At 6.15pm on Tuesday, February 7th the United Reformed Church and the Church of England will both participate in a Service of Reconciliation, Healing of Memories and Mutual Commitment at Westminster Abbey. The service marks the 350th anniversary of the Great Ejectment of 2,000 nonconforming ministers following the 1662 Act of Uniformity [1].

The historic service marks a significant step forward in the development of a closer working relationship between the two Churches. At the service, the Archbishop of Canterbury will preach and the Archbishop of York, together with Mrs Val Morrison and the Revd Dr Kirsty Thorpe, moderators of the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church, will lead a litany of penitence and act of commitment.

Events such as the execution of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and of King Charles I, whom the Church of England honours as a martyr, and the sufferings both of Anglican clergy during the Interregnum and of nonconforming ministers after 1662, will be acknowledged with sadness.

The service arises from a joint report - Healing the Past, Building the Future [2] - which was agreed by the General Synod and the URC's Mission Council in 2011; and the timing of that report and this resultant service are significant: 2012 is the 40th anniversary of the founding of the URC as well as the 350th anniversary of the Great Ejectment.

The Revd Elizabeth Welch, the URC co-convener of the group that wrote the Healing the Past, Building the Future report, said: "I'm delighted that, in this significant anniversary year, when we remember both the separation of churches and the coming back together of some, through the founding of the URC, we can meet for such a historic service. I hope this is the beginning of a closer drawing together, as we commit ourselves to further shared work."

The Rt Revd Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford and chair of the Council for Christian Unity, said: "Churches of all denominations contribute greatly to the life of communities in which they are located, and this strengthening of the relationship between the URC and the Church of England will improve that local level work."

Some 1,300 tickets have been allocated for the service, with roughly equally numbers of applications from both Churches.

Notes

The Great Ejection followed the Act of Uniformity 1662 in England. Approximately 2,000 ordained men left their positions as Church of England clergy, following the changes after the restoration to power of Charles II. The Act of Uniformity prescribed that any minister who refused to give their "unfeigned assent and consent" to the Book of Common Prayer by St Bartholomew's Day, 24 August, 1662 should be ejected from the Church of England. Almost 2,000 left their livings and joined those Congregationalists and Baptists already serving outside the Established Church. This significantly increased the ministerial strength of Dissent in England.

2. The full report Healing the Past, Building the Future can be found here.

3. The United Reformed Church results from a union of the Presbyterian Church of England and the Congregational Church in England and Wales in 1972. In introducing the United Reformed Church Bill in the House of Commons on 21 June 1972, Alexander Lyon called it "one of the most historic measures in the history of the Christian churches in this country". The URC subsequently united with the Reformed Association of Churches of Christ in 1981 and the Congregational Union of Scotland in 2000. Worldwide, more than 80 million Christians are members of the Reformed family of Churches, making it the largest Protestant tradition. The URC and the Church of England currently share 200 buildings, and there are approximately 25 local ecumenical partnerships involving the URC and the Church of England.