Newington Green Unitarian Church (NGUC) in
north London
North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire.
The term ''nor ...
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
Newington Green is an open space in North London that 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, Green Lanes and ...
for at least half a century before that date. The church belongs to the
umbrella organisation
An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and ofte ...
known as the
General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC or colloquially British Unitarians) is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christians, and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom and Irelan ...
, and has had an upturn in its fortunes since the turn of the millennium.
Its most famous minister was Dr
Richard Price
Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer, pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the French ...
, a political radical who is remembered for his role in the
Revolution Controversy, a British debate about the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
, but who also did pioneering work in finance and statistics. The most famous member of its congregation was
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
, 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. Wollstonecraft is commemorated by a mural in the church which has been described as "the birthplace of
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
".
The building, which faces the north side of
the green, was extended in 1860, and was
listed
Listed may refer to:
* Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm
* Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic
* Endangered species in biology
* Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...
in 1953. It lies within the
London Borough of Hackney, although the rest of the green is part of the
London Borough of Islington
The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough in Inner London. Whilst the majority of the district is located in north London, the borough also includes a significant area to the south which forms part of central London. Islington has ...
.
Background to its creation
After the end of
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
's
Commonwealth and the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
of
Charles II, those in England and Wales who were not members of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
found themselves in an uncomfortable position. Several pieces of legislation, known collectively as the
Clarendon Code
In English history, the penal laws were a series of laws that sought to uphold the establishment of the Church of England against Catholicism and Protestant nonconformists by imposing various forfeitures, civil penalties, and civil disabilities ...
, 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
The Great Ejection followed the Act of Uniformity 1662 in England. Several thousand Puritan ministers were forced out of their positions in the Church of England, following The Restoration of Charles II. It was a consequence (not necessarily ...
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
The Toleration Act 1688 (1 Will & Mary c 18), also referred to as the Act of Toleration, was an Act of the Parliament of England. Passed in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, it received royal assent on 24 May 1689.
The Act allowed for ...
, which guaranteed
freedom of worship
Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedo ...
for certain groups. It allowed Nonconformists (or
Dissenters
A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc.
Usage in Christianity
Dissent from the Anglican church
In the social and religious history of England and Wales, an ...
) 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
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
were the only universities in England and Wales at that time).
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
s were specifically targeted by these acts, and many of them
went underground. Some Christians who had hoped for a more
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...
within the
Established Church chose to emigrate, especially to the American colonies, as the
Pilgrim Fathers
The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who came to North America on the ''Mayflower'' and established the Plymouth Colony in what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts, named after the final departure port of Plymo ...
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
The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and seminaries (often institutions with aspects of all three) run by English Dissenters, that is, those who did not conform to the Church of England. They formed a significant part of England's edu ...
, which were intellectually and morally more rigorous than the universities. One such was at
Newington Green
Newington Green is an open space in North London that 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, Green Lanes and ...
, then an agricultural village a few miles from London, but now within
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. With its origins in the bills of mortality, it became fixed as an area for statistics in 1847 and was u ...
. 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
John Coakley Lettsome (physician, philanthropist, and
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
) or the Anglicans
Vicesimus Knox
Vicesimus Knox (1752–1821) was an English essayist, headmaster and Anglican priest.
Life
Knox was born 8 December 1752, at Newington Green, Middlesex, the son of Vicesimus Knox (1729–1780), a cleric and schoolmaster, and his wife Ann Wall, da ...
(pacifist and writer) and
George Gaskin
George Gaskin (1751–1829) was a lecturer (assistant curate) at St Mary's, Islington for forty-six years, resigning in 1822, to become a prebendary at Ely Cathedral. He was also Rector of Stoke Newington and of St Benet, Gracechurch.
For a long ...
(minister and long-time secretary of the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is a UK-based Christian charity. Founded in 1698 by Thomas Bray, it has worked for over 300 years to increase awareness of the Christian faith in the UK and across the world.
The SPCK is t ...
), but most had some connections to the chapel on the green.
