giving his own money away to those attending one sermon.
addressed the need to disestablish
the Church of England under the title "Why Religion Needs Satire". The November 2008 lecture took the theme of "Dishonesty": Evan Davis, the economist and BBC presenter, used the platform to argue that "the media industry has a 'misleading ethical code' and tendency to be dishonest". The 2009 lecture, given on 27 January 2010, was given by psychotherapist Susie Orbach
, who spoke on the topic "Frankenstein's Bodies Today". The 2010 lecture was given by literary critic
Terry Eagleton
, who spoke on "The New Atheism and the War on Terror".
. Unity Church Islington followed suit a couple of months later. Pakula stated that same-sex couples "are being treated like second-class citizens when they are forbidden to celebrate their unions in a way that heterosexual couples take for granted". The BBC
called it a "gay rights church" for its unanimous committee vote suspending full wedding services, although NGUC is not a "gay church" such as the Metropolitan Community Church
, and it still conducts ceremonial blessings of relationships, straight and gay. The church's decision was in response to the case brought by the Christian Institute
, backing the claim of Lillian Ladele, a registrar
employed by Islington London Borough Council
who wished to be exempted from having to perform civil partnership ceremonies on the grounds of her religion. The move was praised by Rev. Richard Kirker, chairman of the national Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement
. "This is the first church I’ve heard of to have taken this step", he said. "We’re proud that Islington is striking a blow for human rights
." Following in the steps of his immediate predecessor, who used his inaugural column in the N16
magazine to address the international furore around Gene Robinson
's election as bishop, Pakula sees homophobia
as the real sin, and he and his congregation are considering challenging the law under the European Convention on Human Rights
. Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell
has called on the church to conduct a gay marriage in defiance of the law.
. (There is a strong Turkish community
in Newington Green and nearby Green Lanes
.)
; a panel discussion about women and power, between female politicians Diane Abbott
MP, Jean Lambert
MEP, and Emily Thornberry
MP; an art exhibition titled Mother of Feminism; a concert featuring Carol Grimes
and Adey Grummet, to raise money for Stop the Traffik
, an anti-trafficking
charity; a tombstone tribute at St Pancras Old Church
; a birthday cake baked by men; and other activities.
Pakula's sermon in honour of the Wollstonecraft anniversary stressed her role as a prophet. This excerpt serves as a flavour of the emphasis given to social action within the church:
; twice-monthly poetry readings and weekly meditation sessions are held at Newington Green. It participates in the annual festival of architecture, Open House London
. It hosts occasional concerts, such as that given by the London Gallery Quire, which "performs West Gallery Music
, the psalmody
heard in parish church
es and non-conformist chapels during the Georgian period, from about 1720 to 1850", and the Psallite Women's Choir. The congregation was reported to have grown to 70 as of 2009, with 30 at one Sunday service; it is one of the most rapidly growing Unitarian churches in Britain.
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
is one of England's oldest Unitarian
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....
churches. It has had strong ties to political radicalism for over 300 years, and is London's oldest Nonconformist place of worship still in use. It was founded in 1708 by English Dissenters
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....
, a community of which had been gathering around Newington Green
Newington Green
Newington Green is an open space in north London which straddles the border between Islington and Hackney. It gives its name to the surrounding area, roughly bounded by Ball's Pond Road to the south, Petherton Road to the west, the southern section of Stoke Newington with Green Lanes-Matthias Road...
for at least half a century before that date. The church belongs to the umbrella organisation known as 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...
, and has had an upturn in its fortunes since the turn of the millennium.
Its most famous minister was Dr Richard Price
Richard Price
Richard Price was a British moral philosopher and preacher in the tradition of English Dissenters, and a political pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the American Revolution. He fostered connections between a large number of people, including writers of the...
, a political radical who is remembered for his role in the Revolution Controversy
Revolution Controversy
The Revolution Controversy was a British debate over the French Revolution, lasting from 1789 through 1795. A pamphlet war began in earnest after the publication of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France , which surprisingly supported the French aristocracy...
, a British debate about the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, but who also did pioneering work in finance and statistics. The most famous member of its congregation was Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
, who drew inspiration from Price's sermons in her work, both in arguing for the new French republic
A Vindication of the Rights of Men
A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned by His Reflections on the Revolution in France is a political pamphlet, written by the 18th-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, which attacks aristocracy and advocates republicanism...
and in raising the issue of the rights of women
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects , written by the 18th-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft responds to those educational and political theorists of the 18th...
.
The building, which faces the north side of the green
Village green
A village green is a common open area which is a part of a settlement. Traditionally, such an area was often common grass land at the centre of a small agricultural settlement, used for grazing and sometimes for community events...
, was extended in 1860, and was listed in 1953. It lies within the London Borough of Hackney
London Borough of Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
, although the rest of the green is part of the London Borough of Islington
London Borough of Islington
The London Borough of Islington is a London borough in Inner London. It was formed in 1965 by merging the former metropolitan boroughs of Islington and Finsbury. The borough contains two Westminster parliamentary constituencies, Islington North and Islington South & Finsbury...
.
Background to its creation
After the end of Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
's Commonwealth
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
and the Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
, those in England and Wales who were not members of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
found themselves in an uncomfortable position. Several pieces of legislation, known collectively as the Clarendon Code
Penal law
In the most general sense, penal is the body of laws that are enforced by the State in its own name and impose penalties for their violation, as opposed to civil law that seeks to redress private wrongs...
, made their lives difficult. The first
Corporation Act 1661
The Corporation Act of 1661 is an Act of the Parliament of England . It belongs to the general category of test acts, designed for the express purpose of restricting public offices in England to members of the Church of England....
restricted public office to Anglicans. The Act of Uniformity
Act of Uniformity 1662
The Act of Uniformity was an Act of the Parliament of England, 13&14 Ch.2 c. 4 ,The '16 Charles II c. 2' nomenclature is reference to the statute book of the numbered year of the reign of the named King in the stated chapter...
the following year was a step too far for many clergymen, and about 2,000 of them left the established church in the Great Ejection
Great 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. The third act
Conventicle Act 1664
The Conventicle Act of 1664 was an Act of the Parliament of England that forbade conventicles...
forbad unauthorised religious meetings of more than five people. The final one
Five Mile Act 1665
The Five Mile Act, or Oxford Act, or Nonconformists Act 1665, is an Act of the Parliament of England , passed in 1665 with the long title "An Act for restraining Non-Conformists from inhabiting in Corporations". It was one of the English penal laws that sought to enforce conformity to the...
prohibited Nonconformist clergymen from living within five miles of a parish from which they had been banned. Where the ministers went, their flocks tended to follow. Some of these restrictions were ameliorated a generation later, with the passing of the 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...
