The following address was given by the
Revd. Linda Phillips, the wife of our own minister the Revd. Don Phillips, when
she was invited to talk about Unitarianism at the Parish Church of St. Mary’s at Hinckley on the 15th July 2007.
It was felt that the address explained
the background leading to Unitarianism as we know it today and would be of
interest to a wider audience of both Unitarians and non Unitarians alike.
We are grateful to Linda for her
permission to use her text on our website.
Conventionally,
I should start by recounting our history. And I will scamper through it. But
with a health warning. I am NO historian. O level was a scary experience!
In
this country, we Unitarians trace our origins back to the Great Ejection of
1662. So Hinckley was in at the very beginning, when Thomas Leadbetter
left St Mary’s. The Act of Uniformity passed in 1662 required clergy to buy in
to the Book of Common Prayer in its entirety, and something like 1700 clergy
(that’s about 10% of the number there were at the time) left the Church of
England as a matter of conscience. It would have ruled me out. Look at the 39
Articles, and I start responding yes, maybe, absolutely not! One of those
clergy was Thomas Leadbetter. Most of them joined a grouping called the English
Presbyterians which hoped to rejoin a more liberal Church of England, and it’s
that grouping that the Great Meeting Unitarian congregation here in Hinckley traces its origins back to. But the establishment got tougher and
tougher on non-conformists, making it illegal for ejected clergy to go anywhere
within a 5 mile radius of any parish or town where they had previously
ministered, then making house and outdoor meetings illegal, and then requiring
people to swear an oath of allegiance to the Church of England and take
communion in it. Interesting phenomenon – being required by law to belong to a
particular denomination, and participate in communion. Anyway, the change from
English Presbyterian to what we know now as Unitarian wasn’t an event – it was
a process that took some years. By the early C19, about ½ English Presbyterian
ministers and their congregations had become Unitarian. Not a new idea, Unitarianism,
it had been about for some time. Essentially, they were questioning the
traditional interpretation of Jesus as one of the three parts of the Trinity,
and arguing that it was non-scriptural and didn’t arise till approaching 400
years after Jesus lived. They saw Jesus as an exceptional human being,
especially chosen by God, but not a human incarnation of God. Hence the name
Unitarian, as opposed to Trinitarian, of course. They followed Scripture
closely, and believed that the Bible was the sole source of authority regarding
religious truth. Now Gunpowder Joe, as he’s nicknamed. Joseph Priestley, the
scientist who discovered oxygen, was also a dissenting minister. And he, with
others founded a rational religion. He was trying to get back to the roots – he
thought Christianity had got encumbered with tradition.
Unitarian
worship didn’t become expressly lawful till 1813, so it wasn’t till the
nineteenth century that we saw the beginnings of our national structure and
formal organisation. Which leads me to suggest that the fact that our building in
Hinckley isn’t in a prominent position is probably not a
coincidence. Many of our buildings are set in places that weren’t too obvious.
If you ever go to Whitby, take a look at the Escape Hatch just near the
pulpit. It takes you through a tunnel to the local pub. There’s a lever in the
pulpit in Dukinfield which rotates the pulpit to the outside of the chapel, not for use by the congregation in
response to a boring sermon, but where the preacher would have kept his horse
tethered for a speedy getaway. And so on.
Unitarianism
developed theologically during the nineteenth century, with James Martineau
urging us to embrace reason and conscience OVER scripture. Martineau saw Jesus
as exemplifying the moral awareness of humanity at its highest level. And Martineau
placed intuition over even reason in religious thought. And then, towards the end of that century,
we Unitarians began to embrace religious insights from other faiths – hence the
records of a Hindu and a Buddhist conducting services in the Great Meeting in Hinckley in 1906. Enough of history, or I shan’t be able to talk about today.
Oh, except that I should say that our history is very far from as simple as I’ve
portrayed. There is a diagram of the various strands that make up present day
Unitarianism, which looks remarkably like a piece of my grandmother’s crochet –
that is, after she lost her sight!
Today,
we are more diverse movement than that history might suggest. People argue
about defining us, but I’d say we are a spiritual community, with its origins
in Christianity, which encourages you to think for yourself. We believe that
everyone has the right to seek their own truth and meaning. And we hold that the
best setting to seek truth and meaning is in a community that welcomes you for
what you are – beliefs, doubts, questions and all! In essence, we’d call
ourselves religious liberals. We are non-doctrinal – insisting on a pattern of
beliefs would hardly be compatible with what I’ve just said. And partly as a
result of that and partly because of the openness to all insights, many of our
congregations happily accommodate people with a remarkable diversity of
beliefs. We at the Great Meeting in Hinckley are happy
that a Hindu couple quite occasionally worships with us. So our unity isn’t in
shared beliefs, it’s in shared values – values like the importance of nurturing
life’s spiritual dimension, values like using reason and honest doubt as tools
to help in the search for truth. Like constructive tolerance and openness
toward the beliefs of others. Like wanting peace, compassion, justice and
democracy to be key values in world affairs, and like respect for the earth and
the whole natural system we are part of. Lots of fine words. But what do we
actually look like? What do we do, day to day?
