Today is the feast of St Patrick and so, perhaps naturally, I find my thoughts turning Irish. I think it worth noting how on this day in 1830 James Martineau and others formed the Irish Unitarian Association.
A couple of years ago three couples, including Jan and me, all from the Newton congregation visited Ireland. During that visit I had the enormous pleasure and privilege of preaching at the Dublin Unitarian Church, where Martineau had served. Lovely people, easily recognizable as fellow travelers on the way of liberal religion…
While never more than a nominal movement in the south of Ireland, it’s Synod of Munster only counting the two churches in Dublin and Cork; the two presbyteries of the north constituting the unitarian Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland with their thirty-one congregations remains a small but vibrant community of liberal faith.
Anyway, on this St Patrick’s Day, seems appropriate to recall the rational dissenters who created a unitarian movement on the Emerald Isle…
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