, which guaranteed freedom of worship for certain groups. It allowed Nonconformists (or Dissenters) their own places of worship and their own teachers and preachers, subject to certain oaths of allegiance and to the registering of these locations and leaders, but it perpetuated their existing social and political disabilities, including their exclusion from political office and also from universities (Oxford and Cambridge were the only universities in England and Wales at that time).
Roman Catholics were specifically targeted by these acts, and many of them went underground
Recusancy
In the history of England and Wales, the recusancy was the state of those who refused to attend Anglican services. The individuals were known as "recusants"...
. Some Christians who had hoped for a more Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
within the Established Church chose to emigrate, especially to the American colonies, as the Pilgrim Fathers had done in 1620. Others maintained their faith openly, and lived with the restrictions the state placed upon them, moving to areas where they were tolerated. Often they set up educational establishments, known in general as dissenting academies
Dissenting academies
The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and nonconformist seminaries run by dissenters. They formed a significant part of England’s educational systems from the mid-seventeenth to nineteenth centuries....
, which were intellectually and morally more rigorous than the universities. One such was at Newington Green
Newington Green
Newington Green is an open space in north London which straddles the border between Islington and Hackney. It gives its name to the surrounding area, roughly bounded by Ball's Pond Road to the south, Petherton Road to the west, the southern section of Stoke Newington with Green Lanes-Matthias Road...
, then an agricultural village a few miles from London, but now within Inner London
Inner London
Inner London is the name for the group of London boroughs which form the interior part of Greater London and are surrounded by Outer London. The area was first officially defined in 1965 and for purposes such as statistics, the definition has changed over time. The terms Inner London and Central...
. Unitarianism or Rational Dissent – "that intellectual aristocracy in the ranks of Dissent, as historians often characterise it" – had an obvious affinity with education, critical enquiry, and challenges to the status quo, and is "one of the roots of modern English Culture". A critical mass of such people, including "dissident intellectuals, pedagogues with reforming ideas and Dissenters" and "the well-to-do edge of radical Protestantism" clustered around Newington Green. Not all of these free-thinkers were Unitarians, such as Quaker physician John Coakley Lettsome or the Anglican pacifist Vicesimus Knox
Vicesimus Knox
Vicesimus Knox was an English essayist and minister. He was born December 8, 1752, at Newington Green, Middlesex. Knox was educated at St John's College, Oxford, took orders, and became Head Master of Tonbridge School. He published Essays Moral and Literary , and compiled the formerly well-known...
, but most had some connections to the chapel on the green.
The building and its religious neighbours
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
were renewed, and a "stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
ed frontage" was built, "mirroring the original façade with a three-bay front with two round-headed windows, but with added Tuscan pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s and a large pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
". In the mid-twentieth century, the building was damaged by enemy action. In 1953 its architectural importance was recognised as a Grade II listed building.
China Inland Mission
OMF International is an interdenominational Protestant Christian missionary society, founded in Britain by Hudson Taylor on 25 June 1865.-Overview:...
headquarters, an organisation responsible for 18,000 converts to Christianity that had been founded by James Hudson Taylor at the height of the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. Jews fleeing the pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
established a congregation nearby by 1876, and built the Dalston Synagogue in adjoining Poets Road in 1885. This Victorian Gothic building became one of the leading synagogues of London, with Jacob Koussevitzsky as its cantor
Hazzan
A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...
from 1936. Another Dissenting meeting house was built in Stoke Newington Church Street
Stoke Newington Church Street
Stoke Newington Church Street is a road in north London of the borough of Hackney. The road links Green Lanes in the west to Stoke Newington High Street , in the east...
about 1700, near the house of Mary Abney, who had inherited the manor. St Matthias
St Matthias Church (Stoke Newington)
St Matthias Church is an Anglican church in Stoke Newington, north London, England. It is named for St Matthias.-Formation:St Matthias, once one of London’s foremost High Churches, was built from 1849-53, partly with money from a rich doctor named Robert Brett, who thought that the Dissenting...
, one of London's foremost High Church
High church
The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...
es, was built nearby from 1849–53, partly with money from a rich doctor named Robert Brett, who thought that the Dissenting chapels were attracting so many worshippers in part because the Anglican pews were full.
Pre-dating all of these is the impressive Anglican church in the parish of Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington (parish)
Stoke Newington was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex. It was both a civil parish, used for administrative purposes, and an ecclesiastical parish of the Church of England.-Civil parish:...
; it is dedicated to St Mary, as is the "new" (1858) church opposite, by Sir George Gilbert Scott
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses...
. From the mid-1640s to the mid-1650s, Thomas Manton
Thomas Manton
Thomas Manton was an English Puritan clergyman.-Life:Thomas Manton was baptized March 31, 1620 at Lydeard St Lawrence, Somerset, a remote southwestern portion of England. His grammar school education was possibly at Blundell's School, in Tiverton, Devon...
, "a principal person among the non-conformist ministers", worked there; a staunch and popular defender of Reformed
Reformed churches
The Reformed churches are a group of Protestant denominations characterized by Calvinist doctrines. They are descended from the Swiss Reformation inaugurated by Huldrych Zwingli but developed more coherently by Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger and especially John Calvin...
principles, he participated in the Westminster Assembly
Westminster Assembly
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was appointed by the Long Parliament to restructure the Church of England. It also included representatives of religious leaders from Scotland...
, acted as chaplain to Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
, and preached before Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
on several occasions.
As the NGUC lacks its own cemetery, some of its congregants, such as the poet and banker Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers was an English poet, during his lifetime one of the most celebrated, although his fame has long since been eclipsed by his Romantic colleagues and friends Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron...
, are buried in St Mary's churchyard. However, as the Church of England normally limits its cemeteries to its members, most of the Newington Green Unitarians opted for Bunhill Fields
Bunhill Fields
Bunhill Fields is a cemetery in the London Borough of Islington, north of the City of London, and managed by the City of London Corporation. It is about 4 hectares in extent, although historically was much larger....
until the middle of the nineteenth century, and then Abney Park Cemetery
Abney Park Cemetery
Abney Park in Stoke Newington, in the London Borough of Hackney, is a historic parkland originally laid out in the early 18th century by Lady Mary Abney and Dr. Isaac Watts, and the neighbouring Hartopp family. In 1840 it became a non-denominational garden cemetery, semi-public park arboretum, and...
thereafter. (Robert Southey
Robert Southey
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
called the former the Campo Santo of the Dissenters, but the phrase was used for both.) Wollstonecraft was married and later buried at St Pancras Old Church
St Pancras Old Church
St Pancras Old Church is a Church of England parish church in central London. It is believed to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England, and is dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Pancras, although the building itself is largely Victorian...
a few miles away.
