Newington Green Unitarian Church facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Newington Green Unitarian Church |
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| 51°33′08″N 0°05′06″W / 51.55217°N 0.08492°W | |
| Location | 39A Newington Green, London N16 9PR |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (British Unitarians) |
| Website | www.new-unity.org |
| History | |
| Founded | 1708 |
The Newington Green Unitarian Church (NGUC) in north London is one of England's oldest Unitarian churches. For over 300 years, it has been connected to people who wanted big changes in society. It's also London's oldest Nonconformist church still in use today.
The church was started in 1708 by English Dissenters. These were people who didn't follow the main Church of England. A group of them had been meeting around Newington Green for about 50 years before the church was built. Today, the church is part of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches. It has become more popular again since the year 2000.
Its most famous minister was Dr Richard Price. He was a political thinker known for his ideas about the French Revolution. He also did important work in finance and statistics. The most famous person who attended the church was Mary Wollstonecraft. She was inspired by Price's talks. Her work supported the new French republic and fought for the rights of women. There's a special painting in the church that remembers Wollstonecraft. Some people call the church the "birthplace of feminism" because of her.
The church building faces the north side of Newington Green. It was made bigger in 1860 and became a listed building in 1953. It's in the London Borough of Hackney. However, most of the green itself is in the London Borough of Islington.
Contents
- Why the Church Was Created
- The Church Building and Its Neighbors
- Early Years: To the Mid-1700s
- Later 1700s: Voices for Change
- Early 1800s: The Barbaulds
- Early 1800s: Legal Acceptance
- Mid-1800s: Social Challenges
- Later 1800s: Growing Stronger
- Early to Mid-1900s: Wars and Challenges
- Late 1900s/Early 2000s: A New Start
Why the Church Was Created
After Oliver Cromwell's time and the return of King Charles II, life became hard for people in England and Wales who were not part of the Church of England. New laws, called the Clarendon Code, made things difficult for them.
- One law said only Anglicans (Church of England members) could hold public jobs.
- Another law in 1662 made about 2,000 clergymen leave the official church. This event was called the Great Ejection.
- A third law stopped religious meetings of more than five people if they weren't approved.
- The last law said Nonconformist clergymen couldn't live within five miles of places where they had been banned.
Many people followed their ministers when they moved. Things got a bit better later with the Act of Toleration 1689. This law gave some groups freedom to worship. It allowed Nonconformists (also called Dissenters) to have their own churches and teachers. But they still couldn't hold political jobs or go to the only universities at the time, Oxford and Cambridge.
Some Christians who wanted more changes in the Church of England chose to move away. Many went to the American colonies, like the Pilgrim Fathers did in 1620. Others stayed in England and lived with the rules. They often moved to areas where they were more accepted. They also set up special schools called dissenting academies. These schools were often better and more open-minded than the universities.
One such school was in Newington Green. Back then, it was a farming village near London. Now, it's part of Inner London. People who believed in Unitarianism or "Rational Dissent" were drawn to education and new ideas. They liked to question things and challenge the usual ways. Many smart and open-minded people, including teachers and Dissenters, gathered around Newington Green. Not all of them were Unitarians, but most had some connection to the church there.
The Church Building and Its Neighbors
The first church building in 1708 cost £300. This money came from Edward Harrison, a goldsmith. He rented the building to the church leaders. They bought things like the pulpit and pews, raising £96 from about 20 people. The building was made of brick and was almost square. It had a high, tiled roof. Old pictures show it had a small triangle shape (pediment) at the front with an oval window. Mary Wollstonecraft thought it was too plain.
The church was made much bigger in the mid-1800s. A balcony was added inside to create more seats. A few years later, the roof and the back part of the church were fixed. A new front was built with columns and a large pediment.
Other religious groups were nearby. St Matthias Church, a grand Anglican church, was built a short distance away between 1849 and 1853. It was partly paid for by a rich doctor who thought Dissenting churches were getting too many people.
Jewish families escaping harsh treatment in the Russian Empire started a community here by 1876. They built the Dalston Synagogue in 1885. This became an important synagogue in London. Also on Newington Green was the China Inland Mission headquarters (around 1895). This group helped many people become Christians in China. St Matthias Church is still active today. The synagogue was taken down in the 1970s. The missionary building is now housing for international students.
