OLD CHAPEL AND THE UNITARIAN- - STORY (Dukinfield) OLD CHAPEL AND THE UN1 TA R I A N STORY DAVID C. DOEL UNITARIAN PUBLICATION Lindsey Press 1 Essex Street Strand London WC2R 3HY ISBN 0 853 19 049 6 Printed by Jervis Printers 78 Stockport Road Ashton-Under-Lyne Tameside CONTENTS PREFACE CHAPTER ONE: AN OLD CHAPEL HERITAGE TRAIL CHAPTER TWO: BIDDLE AND THE SOCINIANS CHAPTER THREE: THE CIVIL WAR CHAPTER FOUR: MILTON AND LOCKE CHAPTER FIVE: SAMUEL ANGIER AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES CHAPTER SIX: JOSEPH PRIESTLEY CHAPTER SEVEN: WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING CHAPTER EIGHT: FIRST HALF OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY CHAPTER NINE: HOPPS, MARTINEAU AND WICKSTEED CHAPTER TEN: FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CHAPTER ELEVEN: SECOND HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY APPENDIX Ai WHERE THE STORY BEGINS APPENDIX B: THE TRINITY APPENDIX C: THE ALLEGORICAL METHOD APPENDIX D: BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX E: GLOSSARY SIX ILLUSTRATIONS: a) Old Chapel exterior b) Old Chapel interior c) The original Chapel d) The Old School e) The New School f) The Original Schoc! OLD CHAPEL, DUKlNFlELD PREFACE Old Testament prophets, or was he a unique expression, once and once only, of God on earth in human form? OLD CHAPEL AND THE UNITARIAN STORY is an account of the life and history of Old Chapel, Dukinfield, set within the As I point out in the Appendix on The Trinity, there emerged larger context of the story of the growth and devlopment of from all this conflict not one doctrine of the Trinity, but many. Unitarianism, which we, the present congregation, inherit from the trials and tribulations, the courage, vision and the joy The Trinity is a theological model for expressing the Nature of of our ancestors. God and the relationship of God to humanity. The First Person (God) represented the Ground of our Being; the Second Persan The book begins with a Heritage Trail, designed to take the (the Christ/a or Logos) represented God in creation as the Plan of reader on a tour of the Chapel and its environment, to give God for Creation or the Potentiality God had invested in Creation; some physical sense of its presence on Chapel Hill, Dukinfield; the Third Person (the Holy Spirit) represented the working out of some tangible, visible and tactile reality to our story. It this Potentiality, the creative power flowing into us from our continues with an account of the origins of the Unitarian Church own depths. Jesus was thought of as one who had realised this in Britain and Europe and discusses the impact and implications Potentiality in himself and thus become the Christ. The of the Civil War of the seventeenth century on religion in Second Person became identified with Jesus. general in the United Kingdom and in Dukinfield in particular. Century by century we follow the vicissitudes of Unitarian folk in Out of all the controversy about the Trinity emerged, by Europe, Britain and North America and describe that history majority vote at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, a version by with continuous reference to the history also both of Old Chapel Bishop Athanasius - known now as The Athanasian Creed. It and of Dukinfield, so that local history and the religious history became the official doctrine and anyone who held to other of the English speaking nations of the Northern hemisphere (as versions (known from now on as Anti-Trinitarians) would suffer that history colours the development of Unitarian thinking and persecution and probably either be killed or exiled. One of the experien,ce) intertwine as part of an organic whole. alternatives to the Athanasian version of the Trinity was presented by another Bishop, Arius, whose followers, called A detailed discussion of the origin of Unitarian emphases Arians, eventually became the ancestors of the Unitarians. amongst the early Christians called Gnostics and of the Arius believed that Jesus was very special, even that he development and variety of Trinitarian theologies will be found enjoyed pre-existence and worked miracles, but did not believe in Apendices A and B, for those wishing to explore more deeply he was equal in substance with God. the emergence and significance of Unitarian theology. Theologians sometimes say the victory of Athanasius saved The Glossary in Appendix E may help people unfamiliar with Jesus from becoming a god like the Greek and Roman gods, our religious history to find their way more easily as they work neither Man nor God; but the historical truth of the matter is their way through the text of this book. that Arianism has consistently given place to a Unitarian position, where the humanity of Jesus is emphasised, his After the