Earliest years: to the mid-eighteenth century
Newington Green Unitarian Church has been associated with many historically significant people on both sides of the pulpit, especially but not exclusively in the eighteenth century. Charles MortonCharles Morton (educator)
Charles Morton was a Cornish nonconformist minister and founder of an early dissenting academy, later in life associated in New England with Harvard College.-Life:...
(1626–1698), the great educator who ended his career as vice-president of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, ran an influential Dissenting Academy
Dissenting academies
The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and nonconformist seminaries run by dissenters. They formed a significant part of England’s educational systems from the mid-seventeenth to nineteenth centuries....
, "probably on the site of the current Unitarian church". One of his friends, James Ashurst, founded a group that worshipped in private houses licensed for the purpose, and, in time, this small congregation decided to build a proper meeting house. (It is worth mentioning here the early religious evolution of this church. It started as Presbyterian, with views on 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...
as orthodox as those held by the Church of England. In fact, several of its first ministers chose to conform, i.e. rejoin, the established church: one of these was Richard Biscoe
Richard Biscoe
Richard Biscoe was an English clergyman. Initially a Dissenting minister, he later was an Anglican, Boyle Lecturer, and President of Sion College.-Life:...
, who gave the Boyle Lectures
Boyle Lectures
The Boyle Lectures were named after Robert Boyle, a prominent English/Irish natural philosopher of the 17th century. Boyle endowed a series of lectures in his will, which were designed as a forum where prominent academics could discuss the existence of God....
in the late 1730s. However, NGUC soon acquired ministers who were Arian
Arian
Arian may refer to:* Arius, a Christian presbyter in the 3rd and 4th century* a given name in different cultures: Aria, Aryan or Arian...
, that is, who denied the Trinity
Nontrinitarianism
Nontrinitarianism includes all Christian belief systems that disagree with the doctrine of the Trinity, namely, the teaching that God is three distinct hypostases and yet co-eternal, co-equal, and indivisibly united in one essence or ousia...
, although they retained their belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. Thus was the Unitarian
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....
nature of the church created. In the mid-nineteenth century it was described by a local historian as a Socinian
Socinianism
Socinianism is a system of Christian doctrine named for Fausto Sozzini , which was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Minor Reformed Church of Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries and embraced also by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period...
Independent meeting house.) The author Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
, who attended school at Newington Green, is believed to have attended the church. Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
, the "Father of English Hymnody", theologian, logician, and educator, was brought up as a non-Conformist, lived from 1736-1748 at Abney Park
Abney Park
The historic grounds of Abney Park are situated in Stoke Newington, London, England. It is a 13ha park dating from just before 1700, named after Lady Mary Abney and associated with Dr Isaac Watts. In the early 18th century, the park was accessed via the frontages and gardens of two large mansions...
nearby, and during that period "was known to have adopted decidedly Unitarian opinions", so he too may have attended NGUC. Samuel Wright, son of a nonconformist minister in Nottinghamshire, writer on theological issues and "a very eminent divine among the Presbyterians" lived at Newington Green until his death in 1746. Several of the church's ministers were at the same time, or had been, the librarians at the theological collection known as Dr Williams's Library
Dr Williams's Library
Dr Williams's Library is a small research library located in Gordon Square in Bloomsbury, London.-History:It was founded using the estate of Dr Daniel Williams as a theological library, intended for the use of ministers of religion, students and others studying theology, religion and...
, an establishment still very much alive.
Richard Price
Richard Price
Richard Price was a British moral philosopher and preacher in the tradition of English Dissenters, and a political pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the American Revolution. He fostered connections between a large number of people, including writers of the...
, a libertarian and republican who cemented the village's "reputation as a centre for radical thinkers and social reformers". He arrived in 1758 with his wife Sarah, and took up residence in No. 54 the Green, in the middle of a terrace even then a hundred years old. (The building still survives as London's oldest brick terrace
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
, dated 1658.) In that house, or the church itself, he was visited by Founding Fathers of the United States
Founding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, establishing the United States Constitution, or by some...
such as Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, and Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
; other American politicians such as John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
, who later became the second president of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, and his wife Abigail
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams, who was the second President of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth...
; British politicians such as Lord Lyttleton
George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton
George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton PC , known as Sir George Lyttelton, Bt between 1751 and 1756, was a British politician and statesman and a patron of the arts.-Background and education:...
, the Earl of Shelburne
William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne
William Petty-FitzMaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, KG, PC , known as The Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history, was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first Home Secretary in 1782 and then Prime Minister 1782–1783 during the final...
, Earl Stanhope
Earl Stanhope
Earl Stanhope was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1718 for James Stanhope, 1st Viscount Stanhope, the principal minister of King George I, with remainder to the heirs male of his body. Stanhope was the son of the Hon. Alexander Stanhope, fifth and youngest son of Philip...
(known as "Citizen Stanhope"), and even the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
William Pitt
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham PC was a British Whig statesman who led Britain during the Seven Years' War...
; philosophers David Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
and Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
; agitators such as prison reformer John Howard
John Howard (prison reformer)
John Howard was a philanthropist and the first English prison reformer.-Birth and early life:Howard was born in Lower Clapton, London. His father, also John, was a wealthy upholsterer at Smithfield Market in the city...
, gadfly John Horne Tooke
John Horne Tooke
John Horne Tooke was an English politician and philologist.-Early life and work:He was born in Newport Street, Long Acre, Westminster, the third son of John Horne, a poulterer in Newport Market. As a youth at Eton College, Tooke described his father to friends as a "turkey merchant"...
, and husband and wife John and Ann Jebb
Ann Jebb
Ann Jebb , political reformer and radical writer, was born at Ripton-Kings, Huntingdonshire, to Lady Dorothy Sherard and the Revd James Torkington. She grew up in Huntingdonshire and was probably educated at home. She married religious and political reformer John Jebb in 1764 and fully shared his...
, who between them campaigned on expansion of the franchise, opposition to the war with America
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, support for the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, abolitionism
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
, and an end to legal discrimination against Roman Catholics
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...
; writers such as poet and banker Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers was an English poet, during his lifetime one of the most celebrated, although his fame has long since been eclipsed by his Romantic colleagues and friends Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron...
; and clergyman-mathematician Thomas Bayes
Thomas Bayes
Thomas Bayes was an English mathematician and Presbyterian minister, known for having formulated a specific case of the theorem that bears his name: Bayes' theorem...
, known for Bayes' theorem
Bayes' theorem
In probability theory and applications, Bayes' theorem relates the conditional probabilities P and P. It is commonly used in science and engineering. The theorem is named for Thomas Bayes ....
