We are a long-established congregation of, at present, thirty to forty individuals who share an enquiring outlook into non-dogmatic liberal religion.
The Chapel was erected in 1708 as a “Meeting House of Protestant Dissenters” (read more) where with freedom from dogma we seek to affirm an open-ended faith in life, in humanity and in God.
(Click photo right to enlarge)
Arthur Stewart was educated at St David’s College, Lampeter, where he completed his Ph.D. He trained for the ministry at Manchester College, Oxford, and has served congregations in Sheffield and the Cotswold Group before coming to Leicester in 1989.
Arthur was a tutor to the Ministry Students at Harris Manchester College, Oxford until 2018.
On Thursday May 9th the Knighton Community Choir delighted us in the Chapel with a selection of songs from popular artists such as Adele, Fleetwood Mac and Bobby Darrin, as well as some more traditional offerings.
The choir, who are very well rehearsed, will return in December for a Christmas Concert. Much thanks to them for a lovely evening.
The talk with music on the topic of ‘Finding Leicester’s Mrs Austin’ organised by Rotary and presented by Professor Patrick Boylan attracted a large audience and raised over £1000 for Charity Link. Nicky Bingham, accompanied by John Dilleigh, sang a selection of songs from the Austin repertoire and Professor Boylan told us the fascinating, scandalous and previously unknown tale of how this international
prima donna reinvented herself to return to England incognito from the USA to take up her place in high society with a change of name. It was incredible to think that we were sitting in the same chapel where the famous Mrs Austin had first learnt to sing, under the tutelage of William Gardiner.
A selection of photographs showing Leicester Unitarians Chapel and garden areas. Click any photo to enlarge.
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Website updated Wednesday August 14 2019
SERVICES
Services
Our weekly Sunday services are at 11.00 am. Visitors are always welcome to our services and to join us afterwards for tea or coffee in our Garden Room.
Services consist of hymns from one of our three Unitarian hymn books with accompaniment from our magnificent and recently restored 1862 organ; prayers; readings (which might be from religious or secular sources) and an address from the Minister, on a wide-ranging and challenging series of topics, often relevant to the time of year, to a festival or to a day of commemoration or remembrance. Some services are accompanied by a musical offering, either on the piano or from our singing group.
First time at a Unitarian Service? Click to read our helpful leaflet
| Sunday 2 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 9 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 16 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 23 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 30 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 7 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 14 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 21 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 28 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 4 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 11 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 18 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 25 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 1 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 8 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 15 11.00am | The Minister |
| Sunday 22 11.00am | The Minister (Followed by AGM) |
| Sunday 29 11.00am | The Minister (Harvest Service) |
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Newsletters
In addition to being the newsletter editor, Nicky Drucquer has the role of coordinator with our web designer.
All members of GM are also cordially invited to contribute ideas or items for the newsletter. Plus, if you have any digital images of Great Meeting people, places or events since 2011 please forward them to Nicky for inclusion in the photo gallery section of the site. Please contact Nicky at nickydrucquer@gmail.com for more details. In future there will be three newsletters, for Spring, Summer/Autumn and Winter. Please send items to include in the next newsletter before September 15.
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ABOUT US
About us…
Our People
Our Beliefs
Our History
Our Music
Our people
We are a congregation of free-thinkers. We reject the imposition of a particular religious view on any individuals or groups and encourage freedom of thought and tolerance of other peoples’ ideas. We welcome everyone, irrespective of religion, to join with us.
Click any photo in the gallery right to enlarge…
As we all remember, Great Meeting has long been affectionately known as the “Mayors’ Nest”, having historically spawned many of the city’s previous mayors. We are immensely proud that Sir Peter Soulsby became the first elected Mayor of the City of Leicester.
Peter is pictured here, during Great Meeting’s tercentenary celebration in 2008, with our member Manjula Sood MBE. Manjula was awarded an M.B.E. for ‘Services to the community in Leicester’ in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and also became the UK’s first Asian Lady Mayor.
David Wykes with a colleague, Isabel Rivers, has edited a volume of nine essays, Dissenting praise: Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales.