death of Jesus the early church struggled to outstanding greatness as a religious poet and teacher recognised, understand the implications of his life and teaching. Was he and his incarnation (that is the indwelling of God - the Logos or man or god? Was he Very God of Very God? Did he exist the Christ) related not exclusively to him, but universally to all before creation? Was he equal to or subservient to God? Did he human beings in all times and places. have a real body? Was his will independent of the will of God or the same as the will of God? Was he another prophet, like the A form of Arianism, known as Socinianism (after two sixteenth century theologians - Laelius and Faustus Socinus), emerged in Eastern Europe and had a powerful influence on the development of Anti-Trinitarian (i.e. Anti-Athanasian) thought on the rest of the continent. We begin our story in the second CHAPTER ' ONE' chapter with an account of John Biddle, often described as the Father of English Unitarianism, and of the impact of the AN OLD CHAPEL HERITAGE TRAIL Socinians on the religious life of Britain. Begin our Old Chapel Heritage Trail by standing outside the front I would like to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Dawn and Roy gate of the Chapel. Look across the road at the lonely soldier on Buckle, Eleanor Priest, Harry Schofield, John Holland and Bill the Chapel Street war memorial and beyond him to the long Pugh, who helped me in the preparation of this manuscript; industrial landscape that stretches all the way to the west coast. and to the Rev Dr. Leonard Smith, Principal of the Unitarian Let your eyes sweep northwards to the hills of Rivington on the College, Manchester, for his constructive criticisms of the text. edge of the Pennine Chain and imagine what the site would I also thank the Unitarian Information Department for their have been like in 1708, when we opened our first chapel readiness to allow the use of the Lindsey Press name and logo. building and how bold a landmark the chapel would have been for travellers many miles away. David Doe1 8 Old Road The Peak Forest Canal runs at the bottom of Chapel Hill, on the Dukinfield far side of Astley Street, where it meets the Huddersfield Canal Cheshire in the Dukinfield basin. A barge can find its way from SK 16 4 EN Dukinfield, across Manchester to the Manchester Ship Canal - an astonishing, imaginative feat of engineering that linked Manchester and Liverpool and brought the sea to Manchester. It was the dream child of Daniel Adamson, the engineer whose company provided employment in Dukinfield for many years and whose name is perpetuated in the famous Adamson's Military Band. Turn round and regard the Chapel's magnificent doors and the Celtic crosses on the pinnacles of the building, symbols older than Christianity - the cross (square) and the circle representing the unity of life, the amazing amalgam of matter and spirit, flesh and mind. The metal archway over the gates, bearing a lamp to light our feet in winter, was given to the Chapel about 1950 by Harry Schofield to replace the damaged lanterns that lodged there for many years. Walking over the old flat graves to the left of the Chapel we pass an iron grate yielding access to the crypt. In the crypt is a bottomless well of fresh water that has travelled underground from the peaks you can see beyond the graveyard to the East from the Pennines in the North. Perhaps Old Chapel is built on a dolmenic mound, one of the great spiritual lay lines of the past! Over the vestry door is a block of stone from the original building with the date '1707' carved into it and the names of two benefactors of the chapel, Elizabeth and James Heywood. Below their names is inscribed a reminder of the date of the beyond the rai1in.g~. Search as you may, you will not find one. present building - AD 1839. The first building was badly Old Chapel, we are pleased to record, is on the side of the damaged in a storm on 7th January, 1839, and the corner stone angels! of the new Chapel was laid on 26th June, 1839. Rev. William Gaskell, Unitarian minister at Cross Street, Manchester (spouse As you walk back along the East path of the Chapel Yard and to the famous Mrs. Gaskell, author of Cranford), was present turn West again along the South path notice the many well- and had written a hymn specially for the occasion. known Old Chapel family names on the graves you pass - Leach, Sampson, Barber, Gaskell, Potter (relatives of Beatrix Potter), Harris, Bown and so on. On your left as you approach A large memorial to Francis Dukinfield Astley, a devout man of the new School is the Garden of Remembrance, where we have artistic temperament, who died on 23rd July, 1825, is built scattered the ashes of so many of our loved ones and behind it behind the vestry.