.
Price was fortunate in forming close friendships among his neighbours and congregants. One was Thomas Rogers, father of the above, a merchant turned banker who had married into a long-established Dissenting family and lived at No. 56 the Green. More than once, Price and the elder Rogers rode on horseback to Wales. Another was the Rev. James Burgh
James Burgh
James Burgh was a British Whig politician whose book Political Disquisitions set out an early case for free speech and universal suffrage: In it, he writes, "All lawful authority, legislative, and executive, originates from the people." He has been judged "one of England's foremost propagandists...
, author of The Dignity of Human Nature and Thoughts on Education, who opened his Dissenting Academy on the green in 1750 and sent his pupils to Price's sermons. Price, Rogers, and Burgh formed a dining club, eating at each other's houses in rotation. Even when, in 1770, Price became morning preacher at the Gravel Pit Chapel in Homerton
Homerton
Homerton is a place in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bordered to the west by Hackney Central, to the north by Lower Clapton, in the east by Hackney Wick, Leyton and by South Hackney to the south.-Origins:...
, near another famous Dissenting Academy
Homerton College, Cambridge
Homerton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England.With around 1,200 students, Homerton has more students than any other Cambridge college, although less than half of these live in the college. The college has a long and complex history dating back to the...
, he continued his afternoon sermons at NGUC.
William Ellery Channing
Dr. William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. He was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker...
and Theophilus Lindsey
Theophilus Lindsey
Theophilus Lindsey was an English theologian and clergyman who founded the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country, at Essex Street Chapel.-Life:...
, and the formidable polymath
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
and Dissenting clergyman, Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
, discoverer of oxygen. When Priestley's support of dissent
Joseph Priestley and Dissent
Joseph Priestley was a British natural philosopher, political theorist, clergyman, theologian, and educator...
led to the riots named after him
Priestley Riots
The Priestley Riots took place from 14 July to 17 July 1791 in Birmingham, England; the rioters' main targets were religious Dissenters, most notably the politically and theologically controversial Joseph Priestley...
, he fled Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and headed for the sanctuary of Newington Green, where Rogers took him in.
The support Price gave to the revolt of the colonies of British North America
British North America
British North America is a historical term. It consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783.At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 the British...
, arguing that the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
was justified, made his name as a famous or notorious preacher. He rejected traditional Christian notions of original sin
Original sin
Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...
and moral punishment, preaching the perfectibility of human nature, and he wrote on theological questions. However, his interests were wide-ranging, and during the decades Price spent as minister of NGUC, he also wrote on finance, economics, probability, and life insurance, being inducted into the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
in recognition of his work. On the 101st anniversary of the Glorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...
, he preached a sermon titled "A Discourse on the Love of our Country", thus igniting a so-called "pamphlet war" known as the Revolution Controversy
Revolution Controversy
The Revolution Controversy was a British debate over the French Revolution, lasting from 1789 through 1795. A pamphlet war began in earnest after the publication of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France , which surprisingly supported the French aristocracy...
, furiously debating the issues raised by the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. Burke's rebuttal "Reflections on the Revolution in France
Reflections on the Revolution in France
Reflections on the Revolution in France , by Edmund Burke, is one of the best-known intellectual attacks against the French Revolution...
" attacked Price, whose friends Paine and Wollstonecraft leapt into the fray to defend their mentor. The reputation of Price for speaking without fear of the government on these political and philosophical matters drew huge crowds to the church, and were published and sold as pamphlets
Pamphleteer
A pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets. Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions on an issue, for example, in order to get people to vote for their favorite politician or to articulate a particular political ideology.A famous pamphleteer...
(i.e. publications easily printed and circulated).
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
, who moved her fledgling school for girls from Islington to the Green in 1784, with the help of a "fairy godmother
Fairy godmother
In fairy tales, a fairy godmother is a fairy with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone, in the role that an actual godparent was expected to play in many societies...
" whose good auspices found her a house to rent and twenty students to fill it. Her patron — or matron — was the well-off Mrs Burgh, widow of the educationalist, who treated her almost as a daughter. The new arrival attended services at NGUC: she was a life-long Anglican, but, in keeping with the church's and Price's ethos of logical enquiry and individual conscience, believers of all kinds were welcomed without any expectation of conversion. The approach of these Rational Dissenters appealed to Wollstonecraft: they were hard-working, humane, critical but uncynical, and respectful towards women, and in her hour of need proved kinder to her than her own family. She, an unmarried woman making her own way in the world, was marginal to the dominant society in just the same way that the Dissenters were.
Wollstonecraft was then a young schoolmistress, as yet unpublished, but Price saw something in her worth fostering, and became a friend and mentor. Through the minister (and through the young Anglican John Hewlett
John Hewlett
John Hewlett was a prominent biblical scholar in nineteenth-century Britain.Hewlett was born in Chetnole, Dorset to Timothy Hewlett. After becoming a minister, he was admitted as a sizar to Magdalene College, Cambridge. After graduating, he established a school in Shackelford, Surrey...
, who also introduced her to the eminent lexicographer Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
), she met the great humanitarian and radical publisher Joseph Johnson
Joseph Johnson
Joseph Johnson may refer to:* Joseph Johnson , London bookseller* Joseph Johnson , U.S...
, who was to guide her career and serve as a father figure. Through him, with a title alluding to the husband of her other benefactor, she published Thoughts on the Education of Daughters
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters
Thoughts on the education of daughters: with reflections on female conduct, in the more important duties of life is the first published work of the British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Published in 1787 by her friend Joseph Johnson, Thoughts is a conduct book that offers advice on female education...
(subtitled: with reflections on female conduct, in the more important duties of life). The ideas Wollstonecraft ingested from the sermons at NGUC pushed her towards a political awakening. A couple of years after she had had to leave Newington Green, these seeds germinated into A Vindication of the Rights of Men
A Vindication of the Rights of Men
A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned by His Reflections on the Revolution in France is a political pamphlet, written by the 18th-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, which attacks aristocracy and advocates republicanism...
, a response to Burke's denunciation of the French Revolution and attack on Price. In 1792 she published the work for which she is best remembered, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects , written by the 18th-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft responds to those educational and political theorists of the 18th...
, in the spirit of rationalism extending Price's arguments about equality to women: Her biographer Claire Tomalin
Claire Tomalin
Claire Tomalin is an English biographer and journalist. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge.She was literary editor of the New Statesman and of the Sunday Times, and has written several noted biographies...
argues that just as the Dissenters were "excluded as a class from education and civil rights by a lazy-minded majority", so too were women, and the "character defects of both groups" could be attributed to this discrimination.
