In my capacity as a Unitarian Universalist minister I have been resistant to the trend among my younger colleagues to wear cassock albs and other white robes when presiding over worship services. In part it is a tip of the hat to Theophilus Lindsey, who was born on this day in 1723.
A Cambridge graduate Lindsey was ordained a priest in the Church of England.
He was part of a movement within the Church that questioned the Trinity as unscriptural, and with that the generally received doctrine of atonement. When a petition he helped to organize signed by two hundred, fifty clergy to allow greater freedom of interpretation of scripture was rejected by the House of Commons, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
He rented a hall in April, 1774, took off the priestly alb and put on the scholar’s black robe and conducted the first known Unitarian worship service in England. Among the dignitaries present were the non-conforming minister Joseph Priestley and the American Benjamin Franklin.
This is generally considered the founding moment of what would come to be called the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches in England.
Elsewhere I’ve explored the nature of Theophilius Lindsey’s rational religion. Suffice it to say here, I find him a compelling and important spiritual thinker.
Whenever I put on my black gown, I think of him.
And am grateful…
Blessings upon his name.
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