Biblical Unitarianism
Encyclopedia
Today, biblical Unitarianism (or "Biblical Unitarianism" or "biblical unitarianism") identifies the Christian belief that the Bible
teaches God is a singular person—the Father—and that Jesus
his son is a distinct being. A few denominations use this term to describe themselves, clarifying the distinction between them and those churches which, from the late 19th century, evolved into modern British Unitarianism
and, primarily in the United States, Unitarian Universalism
.
The history of Unitarianism
was as a "scripturally oriented movement" which denied the Trinity
and held various understandings of Jesus
. Over time, however -- specifically, in the mid-19th century -- Unitarianism
moved away from a belief in the necessity of the Bible as the source of religious truth.
The term "biblical Unitarianism" is connected first with Robert Spears
and Samuel Sharpe
of the Christian Life magazine in the 1880s. It is a neologism that gained increasing currency in non-Trinitarian literature during the 20th century as the mainstream Unitarian churches moved away from belief in the Bible and, in the United States, towards merger with Universalism
. It has been used since the late 19th century by conservative Christian Unitarians, and sometimes by historians, to refer to Scripture-fundamentalist Unitarians of the 16th-18th centuries. Its use is problematic in that Unitarians from the 17th century until the 20th century all had attachment to the Bible, but in differing ways.
(1914-2000) rarely employ the term "Biblical Unitarian", as it would be anachronistic. Those individuals and congregations that we may now think of as Unitarians went through a range of beliefs about Jesus: that he was either pre-existent
but created Son of God, not God the Son
(Arianism
); or that he originated at the virgin birth (Socinianism
); or that he was simply a godly man (Adoptionism
or Psilanthropism
).
For early unitarians such as Henry Hedworth
, who introduced the term "Unitarian" from Holland into England in 1673, the idea that Unitarianism was "Biblical" was axiomatic, since the whole thrust of the 16th and 17th century Unitarian and Arian movements was based on sola scriptura
argumentation from Scripture, as in the case of the Arian Isaac Newton
.
established the first avowedly Unitarian church in England in 1774 at Essex Street Chapel
, although, Nontrinitarianism
was against the law until the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
; legal difficulties with the authorities were overcome with the help of barrister John Lee
, who later became Attorney-General. Unitarians of this time continued to consider their teachings as "Biblical", though increasingly questioning the inspiration of the Bible
, and the accounts of the miraculous. Divergence in the Unitarian Church was increasingly evident after 1800 with the majority following the rationalist views of writers such as Thomas Belsham
(1806), Richard Wright
(1808) who wrote against the miraculous conception while a minority holding to the views of traditionalists such as who published against Belsham's view (1808).
The Unitarian Church of Transylvania
remained a conservative "Biblical" Unitarian movement largely isolated from developments in the west until the 1830s. The Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios
(1787) represents a conservative position which held into the late 19th Century.
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica
notes that the Transcendentalist movement of Ralph Waldo Emerson
"shattered rationalist, biblical Unitarianism — now grown conservative — and replaced it with intuitional religion and social idealism. When Unitarianism spread to the newly opened Middle West, its religious fundamentals changed to human aspiration and scientific truth, rather than Christianity and the Bible."
(1883) describes him as a "Biblical Unitarian", adding, "His intensely practical mind, and his business training, joined with his great though rational reverence for the Bible, made him long for definite views expressed in scripture language."
The context of the term in the above examples relates to the tension from the 1830s onward between more traditional and relatively scripture-fundamentalist Unitarians and those advocating a freer approach such as transcendentalists Theodore Parker
and James Martineau
. This conflict came to a head in 1876 when Robert Spears
resigned from the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
and, with the support of Sharpe, a former president of the Association, began to publish a rival magazine. In this context, Sharpe is referred to again by John M. Robertson (1929) as a "Biblical Unitarian," and adds that Sharpes' magazine, The Christian Life, was largely aimed at combatting growing agnosticism
in Unitarian pulpits. However, though Sharpe may have used the term, and later been called, "Biblical Unitarian", he did not set up any lobby group of that name within Unitarianism.
The label of "Biblical Unitarianism" is also attributed to earlier generations than Sharpe by Henry Gow (1928), who even compares this with "Channing Unitarianism", a reference to the still relatively scripture-fundamentalist views of William Ellery Channing
.:"... and for a time, Unitarianism became the faith of many, if not most, of the leading citizens and thinkers of New England. As in England, it was a definitely Biblical Unitarianism."