Newington Green was part of the old Stoke Newington area. Even though Stoke Newington village was a mile away, the two places have always been connected. Many social changes started in Stoke Newington, like efforts to end the slave trade and the creation of the Newington Academy for Girls.
The Newington Green Unitarian Church doesn't have its own graveyard. So, some members, like the poet Samuel Rogers, are buried in St Mary's churchyard. Most Unitarians chose to be buried in Bunhill Fields until the mid-1800s, and then in Abney Park Cemetery. Mary Wollstonecraft was married and buried at St Pancras Old Church a few miles away.
Early Years: To the Mid-1700s
The Newington Green Unitarian Church has been linked to many important people throughout history. Charles Morton (1626–1698), a famous teacher who later worked at Harvard University, ran a Dissenting Academy likely where the church is now. One of his friends, James Ashurst, started a group that met in private homes. This group eventually decided to build a proper church.
The church began as a Presbyterian church, believing in the Trinity like the Church of England. In fact, some of its first ministers later rejoined the official church. However, the church soon had ministers who were Arian, meaning they didn't believe in the Trinity but still believed in Jesus Christ's divinity. This is how the church became Unitarian.
The writer Daniel Defoe, who went to school at Newington Green, is thought to have attended the church. Isaac Watts, known as the "Father of English Hymnody," lived nearby from 1736 to 1748. He was known to have Unitarian ideas, so he might have attended the church too. Several of the church's ministers also worked as librarians at Dr Williams's Library, which is still open today.
Later 1700s: Voices for Change
Richard Price
The minister remembered most from this time is Dr Richard Price. He was a strong supporter of freedom and a republic. He made Newington Green famous as a place for people with new ideas and those who wanted social change. He arrived in 1758 and lived in a house that is still London's oldest brick terrace, built in 1658.
Many important people visited Price at his home or the church. These included American Founding Fathers of the United States like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Other visitors were British politicians, famous philosophers like David Hume, and people fighting for change like prison reformer John Howard. Price was lucky to become close friends with his neighbors and church members. One friend was Thomas Rogers, a banker who lived next door. Price, Rogers, and another minister, James Burgh, had a dining club together.
Price's support for the American colonies' fight for independence made him a famous preacher. He believed in the goodness of human nature and wrote about religious topics. But he was also interested in many other things. During his time as minister, he wrote about money, economics, and life insurance. He even became a member of the Royal Society for his work.
In 1789, he gave a famous talk called "A Discourse on the Love of Our Country". This talk started a big debate about the French Revolution. A writer named Edmund Burke attacked Price's ideas. Price's friends, Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft, quickly wrote to defend him. Price's reputation for speaking his mind without fear of the government brought huge crowds to the church. His talks were printed and sold as small books called pamphlets.
Mary Wollstonecraft
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One of the people Price influenced most was Mary Wollstonecraft, an early feminist. She moved her new school for girls to Newington Green in 1784. A kind woman, Mrs. Burgh, helped her find a house and 20 students. Mary attended services at the church. Even though she was Anglican, the church welcomed people of all beliefs. The Unitarian approach of logical thinking and individual choice appealed to Wollstonecraft. They were hard-working, kind, and respected women. They treated her better than her own family.
Wollstonecraft was a young teacher who hadn't published any books yet. But Price saw her potential and became her friend and mentor. Through him, she met Joseph Johnson, a radical publisher who helped guide her career. She published her first book, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, with his help.
The ideas Wollstonecraft heard in the church helped her start thinking about politics. A few years later, she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Men. This was her answer to Burke's criticism of the French Revolution and Price. In 1792, she published her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In this book, she used Price's ideas about equality and applied them to women. She argued that women, like Dissenters, were held back from education and rights. A special painting in the church honors Wollstonecraft. The church has been called the "birthplace of feminism" because of her.
Joseph Towers
It was hard for anyone to follow Dr Price, but the minister from 1778 to 1799, Joseph Towers, was also special. Born around 1738, he was the son of a poor bookseller. He taught himself by reading everything he could. He wrote important works and even earned a law degree from Edinburgh University. Towers helped create the Biographia Britannica, an early version of the Dictionary of National Biography. He was also secretary of a group that worked for political freedoms. He was even arrested for a short time because the authorities were afraid of the Reign of Terror from France.
