A Long Wait

“I see in the rising crescendo of ethnic tensions, civilization clashes and the use of religious justification for acts of terror, a clear and present danger to humanity. For too long the pages of history have been stained by blood shed in the name of God…In our interconnected world, we must learn to feel enlarged, not threatened, by difference.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

I suspect that not many people know this: that up until 1813 it was illegal in Britain to deny the Trinity or to assert that there are more Gods than one, to deny that the Christian religion is true or that the Christian scriptures are not of divine authority.

If you did assert any of those matters in writing, printing, teaching or speaking – then you were barred from holding any public office – in the church, in local or national government or in the military. And if you were convicted a second time of such a crime you could be imprisoned for up to 3 years and be barred from many legal rights including the guardianship of children, bringing a case to court, or being an executor of someone’s estate.

In July 1813 an Act was passed with this title – “an Act to relieve persons who impugn the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity from certain Penalties”.  This wordy title has been simplified over the years to the Trinity Act or the Unitarian Relief or Toleration Act. And at last, to have Unitarian views and to express them publically was legally acceptable. 1813 – it’s not all that long ago is it – just 200 years ago. Interesting to note that the Roman Catholics had to wait until 1829 for their religious beliefs to be accepted in the Roman Catholic Relief Act.

But for us Unitarians, legal acceptance arrived in 1813 and it’s this 200th anniversary that Unitarian congregations around the country are celebrating this summer. And thanks for our freedom can be given to one William Smith MP, the leading dissenting Member of Parliament of his day, who worked tirelessly to achieve this and so many other social improvements, including the abolition of slavery. William Smith is better known now as Florence Nightingale’s grandfather but in his time he was highly regarded as a skilled and determined campaigner.

It is not easy I think for us to imagine life in the late 18th century or to understand the pressures and concerns of their day. We know that dissent from the fixed creeds and beliefs of the Church of England had been legal since Charles 2nd’s reign – passed by the Act of Toleration in 1689. So there were lots of Dissenting congregations and ministers – and quietly some of those held Unitarian views.  Much was discussed in private. One of my favourite examples is from Evesham where a group of dissenting ministers held regular meetings and disguised one of their meetings as an asparagus lunch – held in May of each year, from 1782 to the present day.

Here at Essex Church we are proud to remind people that ours was the very first openly Unitarian congregation – founded in 1774 by one Theophilus Lindsey, who had left ministry within the Church of England because he could no longer support Anglican theology with integrity. Two hundred people attended that first service – and in the congregation there were apparently both government spies and assorted future prime ministers of our country.  So although it was illegal to express Unitarian views the powers that be generally chose not to seek prosecutions and Dissenters were often to be found at the forefront of social change.

But these were tumultuous times – religion and politics were closely inter-twined, both here in Britain and abroad. Joseph Priestley for example, best known now as a scientist, was also a Unitarian minister, and he was enthusiastic in his support for revolutionary causes abroad, especially in America and France. In 1791 a patriotic mob in Birmingham burnt down Priestley’s New Meeting House and his home and the homes of other prominent Unitarians. Priestley and his family eventually emigrated to America.

Back here in England once the Trinity Act was passed in 1813 there was a rapid growth of congregations identifying themselves as Unitarians – from some 20 congregations in 1810 to over 200 in England alone by 1825. And the rest as they say is history. Except of course history does have that tendency to repeat itself. In truth there is still discrimination against Unitarianism to this day here in Britain.  In 1933 the Dean of Liverpool Cathedral invited a well-known local Unitarian minister to preach there. On hearing of this, some Anglicans complained and at a Convocation in York it was decreed that no Unitarian could ever again be allowed to preach in an Anglican church. Unitarians are also not accepted as members of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

Tiny slights, annoying, or indeed upsetting, to some. But perhaps such on-going discrimination might help us to relate with people all around our world who are facing discrimination each and every day because of their chosen faith. The State Department of the United States issues an annual review of religious freedom around the world, a report which you can access online. As you might imagine, it paints quite a grim picture of a world filled with intolerance in one form or another. In various countries it is illegal to hold religious beliefs contrary to the state supported religion. In many more countries discrimination is fuelled by views expressed by government leaders. Last year’s report noted an increase in anti-Semitism in countries such as Hungary, Greece, Argentina and France, as well as the more obvious Middle Eastern countries such as Iran and Egypt. The following countries were cited for particularly harsh treatment of people for their religious beliefs: China, Eritrea, Iran, Burma, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan.

What can we do about all this? Not a lot in truth. We might sign online petitions or join Amnesty International campaigns – for such actions can make a difference in how individuals are treated by repressive regimes. To know that people of the world are informed and concerned about ill treatment may sometimes help. We might campaign for a truly universal acceptance of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights throughout countries of the world.  It declares that “everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance”.

But perhaps the key tasks for us are to ensure that our own house is in good order – to examine our own prejudices and attempt to re-balance the prejudices of our own society. We can perhaps feel pride in our pluralist society where all people are free to express their own religious beliefs. Or we might despair that, for example, Channel 4’s recent decision to broadcast the early morning call to prayer during the Islamic festival of Ramadan has caused such a furore, at least in the media. And let’s remember the much less publicised, though far more painful, truth that most Muslim and Jewish places of worship here in the United Kingdom now feel a need to have guards on their doors in case of attack. Imagine if that was us, if we Unitarians had people on guard to protect us from attack because of our faith. That of course is what the Dissenters of hundreds of years ago had to do.

Now we can perhaps offer a useful voice in the debate on how to live in a diverse community; on how we can encourage ourselves and others to be curious about those who are different from us rather than afraid; on how we can assert common human bonds across the divides, forged from good will. I think that would be a worthy legacy of our forebears’ struggles to win our own religious freedom – a sign of our gratitude and indeed, our respect. Amen.

Rev. Sarah Tinker

Sermon – 7th July 2013