Joseph Towers
It would have been hard for anyone to step into the shoes of Dr Price, but the minister from 1778 to his death in 1799 was a remarkable character in his own right. Joseph TowersJoseph Towers
-Life:He was born in Southwark on 31 March 1737. His father was a secondhand bookseller, and at twelve years old he was employed as a stationer's errand boy. In 1754 he was apprenticed to Robert Goadby of Sherborne, Dorset, a Whig supporter, and influential through his newspaper, the Sherborne...
was born in about 1738, the son of a poor bookseller, and was apprenticed as a printer to Robert Goadby
Robert Goadby
Robert Goadby was an English printer and publisher in Sherborne, Dorset. He was a Whig supporter, and influential through his newspaper, the Sherborne Mercury...
of Sherborne
Sherborne
Sherborne is a market town in northwest Dorset, England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The A30 road, which connects London to Penzance, runs through the town. The population of the town is 9,350 . 27.1% of the population is aged 65 or...
. Lacking formal education, he read all he could and educated himself, eventually writing learned works such as Criminal Libel and the Duty of Juries, and being awarded a Doctor of Law degree by Edinburgh University. Towers assisted fellow minister Andrew Kippis
Andrew Kippis
Andrew Kippis was an English nonconformist clergyman and biographer.The son of Robert Kippis, a silk-hosier, he was born at Nottingham. Having gone to school at Sleaford in Lincolnshire he passed at the age of sixteen to the Dissenting academy at Northampton, of which Dr Philip Doddridge was then...
in developing the Biographia Britannica, a forerunner of the Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
. He was secretary of the highly respectable Society for Constitutional Information
Society for Constitutional Information
Founded in 1780 by Major John Cartwright to promote parliamentary reform, the Society for Constitutional Information flourished until 1783, but thereafter made little headway...
, which lobbied for political liberties, but it was suppressed by the authorities, who lived in fear of the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
crossing the Channel. Towers was put under arrest until the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
intervened on his behalf.
Early nineteenth century: The Barbaulds
Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Anna Laetitia Barbauld was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and children's author.A "woman of letters" who published in multiple genres, Barbauld had a successful writing career at a time when female professional writers were rare...
(1743–1825), was a prolific writer, admired by Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
and William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
. She enjoyed a long friendship with Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
and William Enfield
William Enfield
William Enfield was a British Unitarian minister who published a bestselling book on elocution entitled The Speaker .-Life:...
, starting from their years together at the Warrington Academy
Warrington Academy
Warrington Academy, active as a teaching establishment from 1756 to 1782, was a prominent dissenting academy, that is, a school or college set up by those who dissented from the state church in England...
in the 1760s, where her father John Aikin
John Aikin (Unitarian)
John Aikin was an English Unitarian scholar and theological tutor, closely associated with Warrington Academy, a prominent dissenting academy.-Life:...
was tutor. She wrote poems (including a tribute to Priestley), hymns, children's literature
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
, and political and religious tracts. She was an abolitionist, addressing one of her works to William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire...
. 1793 saw her contribution to the Pamphlet War, "Sins of the Government, Sins of the Nation". Two years later she wrote The Rights of Women, but this was not published until her death thirty years later.
Rochemont eventually went violently insane, attacked his wife, and committed suicide by drowning himself in the New River
New River (England)
The New River is an artificial waterway in England, opened in 1613 to supply London with fresh drinking water taken from the River Lea and from Amwell Springs , and other springs and wells along its course....
that runs through Islington. Anna remained a member of the congregation until her death and is commemorated in the church with a plaque which praises her work for "the Cause of Humanity, Peace, and Justice, [and] of Civil and Religious Liberty". Her brother Dr John Aikin
John Aikin
John Aikin was an English doctor and writer.-Life:He was born at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, England, son of Dr. John Aikin, Unitarian divine, and received his elementary education at the Nonconformist academy at Warrington, where his father was a tutor. He studied medicine at the...
lived nearby, and together they co-authored books such as Evenings at Home
Evenings at Home
Evenings at Home, or The Juvenile Budget Opened is a collection of six volumes of stories written by John Aikin and his sister Anna Laetitia Barbauld. It is an early example of children's literature. The late Victorian children's writer Mary Louisa Molesworth named it as one of the handful of...
. As he had been a Unitarian minister in his youth, it is likely that he worshipped at NGUC, with his son Arthur
Arthur Aikin
Arthur Aikin , English chemist, mineralogist and scientific writer, was born in Warrington, Lancashire into a distinguished literary family of prominent Unitarians....
, a prominent scientist, and his daughter Lucy
Lucy Aikin
Lucy Aikin , born at Warrington, England into a distinguished literary family of prominent Unitarians, was a historical writer.-Family and education:...
, a biographer. They lived in a house previously occupied by Adam Anderson, clerk to the South Sea Company.
Early nineteenth century: legal acceptance
Thomas ReesThomas Rees (Unitarian minister)
Thomas Rees , Welsh Nonconformist divine, was a Unitarian minister and scholar.Rees was educated at the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, and entered the Unitarian ministry in 1807 at the Newington Green Unitarian Church, London. He went to Southwark in 1813, earned the degree of LL.D...
took over after Barbauld's death. He was a leading authority of the history of Unitarianism
History of Unitarianism
Unitarianism, both as a theology and as a denominational family of churches, was first defined and developed in England and America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although theological ancestors are to be found in the Protestant Reformation and even as far back as the early days of...
, and made connections with the Unitarian Church of Transylvania
Unitarian Church of Transylvania
The Unitarian Church of Transylvania is a church of the Unitarian denomination, based in the city of Cluj in the Principality of Transylvania, present day in Romania...
. In 1813 two things occurred, key to the understanding of the development of the church: Parliament passed the Doctrine of the Trinity Act
Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
The Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
, and Rees was succeeded by James Gilchrist, who remained for 15 years. (His son Alexander
Alexander Gilchrist
Alexander Gilchrist was the biographer of William Blake. Gilchrist's biography is still a standard reference work on the poet....
wrote the standard biography of poet and artist William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
.) The larger public event meant that the civil and religious liberties that Dissenters had been fighting for were won, the battle of a century and a half was over. The more particular event sowed its own seeds of destruction, as Gilchrist gradually changed his opinions and eventually wrote a pamphlet called "Unitarianism Abandoned", which infuriated his very Unitarian congregation. For a long time he refused to resign, but in the end he was forced out, and the church built a safeguard against such a future occurrence by holding annual elections for the minister. NGUC then entered a very low ebb, with at one point as few as nine subscribers and a rapid turnover of ministers. The causes it had agitated for had been successful, and the church looked backwards with pride, but saw little to look forward to. Energy drained away. "Legal recognition did not propsper the cause of the church, however, which at this time began to decline."