Early 1800s: The Barbaulds
In 1808, Rochemont Barbauld became a minister. His wife, Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825), was a very active writer. She was admired by famous authors like Samuel Johnson. She was friends with Joseph Priestley and wrote poems, hymns, children's literature, and political essays. She also worked to end slavery. In 1795, she wrote The Rights of Women, but it wasn't published until after her death.
Sadly, Rochemont became very ill mentally. He attacked his wife and later drowned in the New River. Anna remained a member of the church until she died. There's a plaque in the church honoring her work for "Humanity, Peace, and Justice, [and] of Civil and Religious Liberty." Her brother, Dr John Aikin, lived nearby. He was a Unitarian minister in his youth, so he likely worshipped at the church with his children, Arthur Aikin, a scientist, and Lucy Aikin, a biographer.
Early 1800s: Legal Acceptance
Thomas Rees became minister after Barbauld. He was an expert on the history of Unitarianism. In 1813, a very important thing happened: Parliament passed the Doctrine of the Trinity Act. This meant that Dissenters finally won the civil and religious freedoms they had been fighting for over 150 years.
After Rees, James Gilchrist became minister for 15 years. His son, Alexander Gilchrist, wrote a famous book about the artist William Blake. However, Gilchrist slowly changed his mind about Unitarianism and wrote a pamphlet called "Unitarianism Abandoned." This made his Unitarian church members very angry. He refused to leave for a long time but was eventually forced out. After this, the church decided to hold yearly elections for its minister to prevent similar problems.
The church then went through a difficult time. It had very few members and ministers changed often. The causes they had fought for were won, so the church looked back with pride but didn't see much to look forward to. Its energy seemed to disappear. "Legal recognition did not help the church's cause, which at this time began to decline."
Mid-1800s: Social Challenges
"New reasons and fresh ideas were needed to make the church strong again, and luckily, they appeared." Newington Green had changed. It was no longer a quiet village but a busy, growing part of London. With this growth came a lot of poverty. Helping the poor became the church's main goal during the Victorian era. A hundred years before, people focused on helping themselves. But now, with widespread poverty and diseases like cholera, helping others became very important.
The minister who led the church for the first 25 years of this period (1839–64) was Thomas Cromwell. Like many vicars, he enjoyed studying local history.
In 1790 and 1808, Dissenters had set up a charity school for girls and a Sunday school for children. These efforts grew in the mid-1800s. In 1840, a Sunday school was started for poor children. Soon after, a Domestic Mission Society was formed to visit poor families in their homes. A library and a savings club were also created to help people help themselves. A regular day school ran from 1860 for ten years, until the government took over primary education in 1870.
One of Cromwell's first changes was to introduce a new hymnbook. Samuel Sharpe, a banker, Egyptologist, and Bible translator, joined the church in 1828 and stayed connected for 30 years. He was a very smart and kind man. Andrew Pritchard (1804–1882) was the church's treasurer from 1850–73. During his time, donations doubled. He made microscopes and studied tiny living things. For him, science and religion were connected. The church community continued to fight for bigger political changes. They sent requests to Parliament about religious matters, like allowing Dissenters to attend Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Their main goals were religious freedom and self-improvement.
Later 1800s: Growing Stronger
The Newington Green Unitarian Church did very well in the late 1800s. Its members grew to 80. The London Sunday School Society said the church's Sunday school was the best. It taught up to 200 children, which led to building a new schoolhouse behind the church in 1887. Many groups started, from study groups to cycling and cricket clubs. There were groups for young men and women, and a Mothers' Meeting. The church also cared about education, social reform, and women's suffrage (the right for women to vote).
Sister and brother Marian and Ion Pritchard continued their father's work. They focused on promoting liberal religion and the growth of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches. Marian is especially remembered as a hero who helped lead modern Unitarianism. She started summer schools to train Sunday School teachers and a home for sick children.