The building and its religious neighbours
![Stoke newington two churches 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Stoke_newington_two_churches_1.jpg)
The original building of 1708 was financed with £300, , from Edward Harrison, a
goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and servicea ...
. 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.
[Thorncroft, p8] 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,
[Gordon, p42.] and one of her biographers thought it defiantly stark. This building was substantially extended and improved in the mid-19th century. An internal gallery was built to increase the seating available, and a few years later the roof and
apse
In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...
were renewed, and a "
stuccoed frontage" was built, "mirroring the original façade with a three-bay front with two round-headed windows, but with added Tuscan
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s and a large
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedim ...
".
![china inland mission](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/China_inland_mission.jpg)
Other religious institutions existed nearby.
St Matthias, one of London's foremost
High Church
The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originate ...
es, was built a couple of hundred yards away between 1849 and 1853, partly with money from a rich doctor named Robert Brett,
[Allardyce, p33.] who thought that the Dissenting chapels were attracting so many worshippers in part because the Anglican pews were full.
['Stoke Newington: Churches']
''A History of the County of Middlesex''
Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 204–211. Accessed 29 May 2009. Jews fleeing the
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
s of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
established a congregation in the area by 1876, and built the
Dalston Synagogue in adjoining Poets Road in 1885. This
Victorian Gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
building became one of the leading
synagogues of London, with Jacob Koussevitzsky as its
cantor
A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds.
In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...
from 1936. Fronting onto the green itself was the
China Inland Mission
OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christianity, Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It ...
headquarters (circa 1895), an organisation responsible for 18,000 converts to Christianity that had been founded by
James Hudson Taylor at the height of the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
. St Matthias still operates as a church; the synagogue was demolished in the 1970s; the missionary building is now international student housing.
Newington Green fell within the old
parish boundaries of Stoke Newington. Although the latter village, centred on
Church Street, was a mile away from the hamlet of the Green, across farmland or along the ancient
drovers' road
A drovers' road, drove ''roador droveway is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were ancient routes of unknown age; ot ...
of
Green Lanes Green Lanes may refer to:
*A green lane (road), a type of road, usually an unpaved rural route.
*Green Lanes (London), a major road running through north London
* Harringay, a neighbourhood in the London Borough of Haringey
The London Borough o ...
, the two places had and still have a close connection. From the mid-1640s to the mid-1650s,
Stoke Newington's
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
was led by
Thomas Manton
Thomas Manton (1620–1677) was an English Puritan clergyman. He was a clerk to the Westminster Assembly and a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell.
Early life
Thomas Manton was baptised 31 March 1620 at Lydeard St Lawrence, Somerset, a remote sou ...
, "a principal person among the non-conformist ministers",; a staunch and popular defender of
Reformed principles, he participated in the
Westminster Assembly
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was adopt ...
, acted as chaplain to
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
, and preached before
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
on several occasions. Another Dissenting
meeting house was built in Stoke Newington about 1700, near the house of
Mary Abney, who had inherited the manor. Later that century the village became known for its
Quaker inhabitants; their meeting house was designed by the architect William Alderson. In 1858 the medieval parish church of
St Mary was supplemented by an impressive
Victorian Gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
building opposite, by Sir
George Gilbert Scott.
[ In addition to the buildings, Stoke Newington was remarkable for its range of social reforms, from its connections to the ]Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade
The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, also known as the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and sometimes referred to as the Abolition Society or Anti-Slavery Society, was a British abolitionist group formed on ...
to the foundation of the innovative Newington Academy for Girls
The Newington Academy for Girls, also known as Newington College for Girls, was a Quaker school established in 1824 in Stoke Newington, then north of London. In a time when girls' educational opportunities were limited, it offered a wide range ...
.
As the NGUC lacks its own cemetery, some of its congregants, such as the poet and banker Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers (30 July 1763 – 18 December 1855) 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
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
normally limits its cemeteries to its members, most of the Newington Green Unitarians opted for Bunhill Fields until the middle of the 19th century, and then Abney Park Cemetery thereafter. (Robert Southey
Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...
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.