Mid-nineteenth century: social challenges
"New causes and fresh ideals were needed to revitalise the church, and, fortunately, they were forthcoming." The nature of Newington Green had changed—the fresh bucolic village had been swallowed up by London's relentless growth, and had become a "thriving and expanding suburb". With this growth of prosperity also came a tide of poverty, and this was to prove the mission for the Victorian eraVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. A hundred years before, the ethos had been one of almost Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
self-reliance, but now the Dickensian poverty, evident in cholera epidemics and rampant malnutrition, made social responsibility an urgent necessity. The minister who guided the first 25 years of this (1839–64) was Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell (minister)
-Life:Born on 14 December 1792, at an early age he entered the literary department of Messrs. Longmans, the publishers.Brought up a member of the Church of England, of which his elder brother was a clergyman, Cromwell became about 1830 a Unitarian; and, being ordained, was from 1839 minister of...
, FSA
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...
(1792–1870). (Like many Anglican vicars, one of his hobbies was local history
Local history
Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context and it often concentrates on the local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of history...
.)
A charity school for 14 girls and a monitorial Sunday school for 150 children had been set up in the vicinity by Dissenters in 1790 and 1808 respectively, but these efforts were augmented in the middle of the century. In 1840, a Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
was set up for poor children, and soon thereafter a Domestic Mission Society, to visit the poor in their homes. A library and a savings club emphasised self-help. A regular day school ran from 1860 for ten years, until primary education became the responsibility of the state with the passing of the Elementary Education Act 1870
Elementary Education Act 1870
The Elementary Education Act 1870, commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between ages 5 and 12 in England and Wales...
.
One of the first actions of Cromwell's tenure, in terms of changing the church services, was to introduce the hymnbook of James Martineau
James Martineau
James Martineau was an English religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism. For 45 years he was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in Manchester New College, the principal training college for British Unitarianism.-Early life:He was born in Norwich,...
. Samuel Sharpe, named after his uncle, the poet Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers was an English poet, during his lifetime one of the most celebrated, although his fame has long since been eclipsed by his Romantic colleagues and friends Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron...
, came to Newington Green in 1828, and maintained his connection for 30 years, sometimes as treasurer. He was an erudite and generous man, and in 1870 he was elected Chairman of the British and Foreign Unitarian Society. Andrew Pritchard
Andrew Pritchard
Andrew Pritchard was an English naturalist and natural history dealer who made significant improvements to microscopy and studied microscopic organisms. His belief that God and nature were one led him to the Unitarians, a religious movement to which he and his family devoted much energy...
(1804–1882) was treasurer of NGUC 1850-73, during which time donations doubled. He was a microscope and slide maker who made significant improvements to microscopy
History of optics
Optics began with the development of lenses by the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, followed by theories on light and vision developed by ancient Greek and Indian philosophers, and the development of geometrical optics in the Greco-Roman world. The word optics is derived from the Greek term τα...
and studied microscopic organisms; he was a friend of Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
and for him, science and religion
Relationship between religion and science
The relationship between religion and science has been a focus of the demarcation problem. Somewhat related is the claim that science and religion may pursue knowledge using different methodologies. Whereas the scientific method basically relies on reason and empiricism, religion also seeks to...
were one. He led the Newington Green Conversation Society, membership restricted to 16, a successor to the Mutual Instruction Society. The "small but energetic community" continued to campaign on the larger political stage, presenting petitions to Parliament on subjects touching religious matters, such as the Dissenting Chapels Bill (made law as Nonconformists Chapels Act 1844), the removal of civil disabilities from the Jews
Emancipation of the Jews in England
The Emancipation of the Jews in England was the culmination of efforts in the 19th century over several hundred years to loosen the legal restrictions set in place on England's Jewish population...
(1847), permission for Dissenters to attend Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and the revision of the King James Bible. Religious freedom and self-improvement were their watchwords.
Later nineteenth century: towards the high water
NGUC thrived during the last decades of the nineteenth century, and its congregation grew to 80 subscribers. The London Sunday School Society recognised the one at NGUC as the best in its class, educating up to 200 children and necessitating the construction in 1887 of the schoolhouse immediately behind the main church building. A range of groups sprung up, ranging from intellectual (a Society for Mutual Theological Study) to recreational (cycling and cricket). Young Men's and Young Women's groups met, as did the Mothers' Meeting, a Provident SocietyIndustrial and Provident Society
An industrial and provident society is a legal entity for a trading business or voluntary organisation in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and New Zealand...
, and teetotalism
Teetotalism
Teetotalism refers to either the practice of or the promotion of complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages. A person who practices teetotalism is called a teetotaler or is simply said to be teetotal...
(abstinence from alcohol) support for adults
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
and children
Hope UK
Hope UK is a national Christian charity located at 25 Copperfield Street, London, England which educates children and young people about drug and alcohol abuse.-Band of Hope:...
. Other issues of concern were education, social reform, and women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
.
Sister and brother Marian and Ion Pritchard continued the work of their father. The cause of liberal religion
Liberal religion
Liberal religion is a religious tradition which embraces the theological diversity of a congregation rather than a single creed, authority, or writing...
in general, and the development 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...
, were overarching themes. Marian in particular is described as an unsung heroine, and "one of the leaders of modern Unitarianism". She set up Oxford Summer Schools for the training of Sunday School teachers, and Winifred House Invalid Children's Convalescent Home.
Early twentieth century: wars and crises
Thorncroft, author of the church's semiquincentennial history, Trust in Freedom, concludes that NGUC reached its high-water mark at its bicentenary in 1908. Immediately after this, NGUC suffered a religious schism in miniature, when the incoming minister, Dr F. W. G. Foat, backed the New Theology of Reginald John CampbellReginald John Campbell
Reginald John Campbell , British Congregationalist divine, son of a United Free Methodist minister of Scottish descent, was born in London and educated at schools in Bolton and Nottingham, where his father successively removed, and in Belfast, the home of his grandfather.At an early age he taught...
and the League of Progressive Thought and Service. This Social Gospel
Social Gospel
The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada...
movement was not to the taste of all his congregants, and Foat left for the Richmond Free Christian Church. Then came 1914, and
Christian faith all over the world was shaken by the horrors of World War I. Unitarians as a body have never been pacifists, unlike the Quakers, and some fifteen members of the congregation and Sunday School fell during the war. Society as a whole found less solace in religion, perhaps particularly liberal religion, with its message of human dignity ringing hollow beside the great guns. Meanwhile, many of the older people with long family ties to Newington Green simply died. The professional middle class had largely left the area. Numbers in the pews dropped. By 1930 "it was whispered that the church could not survive".