Alexander Elliott Peaston (1940) pinpoints 1862 as the year of change from "Biblical Unitarianism" to newer models in England, where formerly belief in miracles and the resurrection were dominant. The entry of higher criticism into Unitarianism via Alexander Geddes
and others dealt a "blow at the biblical Unitarianism of Joseph Priestley". Walter H. Burgess (1943) adopts the same terminology -- "Biblical Unitarianism" vs. "the newer Unitarianism" -- to describe the tension in Wales in the 1870s between the deists David and Charles Lloyd vs. Gwilym Marles. A similar example occurs in quotation marks from historian Stange (1984)
Earl Morse Wilbur
, in his monumental A History of Unitarianism (1945), does not describe any group by the terminology "Biblical Unitarian", though the tension between the fundamentalist origins of Unitarianism and post-Christian direction of late 19th century Unitarianism does begin to appear in the later volumes.
was formed from the merger in 1961 of two historically Christian denominations, the Universalist Church of America
and the American Unitarian Association
. In some cases in the 1870s where the name "Unitarian" was still considered too associated with "the narrowly Biblical type of liberal theologian", other names, such as "Christian Free Church", were employed. Larsen (2011) applies Spears' "biblical Unitarian" to him in regard to his 1876 resignation.
The term "biblical Unitarian" only begins to reappear frequently in the 1990s in the writings of those associated with a revival of interest in early Unitarian figures such as Fausto Sozzini and John Biddle
("the Father of English Unitarianism"), as well as Arians like Isaac Newton
and William Whiston
. An example is the journal A Journal from the Radical Reformation, A Testimony to Biblical Unitarianism (1993–present).
Alongside this historical interest in the Radical Reformation
, during the 1990s the term "biblical unitarian" also begins to appear in Anti-Trinitarian publications without either 'b' or 'u' capitalized.
, with 60,000 members worldwide. Both of these groups share Non-Trinitarian, specifically Socinian, Christology
and both have historians who have acknowledged works such as the Racovian Catechism
and Biddle's Twofold Catechism as prefiguring and compatible with their beliefs. Christadelphians are perhaps more reserved than CoGGC in association with the name "Unitarian", given that the Unitarian Church still exists in Britain
, and many of its independent congregations are mostly post-Christian .
There is also a third, much smaller group, Christian Educational Services (CES), which separated from Victor Paul Wierwille
's The Way International
, and which has taken an interest in the works of biblical unitarians in New England in the 19th century.
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
teaches God is a singular person—the Father—and that Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
his son is a distinct being. A few denominations use this term to describe themselves, clarifying the distinction between them and those churches which, from the late 19th century, evolved into modern British Unitarianism
General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662...
and, primarily in the United States, Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...
.
The history of Unitarianism
History of Unitarianism
Unitarianism, both as a theology and as a denominational family of churches, was first defined and developed in England and America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although theological ancestors are to be found in the Protestant Reformation and even as far back as the early days of...
was as a "scripturally oriented movement" which denied the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
and held various understandings of Jesus
Christology
Christology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature...
. Over time, however -- specifically, in the mid-19th century -- Unitarianism
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
moved away from a belief in the necessity of the Bible as the source of religious truth.
The term "biblical Unitarianism" is connected first with Robert Spears
Robert Spears
Robert Spears was a British Unitarian minister who was editor of the confessedly "Biblical Unitarian" Christian Life weekly.-Life:...
and Samuel Sharpe
Samuel Sharpe (scholar)
Samuel Sharpe was an English Unitarian Egyptologist and translator of the Bible.-Life:He was the second son of Sutton Sharpe , brewer, by his second wife, Maria , and was born in King Street, Golden Square, London, on 8 March 1799, baptised at St. James's, Piccadilly...
of the Christian Life magazine in the 1880s. It is a neologism that gained increasing currency in non-Trinitarian literature during the 20th century as the mainstream Unitarian churches moved away from belief in the Bible and, in the United States, towards merger with Universalism
Universalism
Universalism in its primary meaning refers to religious, theological, and philosophical concepts with universal application or applicability...
. It has been used since the late 19th century by conservative Christian Unitarians, and sometimes by historians, to refer to Scripture-fundamentalist Unitarians of the 16th-18th centuries. Its use is problematic in that Unitarians from the 17th century until the 20th century all had attachment to the Bible, but in differing ways.