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 Morton (1626–1698), the great educator who ended his career as vice-president of Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, ran an influential Dissenting Academy
The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and seminaries (often institutions with aspects of all three) run by English Dissenters, that is, those who did not conform to the Church of England. They formed a significant part of England's edu ...
, "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
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
, with views on the Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...
as orthodox as those held by the Church of England. In fact, several of its first ministers
Minister may refer to:
* Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric
** Minister (Catholic Church)
* Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department)
** Minister without portfolio, a member of governme ...
chose to conform, i.e. rejoin, the established church: one of these was Richard Biscoe, who gave the Boyle Lectures
The Boyle Lectures are named after Robert Boyle, a prominent natural philosopher of the 17th century and son of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. Under the terms of his Will, Robert Boyle endowed a series of lectures or sermons (originally eight e ...
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
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
. Thus was the Unitarian nature of the church created. In the mid-nineteenth century it was described by a local historian as a Socinian
Socinianism () is a nontrinitarian belief system deemed heretical by the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions. Named after the Italian theologians Lelio Sozzini (Latin: Laelius Socinus) and Fausto Sozzini (Latin: Faustus Socinus), uncle ...
Independent meeting house.) The author Daniel Defoe, who attended school at Newington Green, is believed to have attended the church. Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English Congregational minister, hymn writer, theologian, and logician. He was a prolific and popular hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. His works include "When I Survey the ...
, the "Father of English Hymnody", theologian, logician, and educator, was brought up as a non-Conformist, lived from 1736 to 1748 at Abney Park
Abney Park is in Stoke Newington, London, England. It is a park dating from just before 1700, named after Lady Abney, the wife of Sir Thomas Abney, Lord Mayor of London in 1700 and one of the first directors of the Bank of England and associat ...
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 is a small English research library in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London. Historically, it has had a strong Unitarian focus. The library has also been known as University Hall.
History
The library was founded using the e ...
, an establishment stil
very much alive
Later eighteenth century: the voices heard round the world
Richard Price
The minister whose name is still remembered centuries later is Dr Richard Price
Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer, pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the French ...
, 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
Terrace may refer to:
Landforms and construction
* Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river
* Terrace, a street suffix
* Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...
, dated 1658.) In that house, or the church, he was visited by Founding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States, known simply as the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American Revolution, American revolutionary leaders who United Colonies, united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the Am ...
such as Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
, and Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
; other American politicians such as John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...
, who later became the second president of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
, and his wife Abigail
Abigail () was an Israelite woman in the Hebrew Bible married to Nabal; she married the future King David after Nabal's death ( 1 Samuel ). Abigail was David's second wife, after Saul and Ahinoam's daughter, Michal, whom Saul later marri ...
; British politicians such as Lord Lyttleton, the Earl of Shelburne, Earl Stanhope
Earl Stanhope ()Debrett's Correct Form, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 1976, pg 408 was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. The earldom was created in 1718 for Major General James Stanhope,Edward Hasted, 'Parishes: Chevening', in The History and T ...
(known as "Citizen Stanhope"), and even the Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
William Pitt; philosophers David Hume
David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...
and Adam Smith; agitators such as prison reformer John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...
, gadfly John Horne Tooke
John Horne Tooke (25 June 1736 – 18 March 1812), known as John Horne until 1782 when he added the surname of his friend William Tooke to his own, was an English clergyman, politician, and philologist. Associated with radical proponents of parl ...
, and husband and wife John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
and Ann Jebb, who between them campaigned on expansion of the franchise, opposition to the war with America, support for the French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
, abolitionism, and an end to legal discrimination against Roman Catholics; writers such as poet and banker Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers (30 July 1763 – 18 December 1855) 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. ...
;[Thorncroft, p15.] and clergyman-mathematician Thomas Bayes
Thomas Bayes ( ; 1701 7 April 1761) was an English statistician, philosopher and Presbyterian minister who is known for formulating a specific case of the theorem that bears his name: Bayes' theorem. Bayes never published what would become his ...
, 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
James Burgh (1714–1775) 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 ...
