One of the most distinctive features of the Unitarian & Free Christian tradition is our commitment to religious liberty, freedom of conscience, and the pursuit of free inquiry. We are clear that we stand within a particular Christian tradition, one which we honour and from which we continue to draw inspiration. At the same time, we hold this tradition within a framework of complete religious freedom. There is no creed or statement of belief to which members are required to subscribe. As a result, our congregation includes a wide range of theological perspectives, which we see not as a weakness but as an essential part of who we are, both as a congregation and as a chapel.
This commitment to religious liberty is deeply rooted in our history. Our chapel was founded by Nonconformists—Dissenters who were ejected from the national church for refusing to pledge allegiance to a creed. Along with many other Nonconformists across the country, our ancestors fell foul of the Act of Uniformity of 1662. This legislation barred Nonconformist ministers from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, while the Five Mile Act of 1665 forbade them from preaching within five miles of major towns and cities. It was not until 1689, two years after our founding, that Nonconformist congregations were legally permitted to meet for public worship. The ‘barn-style’ architecture of our chapel reflects this period, typical of Nonconformist buildings designed to avoid attracting the attention of the authorities.
The exclusion of Nonconformists from the universities led to the creation of Dissenting Academies from the late seventeenth century onwards. Their independent and nonconforming character meant that new and controversial ideas could be explored more freely than in the established institutions. It was within these academies that many Nonconformists first encountered Socinian theology—a rational approach to the Bible and to Christianity that would later become foundational for Unitarianism.
As the chapel adopted Unitarian views in the eighteenth century, the issue of religious liberty became even more pressing. Belief in the Trinity had been formally required by the Catholic Church since the fourth century. In England, denial of the Trinity was made illegal in 1559 under the Act of Supremacy of Elizabeth I, and people were still being executed for heresy as late as 1612. ‘An Ordinance for the punishing of Blasphemies and Heresies’, passed by the Parliament of England in May 1648, explicitly criminalised denial of the Trinity, and Unitarian beliefs were only decriminalised in 1813 with the Doctrine of the Trinity Act. Long after this formal emancipation, Unitarians continued to be excluded from universities and public bodies and faced widespread informal discrimination. To adopt Unitarian views, as this chapel did, was therefore to embrace a controversial and long-persecuted set of ideas.
Unitarianism itself emerged earlier within the wider Reformation in sixteenth-century Europe. Michael Servetus challenged the Reformers’ continued acceptance of Catholic doctrines such as the Trinity. Believing he could persuade figures like Calvin, he instead found himself tried and burnt at the stake for heresy. His ideas survived, however, and were developed by Faustus Socinus, an Italian Catholic who became part of the underground Reformation movement. Drawing on the writings of his uncle Lelio Socinus, Faustus developed alternative ways of reading scripture that departed sharply from Reformation orthodoxy.
Socinus and his followers—known as Socinians—were forced to operate cautiously. Faustus eventually escaped Geneva and settled in Poland, where he became an inspiration for the Polish Bretheren (Minor Reformed Church), one of only two places where proto-Unitarian (or Socinian) churches were openly established. The other was Transylvania, where Francis Dávid led the Reformed Church towards a Unitarian understanding of Christianity. Even there, however, religious liberty proved fragile: Dávid died in prison after disagreeing with fellow Unitarians over whether Jesus, not being God, should be prayed to.
In England, Unitarianism arose independently of Socinus through the work of John Biddle, often described as the Father of English Unitarianism. His theology closely resembled Socinian ideas, and for this he spent much of his life in prison or exile, dying in 1662, the year of the Great Ejection. After his death his followers dispersed, and it was not until the eighteenth century—when Nonconformists such as Joseph Priestley encountered Socinian ideas in the Dissenting Academies—that a coherent Unitarian movement emerged in England. Only then was John Biddle fully recognised for his pioneering role.
Eighteenth-century Unitarians continued to face prejudice, and they remained keenly aware of their debt to earlier generations of dissenters who had suffered far harsher penalties for their convictions. At the same time, they were deeply shaped by the thinkers of the Enlightenment—figures such as John Locke, Isaac Newton and Adam Smith. In science, politics, economics and religion alike, they embraced a classical liberal outlook, in which reason, liberty and the free exchange of ideas were guiding principles. And it was in this same period that these ideas were also taking root across the Atlantic, profoundly influencing the founders of the United States.
By the nineteenth century, Unitarianism had become a denomination of national importance in England and was also making a significant impact in America. Even so, controversy and prejudice lingered long after the repeal of the Trinity Act in 1813.
With a history such as this, it is no surprise that religious liberty is precious to us. We oppose restrictions on freedom of belief wherever they occur and are concerned by contemporary threats to open discussion and freedom of conscience. Our tradition is one of free inquiry, non-imposition of belief, and respect for the dignity of individual conscience—and this remains something we are prepared to speak out for, when needed.