Early Unitarians and the Bible
Historians such as George Huntston WilliamsGeorge Huntston Williams
George Huntston Williams American professor of Unitarian theology and historian of the Socinian movement. He was among the original Editorial Advisors of the scholarly journal Dionysius.-Works:...
(1914-2000) rarely employ the term "Biblical Unitarian", as it would be anachronistic. Those individuals and congregations that we may now think of as Unitarians went through a range of beliefs about Jesus: that he was either pre-existent
Pre-existence of Christ
The pre-existence of Christ refers to the doctrine of the ontological or personal existence of Christ before his conception. One of the relevant Bible passages is where, in the Trinitarian view, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasis called the Logos or Word...
but created Son of God, not God the Son
God the Son
God the Son is the second person of the Trinity in Christian theology. The doctrine of the Trinity identifies Jesus of Nazareth as God the Son, united in essence but distinct in person with regard to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit...
(Arianism
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
); or that he originated at the virgin birth (Socinianism
Socinianism
Socinianism is a system of Christian doctrine named for Fausto Sozzini , which was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Minor Reformed Church of Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries and embraced also by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period...
); or that he was simply a godly man (Adoptionism
Adoptionism
Adoptionism, sometimes called dynamic monarchianism, is a minority Christian belief that Jesus was adopted as God's son at his baptism...
or Psilanthropism
Psilanthropism
Psilanthropism is an approach to Christology which understands Jesus to be a "mere human", and the literal son of human parents. The term derives from the combination of the Greek ψίλος , "plain," "mere" or "bare," and ἄνθρωπος "human." Psilanthropists generally deny both the virgin birth of...
).
For early unitarians such as Henry Hedworth
Henry Hedworth
Henry Hedworth of Huntingdon was a Unitarian writer.Henry Hedworth is chiefly notable for being the first person in the English language to introduce Latin term Unitarian into print in England 1673, fourteen years before Stephen Nye of Hertfordshire became the first to use the word on a title...
, who introduced the term "Unitarian" from Holland into England in 1673, the idea that Unitarianism was "Biblical" was axiomatic, since the whole thrust of the 16th and 17th century Unitarian and Arian movements was based on sola scriptura
Sola scriptura
Sola scriptura is the doctrine that the Bible contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness. Consequently, sola scriptura demands that only those doctrines are to be admitted or confessed that are found directly within or indirectly by using valid logical deduction or valid...
argumentation from Scripture, as in the case of the Arian Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
.
The Unitarian Churches (1774 onwards)
Theophilus LindseyTheophilus Lindsey
Theophilus Lindsey was an English theologian and clergyman who founded the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country, at Essex Street Chapel.-Life:...
established the first avowedly Unitarian church in England in 1774 at Essex Street Chapel
Essex Street Chapel
Essex Street Chapel, also known as Essex Church, is a Unitarian place of worship in London. It was the first church in England set up with this doctrine, and was established at a time when Dissenters still faced legal threat...
, although, Nontrinitarianism
Nontrinitarianism
Nontrinitarianism includes all Christian belief systems that disagree with the doctrine of the Trinity, namely, the teaching that God is three distinct hypostases and yet co-eternal, co-equal, and indivisibly united in one essence or ousia...
was against the law until the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813
The Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
; legal difficulties with the authorities were overcome with the help of barrister John Lee
John Lee (Attorney-General)
John Lee KC was an English lawyer, politician, and law officer of the Crown. He assisted in the early days of Unitarianism in England.-Life:...
, who later became Attorney-General. Unitarians of this time continued to consider their teachings as "Biblical", though increasingly questioning the inspiration of the Bible
Biblical inspiration
Biblical inspiration is the doctrine in Christian theology that the authors and editors of the Bible were led or influenced by God with the result that their writings many be designated in some sense the word of God.- Etymology :...
, and the accounts of the miraculous. Divergence in the Unitarian Church was increasingly evident after 1800 with the majority following the rationalist views of writers such as Thomas Belsham
Thomas Belsham
Thomas Belsham was an English Unitarian minister- Life :Belsham was born in Bedford, England, and was the elder brother of William Belsham, the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry, where for seven years he acted as assistant tutor...
(1806), Richard Wright
Richard Wright (Unitarian)
Richard Wright was a Unitarian minister, and the itinerant missionary of the Unitarian Fund, a missionary society established in 1806.-Life:...