, 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. When in 1770 Price became morning preacher at the Gravel Pit Chapel
The Gravel Pit Chapel was established in 1715–16 in Hackney, then just outside London, for a Nonconformist congregation, which by the early 19th century began to identify itself as Unitarian. In 1809 the congregation moved to the New Gravel Pi ...
in Homerton, he continued his afternoon sermons at NGUC.
There were many at a distance who acknowledged their debt to Price, such as the Unitarian theologians William Ellery Channing
William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Chann ...
and Theophilus Lindsey
Theophilus Lindsey (20 June 1723 O.S.3 November 1808) was an English theologian and clergyman who founded the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country, at Essex Street Chapel.
Early life
Lindsey was born in Middlewich, Cheshire, ...
, and the formidable polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
and Dissenting clergyman, Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...
, discoverer of oxygen. When Priestley's support of dissent led to the riots named after him, he fled Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
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 comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestow ...
, arguing that the American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
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
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
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
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. Burke's rebuttal "Reflections on the Revolution in France
''Reflections on the Revolution in France'' is a political pamphlet written by the Irish statesman Edmund Burke and published in November 1790. It is fundamentally a contrast of the French Revolution to that time with the unwritten British Const ...
" 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
A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a ...
(i.e. publications easily printed and circulated).
Mary Wollstonecraft
One of the congregants Price most influenced was the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
, who moved her fledgling school for girls from Islington to the Green in 1784, with the help of a "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. In Perrault's ''Cinderella'', he concludes the tale wit ...
" whose good auspices found her a house to rent and 20 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 lifelong 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.[Tomalin, p60.] 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 (1762–13 April 1844) was a prominent biblical scholar in nineteenth-century England.
Hewlett was born in Chetnole, Dorset to Timothy Hewlett. In his early 20s he established a school in Shacklewell, Hackney. During this period, h ...
, 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
''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, ''Th ...
'' (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, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned by His Reflections on the Revolution in France'' (1790) is a political pamphlet, written by the 18th-century British writer and women's right ...
'', 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: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects'' (1792), written by British philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), is one of the earliest works of feminist philosop ...
'', 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. A commemorative mural dedicated to Wollstonecraft stands in the church, which has been described as "the birthplace of feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
".
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 Towers was born in about 1738, the son of a poor bookseller, and was apprenticed as a printer to Robert Goadby
Robert Goadby (1721–1778) was an English printer and publisher in Sherborne, Dorset. He was a Whig supporter, and influential through his newspaper, the ''Sherborne Mercury''. He also made available the standard version of the supposed autobiogr ...
of Sherborne
Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. ...
. 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
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted ...
. Towers assisted fellow minister Andrew Kippis
Andrew Kippis (28 March 17258 October 1795) was an English nonconformist clergyman and biographer.
Life
The son of Robert Kippis, a silk-hosier, he was born at Nottingham. Having gone to Carre's Grammar School in Sleaford, Lincolnshire he pass ...
in developing the ''Biographia Britannica'', a forerunner of the '' Dictionary of National Biography''. He was secretary of the highly respectable Society for Constitutional Information
The Society for Constitutional Information was a British activist group founded in 1780 by Major John Cartwright, to promote parliamentary reform.
It was an organisation of social reformers, many of whom were drawn from the rational dissenting c ...
, 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.
Early 19th century: The Barbaulds
In 1808, Rochemont Barbauld was appointed minister, first as the morning preacher. His wife, Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Anna Laetitia Barbauld (, by herself possibly , as in French, Aikin; 20 June 1743 – 9 March 1825) was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and author of children's literature. A " woman of letters" who published in mu ...
(1743–1825), was a prolific writer, admired by Samuel Johnson and William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
. She enjoyed a long friendship with Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...
and William Enfield, starting from their years together at the 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 established Church of England. It was located in Warrington (then ...
in the 1760s, where her father John Aikin was tutor. She wrote poems (including a tribute to Priestley), hymns, children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
, and political and religious tracts. She was an abolitionist, addressing one of her works to William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becom ...
. In 1793 she contributed to the Pamphlet War, "Sins of the Government, Sins of the Nation". Two years later she wrote ''The Rights of Women'', but it was not published until her death 30 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, ndof 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
The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in Ja ...