Nonetheless, survive it did. One influential supporter was an alderman and councillor in the Borough of Stoke Newington, and in 1938 a new lay pastor and his family breathed new life into the church. Although attendance at services was low, other activities drew in crowds: 100 to the temperance meetings, for example. The outbreak of World War II meant that children were evacuated temporarily from London, so the Sunday Schools and Young People's Leagues ceased for a time. The Sunday services never missed a week, however, even when the building was badly damaged by a landmine blast: they just moved to the schoolhouse. After the war, the ministry focused on building bridges between races and faiths, e.g. with the Jewish community of North London, and was recognised by the World Congress of Faiths, an organisation founded by Francis Younghusband
Francis Younghusband
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, KCSI, KCIE was a British Army officer, explorer, and spiritual writer...
. Services were often attended by local politicians, including the Mayor of Stoke Newington. Leaders for the national Unitarian movement
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...
continued to be found within the congregation at Newington Green.
Later twentieth century/early twenty-first century: rejuvenation
By the turn of the millennium, NGUC's community was reduced in numbers. A small congregation of half a dozen elderly women persisted, and a new burst of energy arrived with the appointment of Cathal (Cal) Courtney, first as student pastor in 2002 and then as minister in July 2004. He came from an Ireland of divided communities; he was characterised as a "radical spirit" who had made a "remarkable spiritual journey", and his weekly sermons soon attracted twenty people. In the tradition of Unitarian social action, he led a silent vigil through the night before the huge march against the Iraq War
February 15, 2003 anti-war protest
The February 15, 2003 anti-war protest was a coordinated day of protests across the world expressing opposition to the then-imminent Iraq War. It was part of a series of protests and political events that had begun in 2002 and continued as the war took place....
, "protesting against the US-led incursion with, among others, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Jews present" Later made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, during his time at NGUC he wrote Towards Beloved Community and was written about as the Right-On Reverend in The Oldie
The Oldie
The Oldie is a monthly magazine launched in 1992 by Richard Ingrams, who for 23 years was the editor of Private Eye. It carries general interest articles, humour and cartoons, and has an eclectic list of contributors, including James Le Fanu, John Sweeney, Thomas Stuttaford, Virginia Ironside,...
s monthly "East of Islington" column.
The incumbent is Andrew Pakula
Andrew Pakula
Rev. Dr. Andrew Pakula is a Unitarian minister. He was elected in 2009 to serve on the executive committee of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella body for British Unitarians...
, an American who grew up in a Jewish family in New York
American Jews
American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are American citizens of the Jewish faith or Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and their U.S.-born descendants...
. His MIT doctorate in biology and master's degree in business led to his first career in biotechnology management and business development, before he undertook ministerial training, completing his studies at Unitarian College, Manchester. He began serving in October 2006, was inducted as full minister in January 2010, and was elected to the executive committee
Executive Committee
Executive Committee may refer to:* The Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland, a government body in the United Kingdom 1921–1972* The Northern Ireland Executive, a government body in the United Kingdom...
of the British Unitarians. He was described – sympathetically – in the local press as "controversial" when he did a reverse collection plate, giving his own money away to those attending one sermon.
Richard Price Memorial Lecture
Courtney revived the Richard Price Memorial Lecture, which had last been given in 1981. NGUC now sponsors it annually, to address "a topical or important aspect of liberty, reason and ethics". In September 2003 the first of the new series took place under the auspices of the Stoke Newington Unitarian Conference, where Barbara Taylor, author of Mary Wollstonecraft and the Feminist Imagination, spoke on "Radical Dissent and Women's Rights in Eighteenth-Century Britain". In 2005 Will SelfWill Self
William Woodard "Will" Self is an English novelist and short story writer. His fictional style is known for being satirical, grotesque, and fantastical. He is a prolific commentator on contemporary British life, with regular appearances on Newsnight and Question Time...
addressed the need to disestablish
Disestablishmentarianism
Disestablishmentarianism today relates to the Church of England in the United Kingdom and related views on its establishment as an established church....
the Church of England under the title "Why Religion Needs Satire". The November 2008 lecture took the theme of "Dishonesty": Evan Davis, the economist and BBC presenter, used the platform to argue that "the media industry has a 'misleading ethical code' and tendency to be dishonest". The 2009 lecture, given on 27 January 2010, was given by psychotherapist Susie Orbach
Susie Orbach
Susie Orbach is a psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, writer, and social critic from London, UK.-Background:Orbach was born in London, in 1946, and was brought up in Chalk Farm, north London, the child of Jewish parents, British MP Maurice Orbach and an American mother...
, who spoke on the topic "Frankenstein's Bodies Today". The 2010 lecture was given by literary critic
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton
Terence Francis Eagleton FBA is a British literary theorist and critic, who is regarded as one of Britain's most influential living literary critics...
, who spoke on "The New Atheism and the War on Terror".
Stance on gay marriage
In March 2008, Newington Green Unitarian Church became the first religious establishment in Britain to refuse to carry out any weddings at all until all couples have equal marriage rightsSame-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
. Unity Church Islington followed suit a couple of months later. Pakula stated that same-sex couples "are being treated like second-class citizens when they are forbidden to celebrate their unions in a way that heterosexual couples take for granted". The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
called it a "gay rights church" for its unanimous committee vote suspending full wedding services, although NGUC is not a "gay church" such as the Metropolitan Community Church
Metropolitan Community Church
The Metropolitan Community Church or The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches is an international Protestant Christian denomination...
, and it still conducts ceremonial blessings of relationships, straight and gay. The church's decision was in response to the case brought by the Christian Institute
Christian Institute
The Christian Institute is a British evangelical Christian pressure group. The CI promotes a Conservative Christian viewpoint, founded on the belief that the Bible is inerrant and should be the authority on all of life...
, backing the claim of Lillian Ladele, a registrar
Registrar General
General Register Office, in England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and many Commonwealth nations, is the government agency responsible for civil registration - the recording of vital records such as births, deaths, and marriages...
employed by Islington London Borough Council
Islington London Borough Council
Islington London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Islington in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Islington is divided into 16 wards, each electing three councillors...
who wished to be exempted from having to perform civil partnership ceremonies on the grounds of her religion. The move was praised by Rev. Richard Kirker, chairman of the national Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement
Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement
The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement describes itself as "a UK-based international Charity who are praying for an inclusive church".The Gay Christian Movement was founded in 1976 with the Revd Richard Kirker as its first General Secretary...