(1808) who wrote against the miraculous conception while a minority holding to the views of traditionalists such as who published against Belsham's view (1808).
The Unitarian Church of Transylvania
Unitarian Church of Transylvania
The Unitarian Church of Transylvania is a church of the Unitarian denomination, based in the city of Cluj in the Principality of Transylvania, present day in Romania...
remained a conservative "Biblical" Unitarian movement largely isolated from developments in the west until the 1830s. The Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios
Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios
Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios is a statement of faith of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania officially recognised by Joseph II in 1782....
(1787) represents a conservative position which held into the late 19th Century.
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
notes that the Transcendentalist movement of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
"shattered rationalist, biblical Unitarianism — now grown conservative — and replaced it with intuitional religion and social idealism. When Unitarianism spread to the newly opened Middle West, its religious fundamentals changed to human aspiration and scientific truth, rather than Christianity and the Bible."
First uses of the term
An early example of the term "Biblical Unitarianism" occurs in the British & Foreign Evangelical Review (1882) in an article on the "Waning of Biblical Unitarianism". In the following year, Peter William Clayden's biography of Samuel SharpeSamuel Sharpe (scholar)
Samuel Sharpe was an English Unitarian Egyptologist and translator of the Bible.-Life:He was the second son of Sutton Sharpe , brewer, by his second wife, Maria , and was born in King Street, Golden Square, London, on 8 March 1799, baptised at St. James's, Piccadilly...
(1883) describes him as a "Biblical Unitarian", adding, "His intensely practical mind, and his business training, joined with his great though rational reverence for the Bible, made him long for definite views expressed in scripture language."
The context of the term in the above examples relates to the tension from the 1830s onward between more traditional and relatively scripture-fundamentalist Unitarians and those advocating a freer approach such as transcendentalists Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church...
and James Martineau
James Martineau
James Martineau was an English religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism. For 45 years he was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in Manchester New College, the principal training college for British Unitarianism.-Early life:He was born in Norwich,...
. This conflict came to a head in 1876 when Robert Spears
Robert Spears
Robert Spears was a British Unitarian minister who was editor of the confessedly "Biblical Unitarian" Christian Life weekly.-Life:...
resigned from the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
British and Foreign Unitarian Association
The British and Foreign Unitarian Association was the major Unitarian body in Britain from 1825. The BFUA was founded as an amalgamation of three older societies: the Unitarian Book Society for literature , The Unitarian Fund for mission work , and the Unitarian Association for civil rights...
and, with the support of Sharpe, a former president of the Association, began to publish a rival magazine. In this context, Sharpe is referred to again by John M. Robertson (1929) as a "Biblical Unitarian," and adds that Sharpes' magazine, The Christian Life, was largely aimed at combatting growing agnosticism
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
in Unitarian pulpits. However, though Sharpe may have used the term, and later been called, "Biblical Unitarian", he did not set up any lobby group of that name within Unitarianism.
The label of "Biblical Unitarianism" is also attributed to earlier generations than Sharpe by Henry Gow (1928), who even compares this with "Channing Unitarianism", a reference to the still relatively scripture-fundamentalist views of William Ellery Channing
William Ellery Channing
Dr. William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. He was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker...
.:"... and for a time, Unitarianism became the faith of many, if not most, of the leading citizens and thinkers of New England. As in England, it was a definitely Biblical Unitarianism."
Alexander Elliott Peaston (1940) pinpoints 1862 as the year of change from "Biblical Unitarianism" to newer models in England, where formerly belief in miracles and the resurrection were dominant. The entry of higher criticism into Unitarianism via Alexander Geddes
Alexander Geddes
Alexander Geddes was a Scottish theologian and scholar.He was born at Ruthven, Banffshire, of Roman Catholic parentage, and educated for the priesthood at the local seminary of Scalan, and at Paris; he became a priest in his native county.His translation of the Satires of Horace made him known as...
and others dealt a "blow at the biblical Unitarianism of Joseph Priestley". Walter H. Burgess (1943) adopts the same terminology -- "Biblical Unitarianism" vs. "the newer Unitarianism" -- to describe the tension in Wales in the 1870s between the deists David and Charles Lloyd vs. Gwilym Marles. A similar example occurs in quotation marks from historian Stange (1984)
Earl Morse Wilbur
Earl Morse Wilbur
Earl Morse Wilbur was an American Unitarian historian.Wilbur was the first dean 1904-1910; then president 1911-1931; and until 1934, professor of homiletics and practical theology at the Pacific Unitarian School for Ministry, Berkeley, California of the American Unitarian Association .-Works:* * *...
