The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC) 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. Its headquarters building is Essex Hall in central London, on the site of the first avowedly Unitarian chapel in England, set up in 1774.
The GAUFCC brought together various strands and traditions besides Unitarianism. These included English Presbyterianism, General Baptist, Methodism, Christian Universalism, Religious Humanism and Unitarian Universalism. Unitarians are now an open faith community celebrating diverse beliefs. They differ from many other religions in that they believe in helping people find their own spiritual path rather than defining it for them.
Read more about General Assembly Of Unitarian And Free Christian Churches: Now, Member Churches, Affiliations, Officers, Notable British Unitarians
Famous quotes containing the words general, assembly, unitarian, free, christian and/or churches:
“To have in general but little feeling, seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“I am so much a Unitarian as this: that I believe the human mind can admit but one God, and that every effort to pay religious homage to more than one being goes to take away all right ideas.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Miracles are like jokes. They relieve our tension suddenly by setting us free from the chain of cause and effect.”
—Gerald Branan (1894–1987)
“I’ve almost gained my heav’nly home; My spirit loudly sings;
The holy ones behold they come, I hear the noise of wings.
O come, angel band, Come and around me stand.
O bear me away on your snowy wings, To my immortal home.”
—T. Haskell, minister and hymn-writer. Published in Christian Harmony. “Angel Band,” l. 5-8.
“Political organizations have slowly substituted themselves for the Churches as the places for believing practices.... Politics has once again become religious.”
—Michel de Certeau (1925–1986)