.
Early 19th century: legal acceptance
Thomas Rees took over after Barbauld's death. He was a leading authority of the history of Unitarianism
Unitarianism, as a Christian denominational family of churches, was first defined in Poland-Lithuania and Transylvania in the late 16th century. It was then further developed in England and America until the early 19th century, although theolog ...
, and made connections with the Unitarian Church of Transylvania
The Unitarian Church of Transylvania ( hu, Erdélyi Unitárius Egyház; ro, Biserica Unitariană din Transilvania), also known as the Hungarian Unitarian Church ( hu, Magyar Unitárius Egyház; ro, Biserica Unitariană Maghiară), is a Christian ...
. 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
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art 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 prosper the cause of the church, however, which at this time began to decline."
Mid-19th 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
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
for the Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
. A hundred years before, the ethos had been one of almost Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
self-reliance, but now the Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
ian 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 (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false char ...
, FSA (1792–1870). (Like many Anglican vicars, one of his hobbies was local history
Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context, often concentrating on a relatively small local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of history. Local history is not merely national history writ small ...
.)
A charity school
Charity schools, sometimes called blue coat schools, or simply the Blue School, were significant in the history of education in England. They were built and maintained in various parishes by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants to ...
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
The Elementary Education Act 1870, commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 in England and Wales. It established local education authorities with defined powers, autho ...
.
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 (; 21 April 1805 – 11 January 1900) was a British 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 ( ...
. Samuel Sharpe, named after his uncle, the poet Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers (30 July 1763 – 18 December 1855) 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, including as trustee. He was an erudite and generous man, a banker by day and an Egyptologist and Bible translator in his leisure hours. 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
Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...
and for him, science and religion
The relationship between religion and science involves discussions that interconnect the study of the natural world, history, philosophy, and theology. Even though the ancient and medieval worlds did not have conceptions resembling the modern u ...
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.
Later 19th century: towards the high water
NGUC thrived during the last decades of the 19th 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 Society, and teetotalism
Teetotalism is the practice or promotion of total personal abstinence from the psychoactive drug alcohol, specifically in alcoholic drinks. A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler or teetotaller, or is ...
(abstinence from alcohol) support for adults and children. Other issues of concern were education, social reform, and women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
.
Sister and brother Marian and Ion Pritchard continued the work of their father. The cause of liberal religion
Religious liberalism is a conception of religion (or of a particular religion) which emphasizes personal and group liberty and rationality. It is an attitude towards one's own religion (as opposed to criticism of religion from a secular position, ...
in general, and the development of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC or colloquially British Unitarians) is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christians, and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom and Irelan ...
, 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 to mid 20th 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 Campbell
Reginald John Campbell (29 August 1867 – 1 March 1956) was a British Congregationalist and Anglican divine who became a popular preacher while the minister at the City Temple and a leading exponent of 'The New Theology' movement of 1907. His ...
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
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
, 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".
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
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, (31 May 1863 – 31 July 1942) was a British Army officer, explorer, and spiritual writer. He is remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British ...
. 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 mid-20th century, the building was damaged by German bombing. In 1953 its architectural importance was recognised as a Grade II listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
Later 20th century/early 21st century: rejuvenation
In the late 20th century, faced with declining numbers, Newington Green Unitarian Church developed closer ties with Islington Unitarian Church a couple of kilometres away. They started to share a minister and publicise events together under the name New Unity, while remaining legally distinct entities. The 1969 sale of the (New) Gravel Pit Chapel
The Gravel Pit Chapel was established in 1715–16 in Hackney, then just outside London, for a Nonconformist congregation, which by the early 19th century began to identify itself as Unitarian. In 1809 the congregation moved to the New Gravel Pi ...
near the centre of the historic village of Hackney released funding via the Charity Commission for maintenance of the Newington Green chapel.
By the turn of the millennium, NGUC's community was reduced in numbers. A small congregation of half a dozen elderly women persisted,["It's time for Unitarians to break the law on marriage"](_blank)
''Islington News'' 20 Nov 2009 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.
