Three-hundred and fifty years ago parliament placed on the Statue Book a series of Acts of Parliament which led to nearly two-thousand ministers to be ejected from their livings.
The ejection resulted from the Act of Uniformity, one of a series of Acts, to reinforce the place of the Church of England in the country. The Act built on that of Elizabeth I. It laid down the use of common prayer, divine service and the administration of sacraments. The new Act imposed upon the clergy the Prayer Book of Queen Elizabeth, with some exclusions and additions. The Prayer Book Act left nothing to chance or taking a personal view. Its draughtsmanship was a model of uncompromising recognition of an established Church. The Book’s content left no room for dissenters to remain within the Anglican Communion.
Two of the most harmful, insidious, pernicious, some would even suggest spiteful, Acts in the set were the Conventical Act and the Five Mile Act. The first disallowed an ejected minister from preaching to audiences of their own; and the Five Mile Act ‘forbade them to go within five miles of any City or Town Corporate, or Borough or any parish or place where they had preached or held a living. It is not too difficult to appreciate ejected clergy where thrown into deep, deep poverty: no house, no income, no real opportunity to replace either.
The Church of England and the United Reformed Church have jointly organised an historic service on February 7th. It will be held in Westminster Abbey. The service has arisen out of a joint report, Healing of Memories and Mutual Commitment. There will be testimonies about martyrs of the past and stories of shared work in the present, leading to an act of commitment for the future.
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A NOTE ON THE FIVE MILE ACT: If you were to draw a five mile circle round each Anglican parish church of 350 years ago the circles overlap at least once, if not more than once, with another. Therefore, a minister could not ‘hop’ across to the next parish. In fact to avoid the overlaps a minister would have to remove an awful long way.
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And here’s another interesting point about these five mile circles with a today application in our denomination: Draw five miles circles round our United Reformed Church churches. The overlapping of one circle on another, or more than one, does suggest the sensible arrangement of joint pastorates.