Early to Mid-1900s: Wars and Challenges
The church reached its peak around its 200th birthday in 1908. Soon after, it faced a small religious split. The new minister, Dr F. W. G. Foat, supported new ideas that some members didn't like. He eventually left. Then came 1914, and World War I shook Christian faith everywhere. Unitarians were not pacifists (people who refuse to fight), and about fifteen members of the church and Sunday School died in the war. Society as a whole found less comfort in religion, especially liberal religion, when faced with such horrors. Many older members with long ties to the church also passed away. The middle class had mostly left the area. Church attendance dropped. By 1930, people whispered that the church might not survive.
However, an important local politician supported the church. In 1938, a new pastor and his family brought new life to the church. Even though few people came to Sunday services, other activities drew crowds, like temperance meetings (groups against alcohol). When World War II started, children were sent away from London, so the Sunday Schools stopped for a while. But Sunday services never missed a week, even when the building was badly damaged by a bomb. They just moved to the schoolhouse. After the war, the church focused on building connections between different races and faiths, like with the Jewish community. Local politicians, including the Mayor, often attended services. Leaders for the national Unitarian movement continued to come from the Newington Green church.
In the mid-1900s, the building was damaged by German bombs. In 1953, it was recognized as an important building and given a Grade II listed building status.
Late 1900s/Early 2000s: A New Start
In the late 1900s, with fewer members, the Newington Green Unitarian Church started working more closely with Islington Unitarian Church. They began sharing a minister and advertising events together under the name "New Unity," but they remained separate churches. Money from the sale of another chapel helped pay for repairs at Newington Green.
By the year 2000, the church community was very small. Only about half a dozen elderly women remained. But a new energy arrived with Cathal (Cal) Courtney, who became a student pastor in 2002 and then minister in 2004. He came from Ireland, a place with divided communities. He was described as a "radical spirit" who had a "remarkable spiritual journey." His weekly talks soon attracted twenty people. Following the Unitarian tradition of social action, he led a quiet gathering the night before the huge march against the Iraq War in 2003. People from different faiths like Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews joined him.
The current minister is Andrew Pakula. He is an American who grew up in a Jewish family in New York. He has a science degree from MIT and a business degree. He worked in biotechnology before becoming a minister. He started serving in October 2006 and became the full minister in January 2010. He was also chosen for the main committee of the British Unitarians. He was called "controversial" in the local newspaper when he gave his own money to people attending one sermon.
A big renovation of the church was finished in 2020. It was paid for by a £1.73 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. After this, the building was removed from the list of buildings at risk. The church now calls itself "New Unity." It says, "New Unity believes in equality for all genders and welcomes LGBTQ+ people. There are no required beliefs; people have the right and responsibility to think for themselves."
300th Birthday Celebrations
The church celebrated its 300th birthday in 2008 with the slogan "300 years of dissent." They marked this with events like planting a crab apple tree. They also had a picnic and a concert of Ottoman classical music. There is a large Turkish community in Newington Green.
250th Anniversary of Mary Wollstonecraft's Birth
The next year, the church celebrated 250 years since Mary Wollstonecraft's birth. They put a large banner outside the building calling it the "birthplace of feminism." This was a nod to her important time worshipping there. The church held many events. These included a talk by her biographer Barbara Taylor. There was also a discussion about women and power with female politicians. Other events included an art show, a concert, and a birthday cake baked by men.
Minister Andrew Pakula's sermon for the anniversary highlighted Wollstonecraft's role as a prophet. He said:
Mary Wollstonecraft was a unique person—brilliant and strong. She was someone who would not follow the common beliefs of her time. She saw, unlike most people, that women were equal to men. Her brave stand—a position many years ahead of her time—was widely criticized. Today, we know that Mary Wollstonecraft spoke with the voice of prophecy. We honor her for her courage and for the gifts she has given to future generations of women and men.
Activities Today
Services happen every Sunday at Newington Green Unitarian Church. They also have special events like the yearly Flower Communion. Twice a month, there are poetry readings, and weekly meditation sessions are held. The church takes part in the annual Open House London festival, where buildings are opened to the public. It also hosts concerts, like those by the London Gallery Quire, which performs old church music. The church's members have grown to 70 by 2009, with 30 people at one Sunday service. It is one of the fastest-growing Unitarian churches in Britain.
