The most famous member of its congregation was Mary Wollstonecraft, who drew inspiration from Price's sermons in her work, both in arguing for the new French republic and in raising the issue of the rights of women.

Unitarianism or Rational Dissent—"that intellectual aristocracy in the ranks of Dissent, as historians often characterise it"—had an obvious affinity with education, critical enquiry, and challenges to the status quo, and is "one of the roots of modern English Culture".

[4] A critical mass of such people, including "dissident intellectuals, pedagogues with reforming ideas and Dissenters"[5][6] and "the well-to-do edge of radical Protestantism"[7] clustered around Newington Green.

Not all of these free-thinkers were Unitarians, such as Quaker John Coakley Lettsome (physician, philanthropist, and abolitionist) or the Anglicans Vicesimus Knox (pacifist and writer) and George Gaskin (minister and long-time secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge), but most had some connections to the chapel on the green.

[18] Fronting onto the green itself was the China Inland Mission headquarters (circa 1895), an organisation responsible for 18,000 converts to Christianity that had been founded by James Hudson Taylor at the height of the Victorian era.

From the mid-1640s to the mid-1650s, Stoke Newington's parish church was led by Thomas Manton, "a principal person among the non-conformist ministers",;[20] a staunch and popular defender of Reformed principles, he participated in the Westminster Assembly, acted as chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and preached before Parliament on several occasions.

Charles Morton (1626–1698), the great educator who ended his career as vice-president of Harvard University, ran an influential Dissenting Academy, "probably on the site of the current Unitarian church".

[27] Isaac Watts, the "Father of English Hymnody", theologian, logician, and educator, was brought up as a non-Conformist, lived from 1736 to 1748 at Abney Park nearby, and during that period "was known to have adopted decidedly Unitarian opinions", so he too may have attended NGUC.

The minister whose name is still remembered centuries later is Dr Richard Price, a libertarian and republican who cemented the village's "reputation as a centre for radical thinkers and social reformers".

There were many at a distance who acknowledged their debt to Price, such as the Unitarian theologians William Ellery Channing and Theophilus Lindsey, and the formidable polymath and Dissenting clergyman, Joseph Priestley, discoverer of oxygen.

The support Price gave to the revolt of the colonies of British North America, arguing that the American Revolution was justified, made his name as a famous or notorious preacher.

However, his interests were wide-ranging, and during the decades Price spent as minister of NGUC, he also wrote on finance, economics, probability, and life insurance, being inducted into the Royal Society in recognition of his work.

The reputation of Price for speaking without fear of the government on these political and philosophical matters drew huge crowds to the church, and were published and sold as pamphlets (i.e. publications easily printed and circulated).

One of the congregants Price most influenced was the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who moved her fledgling school for girls from Islington to the Green in 1784, with the help of a "fairy godmother"[35] whose good auspices found her a house to rent and 20 students to fill it.

[37] The new arrival attended services at NGUC: she was a lifelong Anglican, but, in keeping with the church's and Price's ethos of logical enquiry and individual conscience, believers of all kinds were welcomed without any expectation of conversion.

[43] A couple of years after she had had to leave Newington Green, these seeds germinated into A Vindication of the Rights of Men, a response to Burke's denunciation of the French Revolution and attack on Price.

He was secretary of the highly respectable Society for Constitutional Information, which lobbied for political liberties, but it was suppressed by the authorities, who lived in fear of the Reign of Terror crossing the Channel.

In 1813 two things occurred, key to the understanding of the development of the church: Parliament passed the Doctrine of the Trinity Act, and Rees was succeeded by James Gilchrist, who remained for 15 years.

A hundred years before, the ethos had been one of almost Puritan self-reliance, but now the Dickensian poverty, evident in cholera epidemics and rampant malnutrition, made social responsibility an urgent necessity.

The London Sunday School Society recognised the one at NGUC as the best in its class, educating up to 200 children and necessitating the construction in 1887 of the schoolhouse immediately behind the main church building.

Immediately after this, NGUC suffered a religious schism in miniature, when the incoming minister, Dr F. W. G. Foat, backed the New Theology of Reginald John Campbell and the League of Progressive Thought and Service.

A small congregation of half a dozen elderly women persisted,[62] and a new burst of energy arrived with the appointment of Cathal (Cal) Courtney, first as student pastor in 2002 and then as minister in July 2004.

[65] In the tradition of Unitarian social action, he led a silent vigil through the night before the huge march against the Iraq War, "protesting against the US-led incursion with, among others, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Jews present"[65] Later made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, during his time at NGUC he wrote Towards Beloved Community and was written about as the Right-On Reverend in The Oldie's monthly "East of Islington" column.

[74] In September 2003 the first of the new series took place under the auspices of the Stoke Newington Unitarian Conference, where Barbara Taylor, author of Mary Wollstonecraft and the Feminist Imagination, spoke on "Radical Dissent and Women's Rights in Eighteenth-Century Britain".

The November 2008 lecture took the theme of "Dishonesty": Evan Davis, the economist and BBC presenter, used the platform to argue that "the media industry has a 'misleading ethical code' and tendency to be dishonest".

The church's decision was in response to the case brought by the Christian Institute, backing the claim of Lillian Ladele, a registrar employed by Islington London Borough Council who wished to be exempted from having to perform civil partnership ceremonies on the grounds of her religion.

"[82] Following in the steps of his immediate predecessor, who used his inaugural column in the N16 magazine to address the international furore around Gene Robinson's election as bishop,[85] Pakula sees homophobia as the real problem, and his congregation did consider challenging the law under the European Convention on Human Rights.

[62] NGUC celebrated its tercentenary in 2008 under the slogan "300 years of dissent", marking this with events such as planting a crab apple tree,[86] organising a picnic in conjunction with the Newington Green Action Group, and hosting a concert of Ottoman classical music.

[84] NGUC sponsored a series of events,[89] including a return visit and lecture by biographer Barbara Taylor; a panel discussion about women and power, between female politicians Diane Abbott MP, Jean Lambert MEP, and Emily Thornberry MP;[90] an art exhibition titled Mother of Feminism; a concert featuring Carol Grimes and Adey Grummet, to raise money for Stop the Traffik, an anti-trafficking charity; a tombstone tribute at St Pancras Old Church; a birthday cake baked by men; and other activities.

We honour her for her courage and for the gifts she has given to future generations of women and men.Services occur every Sunday at Newington Green Unitarian Church and include special events such as the yearly Flower Communion; twice-monthly poetry readings and weekly meditation sessions are also held at NGUC.