BRISTOL GROUP OF UNITARIAN
CHURCHES
UNITARIANS WELCOME YOU
'Unitarians seek to understand themselves and the
world in which we all live, in an enriching fellowship without fixed corporate
doctrines and freedom from the restrictions of creed, dogma or assumed truths.
Our meetings are celebrations of the richness of human thought and of the world
we share. Here your chosen way of life is respected in tolerance and freedom and
you are encouraged to seek your own reasoned truths and beliefs in a mutually
supporting and caring community'.
There are two Unitarian churches in Bristol, sharing ministry.
The Frenchay
Chapel and the Unitarian Meeting in
central Bristol.
NEWS! NEWS!
NEWS! NEWS!
NEW MINISTER FOR BRISTOL UNITARIANS
The Reverend Gerald Whitaker has been appointed as minister to
the Bristol Group of Unitarian Churches. Mr Whitaker has been Minister of the
Nottingham and Derby congregations since 1986 and before that was at Taunton and
Stockton on Tees. He will be taking up his post early in the New
Year, serving Unitarian Meeting and the Frenchay Chapel.
The Frenchay Chapel,
Beckspool Rd, Frenchay Common, Bristol
Although
it proudly posseses a Trust Deed dated 10th March 1691 and the roof timbers have
been carbon-dated to the late 1600s also, there is no exact record of the
building of the Chapel. It is clear that it was completed (the tower being the
last part of the main structure to be erected and the galley being a later
addition) by 1720. There is a Memorial Book on permanent display containing the
names of all ministers who have served the congregation - originally Independent
but affiliated to the Unitarian movement in the late 1700s - from the 1690s to
the present day. In the mid 1960s the Chapel fell into disuse but was re-opened,
after much voluntary labour, in 1980 and has ever since continued to offer a
growing and effective Free Religious witness in its beautiful setting beside the
Frenchay Common.
The secretary of Frenchay Chapel is Mary Gingell.
- Meeting for worship on Sundays 10.30am
The Unitarian Meeting
Bristol, Surrey Lodge, Brunswick Square, Bristol
Entering the Unitarian Meeting from Brunswick Square in central Bristol
presents the visitor with a small Regency Lodge (originally the gatehouse to the
Brunswick Square Burial Ground owned by the Lewin's Mead (Unitarian) Meeting)
with new glass doors on which is inscribed a Circle of Welcoming Hands - the
work of Bristol artist Richard Long in memory of his father. Beyond this
entrance one comes into the spacious modern Meeting House itself, opened
officially in January 1992 and built on what was originally the Gatehouse's
garden area.
The congregation was formed in the late 1980s from the
coming-together of the aforementioned Lewin's Mead Meeting and that of Oakfield
Road Liberal and Free Christian Church, both buildings having been sold when
congregational numbers became too small to support their upkeep. The
congregation of the Lewin's Mead Meeting was founded in 1694, their last meeting
house dating from 1791. Oakfield Road Church, Clifton, was built in 1864.
The secretary of Unitarian Meeting Bristol is Sally Pugh
- Meeting for worship on Sundays 6pm (March - November) or
3.30pm (December - February). Family Service 3.30 pm (3rd Sunday)
throughout the year. Tel: (0117) 923 2552.
Last updated 5 November 2001. T.E.Powell@bath.ac.uk