Photo and brief biography as part of interview. "Dissent in Newington Green" by Rab MacWilliam In the tradition of Unitarian social action
In sociology, social action, also known as Weberian social action, is an act which takes into account the actions and reactions of individuals (or ' agents'). According to Max Weber, "Action is 'social' insofar as its subjective meaning takes ...
, 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
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...
, during his time at NGUC he wrote ''Towards Beloved Community'' and was written about as the Right-On Reverend in ''The Oldie
''The Oldie'' is a British monthly magazine written for older people "as a light-hearted alternative to a press obsessed with youth and celebrity", according to its website. The magazine was launched in 1992 by Richard Ingrams, who was its edit ...
s monthly "East of Islington" column.
The incumbent is Andrew Pakula
Andrew Pakula (born 18 December 1957 in New York, United States) is an atheist 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 ...
, an American who grew up in a Jewish family in New York.["Church minister: homophobia is the real sin"](_blank)
by Katrina Bishop. 18 March 2009 ''Islington Now'' His MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
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
Unitarian College Manchester is one of two Unitarian seminaries in England. It is based at Luther King House in the Brighton Grove area of Manchester, and its degrees are validated by the University of Manchester.
It prepares students for minist ...
. He began serving in October 2006, was inducted as full minister in January 2010,["Church welcome for new minister"](_blank)
''Hackney Gazette'' 21 January 2010 page 8 and was elected to the executive committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
of the British Unitarians. He was described – sympathetically – in the local press as "controversial" when he did a reverse collection plate
The offertory (from Medieval Latin ''offertorium'' and Late Latin ''offerre'') is the part of a Eucharistic service when the bread and wine for use in the service are ceremonially placed on the altar.
A collection of alms (offerings) from the c ...
, giving his own money away to those attending one sermon.[‘Help yourselves to the collection plate](_blank)
24 October 2008 ''Islington News''
A large-scale renovation was completed in 2020, funded by a £1.73 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
. Subsequently, the building was removed from the Heritage at Risk Register
An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...
.[ The church brands itself as a non-religious, New Unity, group explaining this as "New Unity is committed to equality between people of all genders and fully embraces LGBTQ+ people. There is no set of mandatory beliefs; people have the right and responsibility to think for themselves."]
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 Self
William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English author, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Sel ...
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
Evan Harold Davis (born 8 April 1962) is an English economist, journalist, and presenter for the BBC. He has presented ''Dragons' Den'' since 2005.
In October 2001, Davis took over from Peter Jay as the BBC's economics editor. He left this ...
, 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
Terence Francis Eagleton (born 22 February 1943) is an English literary theorist, critic, and public intellectual. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University.
Eagleton has published over forty books, ...
, who spoke on "The New Atheism and the War on Terror". In 2011 Wendy Savage
Wendy Diane Savage (born 12 April 1935 in Surrey) is a British gynaecologist, and advocate and campaigner of women's rights in childbirth and fertility.
Professor Savage read medicine at Girton College, Cambridge. She qualified in 1960, and was ...
, a doctor and long-time campaigner for women's reproductive health, spoke on " Patients' Choice and Doctors' Responsibilities".
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 rights. 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
Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" ...
couples take for granted".["The Church Where You Can't Marry"](_blank)
4 April 2008 ''Islington Tribune'' The BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
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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
, and it still conducts ceremonial blessings of relationships, straight and gay. The church's decision was in response to the case brought by the
ceremonies on the grounds of her religion.
The move was praised by Rev. Richard Kirker, chairman of the national
. "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
Following in the steps of his immediate predecessor, who used his inaugural column in the ''
as the real problem, and his congregation did consider challenging the law under the
.
called on the church to conduct a gay marriage in defiance of the law.
NGUC celebrated its tercentenary in 2008 under the slogan "300 years of dissent", marking this with events such as planting a
tree, organising a picnic in conjunction with the Newington Green Action Group, and hosting a concert of
. (There is a strong
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.
it is one of the most rapidly growing Unitarian churches in Britain.
* ''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 websit
**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.