. "This is the first church I’ve heard of to have taken this step", he said. "We’re proud that Islington is striking a blow for human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
." Following in the steps of his immediate predecessor, who used his inaugural column in the N16
N postcode area
The N postcode area, also known as the London N postcode area, is the part of the London post town covering part of North London, England....
magazine to address the international furore around Gene Robinson
Gene Robinson
Vicki Gene Robinson is the ninth bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Robinson was elected bishop in 2003 and entered office in March 2004...
's election as bishop, Pakula sees homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
as the real sin, and he and his congregation are considering challenging the law under the European Convention on Human Rights
European Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...
. Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell
Peter Tatchell
Peter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements...
has called on the church to conduct a gay marriage in defiance of the law.
Tercentenary celebrations
NGUC celebrated its tercentenary in 2008 under the slogan "300 years of dissent", marking this with events such as planting a crab apple tree, organising a picnic in conjunction with the Newington Green Action Group, and hosting a concert of Ottoman classical musicOttoman classical music
Ottoman classical music developed in Istanbul and major Ottoman towns from Skopje to Cairo, from Tabriz to Morocco through the palace, mosques, and sufi lodges of the Ottoman Empire. Above all a vocal music, Ottoman music traditionally accompanies a solo singer with a small instrumental ensemble...
. (There is a strong Turkish community
Turkish community of London
Turks in London or London Turks refers to Turkish people who live in London, the capital city of the United Kingdom. The Turkish community in the United Kingdom is not evenly distributed across the country. As a result, the concentration of the Turks is almost all in Greater London...
in Newington Green and nearby Green Lanes
Green Lanes
Green Lanes, London, is a main road in North London and forms part of the A105. At approximately 7.5 miles from end to end, it is one of the longest streets in the capital....
.)
250th anniversary of Wollstonecraft's birth
The following year it commemorated the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mary Wollstonecraft, attaching a large banner to the railings outside the building, proclaiming it the "birthplace of feminism", in a nod to the formative years that she spent worshipping there. NGUC sponsored a series of events, including a return visit and lecture by biographer Barbara TaylorBarbara Taylor
Barbara Taylor is a Canadian-born British-based historian and historical author specialising in Enlightenment history, gender studies, and the history of subjectivity. She is Professor of Modern History at the University of East London...
; a panel discussion about women and power, between female politicians Diane Abbott
Diane Abbott
Diane Julie Abbott is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, when she became the first black woman to be elected to the House of Commons...
MP, Jean Lambert
Jean Lambert
Jean Denise Lambert is an English politician, and Member of the European Parliament for the London Region. A member of the Green Party of England and Wales, she has been an MEP since 1999...
MEP, and Emily Thornberry
Emily Thornberry
Emily Anne Thornberry is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005.-Before Parliament:...
MP; an art exhibition titled Mother of Feminism; a concert featuring Carol Grimes
Carol Grimes
Carol Grimes is a smooth jazz and world music singer.Grimes came to prominence in 1969 as a member of Delivery, associated with the Canterbury Scene. During the 1970s she performed regularly on the London blues circuit with her band The London Boogie Band...
and Adey Grummet, to raise money for Stop the Traffik
Stop the Traffik
STOP THE TRAFFIK was founded in 2006 by Steve Chalke MBE as a campaign coalition which aims to bring an end to human trafficking worldwide. Initially STOP THE TRAFFIK was set up as a two year campaign to coincide with the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade...
, an anti-trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
charity; a tombstone tribute at St Pancras Old Church
St Pancras Old Church
St Pancras Old Church is a Church of England parish church in central London. It is believed to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England, and is dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Pancras, although the building itself is largely Victorian...
; a birthday cake baked by men; and other activities.
Pakula's sermon in honour of the Wollstonecraft anniversary stressed her role as a prophet. This excerpt serves as a flavour of the emphasis given to social action within the church:
Mary Wollstonecraft was a unique individual – brilliant and strong. She was one who would not be swept along in stream of the common beliefs and understandings of her time. Hers was a keener sight – a vision that saw beyond what most people take for granted. She saw, contrary to the assumptions of her time, that women were the equals of men. Her bold stance – a position that proved to be many years ahead of her time – was met with broad condemnation. Today, we recognise that Mary Wollstonecraft spoke with the voice of prophesy. We honour her for her courage and for the gifts she has given to future generations of women and men.
Regular and occasional activities
Sunday services alternate between NGUC and its Islington sister, including special events such as the yearly Flower CommunionFlower Communion
Flower Communion is a ritual service common in Unitarian Universalism, though the specific practices vary from one congregation to another. It is usually held before summer, when some congregations recess from holding services.-History:...
; twice-monthly poetry readings and weekly meditation sessions are held at Newington Green. It participates in the annual festival of architecture, Open House London
Open House London
Open House London is an organisation which promotes appreciation of architecture by the general public. It organises tours, lectures, educational projects for children and so on, but it is best known for Open House Weekend, a two-day event which takes place on one weekend each September throughout...
. It hosts occasional concerts, such as that given by the London Gallery Quire, which "performs West Gallery Music
West gallery music
West Gallery Music, also known as "Georgian psalmody" refers to the sacred music sung and played in English parish churches, as well as nonconformist chapels, from 1700 to around 1850...
, the psalmody
Anglican chant
Anglican chant is a way to sing un-metrical texts, such as prose translations of the psalms, canticles, and other, similar biblical texts by matching the natural speech-rhythm of the words in each verse to a short piece of metrical music. It may be fairly described as "harmonized recitative"...
heard in parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
es and non-conformist chapels during the Georgian period, from about 1720 to 1850", and the Psallite Women's Choir. The congregation was reported to have grown to 70 as of 2009, with 30 at one Sunday service; it is one of the most rapidly growing Unitarian churches in Britain.
Further reading
- The Village that Changed the World: A History of Newington Green London N16 by Alex Allardyce. Newington Green Action Group: 2008.
- Chapter titles: Beginnings, Kings and Treason; Dissenters, Academies and Castaways; The Chaste Old Bachelor of Newington Green; Enlightenment, Revolutions and Poets; Development, Destruction and Renewal.
- Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft by Lyndall Gordon. Little, Brown: 2005.
- Her Own Woman: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft by Diane Jacobs. Simon & Schuster: 2001.
- Mary Wollstonecraft and the Feminist Imagination by Barbara Taylor. CUP: 2003.
- Trust in Freedom: The Story of Newington Green Unitarian Church 1708 - 1958 by Michael Thorncroft. Privately printed for church trustees, 1958. Full text on church website here.
- Chapter titles: The Fertile Soil; The Church is Built; The Early Years (1714–1758); The Age of Richard Price; New Causes for Old; The Ideal of Service; The Lights Go Out; The Present Day.
- The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft by Claire Tomalin. Weidenfeld & Nicolson: 1974.