, in his monumental A History of Unitarianism (1945), does not describe any group by the terminology "Biblical Unitarian", though the tension between the fundamentalist origins of Unitarianism and post-Christian direction of late 19th century Unitarianism does begin to appear in the later volumes.
Modern use of the term
Although Spears and Sharpe made appeal to the term "Biblical Unitarianism" in The Christian life (e.g. Volume 5, 1880), an appeal to the concept of "Biblical Unitarianism" by individuals and churches is rare until after Unitarian UniversalismUnitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...
was formed from the merger in 1961 of two historically Christian denominations, the Universalist Church of America
Universalist Church of America
The Universalist Church of America was a Christian Universalist religious denomination in the United States . Known from 1866 as the Universalist General Convention, the name was changed to the Universalist Church of America in 1942...
and the American Unitarian Association
American Unitarian Association
The American Unitarian Association was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.According to Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary...
. In some cases in the 1870s where the name "Unitarian" was still considered too associated with "the narrowly Biblical type of liberal theologian", other names, such as "Christian Free Church", were employed. Larsen (2011) applies Spears' "biblical Unitarian" to him in regard to his 1876 resignation.
The term "biblical Unitarian" only begins to reappear frequently in the 1990s in the writings of those associated with a revival of interest in early Unitarian figures such as Fausto Sozzini and John Biddle
John Biddle (Unitarian)
John Biddle or Bidle was an influential English nontrinitarian, and Unitarian. He is often called "the Father of English Unitarianism".- Life :...
("the Father of English Unitarianism"), as well as Arians like Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
and William Whiston
William Whiston
William Whiston was an English theologian, historian, and mathematician. He is probably best known for his translation of the Antiquities of the Jews and other works by Josephus, his A New Theory of the Earth, and his Arianism...
. An example is the journal A Journal from the Radical Reformation, A Testimony to Biblical Unitarianism (1993–present).
Alongside this historical interest in the Radical Reformation
Radical Reformation
The Radical Reformation was a 16th century response to what was believed to be both the corruption in the Roman Catholic Church and the expanding Magisterial Protestant movement led by Martin Luther and many others. Beginning in Germany and Switzerland, the Radical Reformation birthed many radical...
, during the 1990s the term "biblical unitarian" also begins to appear in Anti-Trinitarian publications without either 'b' or 'u' capitalized.
Denominations
There may be small continuing groups of Christian Unitarians who look to the works of Spears, Sharpe and earlier. However, in terms of denominations today which could be identified as "biblical unitarian", the two most visible names are the Church of God General Conference (CoGGC), with 5,000 members in the USA, and ChristadelphiansChristadelphians
Christadelphians is a Christian group that developed in the United Kingdom and North America in the 19th century...
, with 60,000 members worldwide. Both of these groups share Non-Trinitarian, specifically Socinian, Christology
Christology
Christology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature...
and both have historians who have acknowledged works such as the Racovian Catechism
Racovian Catechism
The Racovian Catechism is a nontrinitarian statement of faith from the 16th century. The title Racovian comes from the publishers, the Polish Brethren, who had founded a sizeable town in Raków, Kielce County, where the Racovian Academy and printing press was founded by Jakub Sienieński in...
and Biddle's Twofold Catechism as prefiguring and compatible with their beliefs. Christadelphians are perhaps more reserved than CoGGC in association with the name "Unitarian", given that the Unitarian Church still exists in Britain
General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662...
, and many of its independent congregations are mostly post-Christian .
There is also a third, much smaller group, Christian Educational Services (CES), which separated from Victor Paul Wierwille
Victor Paul Wierwille
Victor Paul Wierwille was the founder of The Way International .-Biography:He was raised in and later ordained by the Evangelical and Reformed Church in 1941, and he officially left that church in 1957...
's The Way International
The Way International
The Way International is a non denominational Christian ministry based in New Knoxville, Ohio, with home fellowships located in the United States and in over 30 other countries. It was founded by Victor Paul Wierwille in 1942 as a radio program, and became The Chimes Hour Youth Caravan in 1947, and...
, and which has taken an interest in the works of biblical unitarians in New England in the 19th century.