If
you were to come into the Great Meeting, and into many of our other chapels,
your first glance would probably register it as a pretty well conventional
place of worship. And then you’d notice differences – like there being no cross
on display. Mind, in some other Unitarian chapels, you’d find crosses. That’s
because our congregations embrace a wide variety of beliefs. Most of one
congregation might regard themselves as Christian Unitarians (by which I mean
they would label themselves as Christians but not accept that Jesus was an
incarnation of God). Other chapels might not look like places of worship at all
– without pews or pulpits, sometimes using space flexibly. But most of our
services on Sundays look pretty conventional. Based on what we irreverently
call the hymn sandwich. Except we’ve tweaked it. There is often no Bible
reading at all. There is quite often a reading from other sacred texts. The
hymns look familiar at first sight, but we’ve either tweaked the words or
nicked the tune and written new Unitarian words for it. You see our Dissenting
tradition in the prominence of the sermon (though it’s conventionally only 20
minutes nowadays, thank goodness). Sometimes, services are more freeform.
Before I came to Hinckley, I ministered to our congregation on the Isle of Wight. They enjoyed a service once a month, sharing a piece
of music, a piece to read or a prayer or meditation that was particularly
meaningful to them. And we met regularly for silent meditation.
Before
I finish, I should perhaps draw attention to our broadmindedness as a movement.
The first woman was ordained in 1904 in England (earlier in the States, and earlier in Scotland if you count the Universalist strand of our
ancestry). We have had an overt policy opening our ministry to all, regardless
of sex, race or sexual orientation since the mid 70s. Nearly all our ministers
and most of our chapels are happy to host same sex blessings – which, like our weddings,
baptisms and funerals, are individual. It’s hard work to write every one
individually – but very rewarding, I have to say.
I’ll
finish by telling you the story of the American who came across a man on a
bridge, about to commit suicide. He decided to try to stop him and started
talking.
And asked him whether he believed in God.
“I believe there’s a God.”
“So
we share that. Are you Christian? Jew? Muslim?”
“Christian.”
“So
we share that. Are you Protestant or Catholic?”
“Protestant.”
“So
we share that. What denomination?”
“Baptist.”
“So
we share that. Northern or Southern Baptist?”
“Northern.”
“So
we share that. Northern United or Northern Federated?”
“Northern Federated.”
“So we share that. Northern
Federation of 1882 or Reformed Northern Federation?”
“Northern Federation of 1882.”
“So
we share that. Great Lakes Grouping or New England
Grouping?”
“Great Lakes Grouping.”
“So
we share that. King’s Circuit or Grace Circuit?”
“Grace Circuit.”
“So
we share that. Westport, or York membership?”
“Westport.”
“So
we share that. Westport Unity Church or Westport Central?”
“Westport Central.”
“Die
Heretic!”
And he pushed him off the
bridge.
The moral, of course, is that
we people of faith have far more common ground than differences. And that we
should honour that, rather than concentrating on the differences.
Rev Linda Phillips
A brief outline of Unitarian History in Cirencester
Unitarians in Cirencester met in their own chapel in Gosditch Street (now the Parish Centre) from as early as 1672 when the congregation was founded with English Presbyterian adherence.
Like many English Presbyterian communities, over time, the congregation became Unitarian.
Regular services in the Gosditch Street chapel ceased in 1969 and today Cirencester Unitarians meet, as the Cirencester Unitarian Fellowship, in the Friends' Meeting House in Thomas Street Cirencester.
The Presbyterian Chapel
Approached by an arch from Gosditch
Street, is the oldest in the town, having been
erected in 1648, during Mr. Gregory’s second term of ministry as Vicar of
Cirencester. Subsequently to his ejection from his living by the Act of
Uniformity in 1662, Mr. Gregory is said to have ministered in it until forced
to leave the town by the Five Mile Act.
Like most of the successors of 17th century
English Presbyterianism, the Presbyterians of Cirencester gradually merged into
Unitarianism, and for a great number of years the teaching has been Unitarian.
The Rev. H. Austin succeeded to the pastorate in 1866.
The houses immediately adjacent are the property of the
chapel.
The graveyard has long been disused. A list of inscriptions
is given in the little History of Cirencester published by the late Mr. Savory.
Extract from History of Cirencester by K. J. Beecham
published by G.H.Harmer of the Wilts & Gloucestershire Standard in 1887
