Pausing for a moment and honoring the memory of Theophilus Lindsey

Theophilus Lindsey was born on this day in 1723. It addition to having the coolest name, he is the founder of institutional Unitarianism in Great Britain. He certainly wasn’t the first Unitarian, the list of people holding unitarian views before him is in fact quite long.

An Anglican priest, Lindsey joined with a total of two hundred and fifty clergy, including bishops, who petitioned Parliament to lift the requirement that candidates for holy orders in the Church subscribe to the Thirty nine articles, a Calvinist creedal statement. Lindsey’s hope was to establish a Unitarian current within the Church of England.

However, after failing to convince Parliament, in April of 1774, Lindsey rented space in Essex Street, in the Strand, London, published an announcement that he would be leading worship according to a reformation of the Book of Common Prayer, and in a service that included his friends the scientist and Presbyterian minister Joseph Priestly and the American Benjamin Franklin, he conducted what is considered the first Unitarian worship service in the country.

His broad spirit continues within the movement which attempts to hold many different currents within a single institution.

As a Buddhist Unitarian Universalist, I owe a lot to Theophilus and his welcoming heart…