Elizabeth Wykes under (under her professional name Elizabeth Clapp) also has a book coming out, Women, Dissent and Anti-slavery in Britain and America, 1790 – 1865, which she has edited with a colleague, Julie Roy Jeffrey.
Warmest congratulations to Dr Anthony Fletcher on the book launch of ‘The Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland’ which he jointly edited.
The launch took place on the 12th May at the Natural History Museum in London.
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Our Beliefs
- In Leicester we continue the long-standing liberal tradition of Unitarian values and practices – and seek to share them with others in this diverse and successfully multicultural city.
- We are a congregation of free-thinkers – unimpeded by creed or dogma. We reject the imposition of a particular religious view on any individuals or groups and encourage freedom of thought and tolerance of other peoples’ ideas. This refreshing approach means that our services are often attended by those who might identify primarily with a different faith or indeed with agnosticism or atheism.
- Unitarians respect genuine advances in scientific knowledge and appreciate that science can and should challenge belief.
- Drawing particularly on Judaeo-Christian and humanist traditions, we respect other faiths and beliefs and the wisdom that can be found in them.
- Through our services of worship every Sunday and good social fellowship we meet to encourage one another along the way.
- The term ‘Unitarian’ derives from our longstanding and previously heretical non-acceptance of the Trinity (Father-God, Son-Jesus and the Holy Spirit). Instead, we honour Jesus as a great human being and inspirational teacher but do not worship him as a god.
We warmly welcome visitors and friends to join with us. We are an inclusive congregation and set no boundaries according to race, religion, gender or sexuality
To learn more about Unitarianism please click on these leaflets
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Our history
Leicester’s Unitarian Chapel, known historically as ‘The Great Meeting’ – was built in 1708. It is the oldest complete brick building in Leicester and one of the most important historic buildings to survive in the city.
Significant contribution to the life of the town
The congregation was the most important and influential in Leicester during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and members made a significant contribution to the political, economic, and cultural life of the town out of all proportion to their size or numbers.
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries its members played a leading part in the development of the Leicester hosiery trade. As the economy grew they made a similar contribution to the establishment of mechanised worsted spinning and banking in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The Rev. Dr Joseph Priestley (1733-1804)
Unitarian minister, scientist and political radical.
19th century work
In the nineteenth century Chapel members helped found the Mechanics Institute; the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society and the Leicestershire Archaeological Society.
Major benefactorsIn the twentieth century Joseph Fielding Johnson, a member of the congregation, was a major benefactor of University College, now the University of Leicester, and the main administrative block (which had been the old ‘County Lunatic Asylum’!) is now named after him.
The Gimson Committee Room at the University recognises the gift of Gimson furniture to the University by Christopher Gimson, also associated with the congregation. Another member, Edwin Clephan, has a building at De Montfort University named after him.
Distinguished peopleMinisters to the congregation included a number of distinguished men. Revd. Charles Berry, together with the leading members of his congregation, played a major part in the movement for political reform in the town during the early nineteenth century.
The first seven mayors of the town following municipal reform in 1835 were members of the Chapel and as a result it became known locally as ‘The Mayor’s Nest’.
Active in today’s worldToday a number of members of the congregation are very active in public and political life.
Gravestone EpitaphsThe graveyard was restored and converted to a garden in the late 20th century. If you wish to read about the fascinating and heartfelt gravestone epitaphs CLICK HERE.
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HIRE ROOMS
Hire Rooms
Garden Room
The light and very attractive Garden Room is perfect for receptions and informal meetings. It can easily accommodate seating for 40 or more.
Christopher Wykes Room
Downstairs, the Christopher Wykes Room, comfortably seating more than 50, is suitable for more formal presentations and meetings
The Chapel itself is available for concerts; organ recitals and meetings. It has a seating capacity considerably in excess of 200
Facilities
Equipped kitchen
The small well equipped kitchen is capable of being used for light refreshments or as a base for caterers providing food prepared off site.
Audio Visual
Audio Visual equipment can be provided by arrangement.
Access
Both the Chapel and the Garden Room have good level access and disabled toilet facilities but, although access to the Chistopher Wykes Room is by broad and easy stairs, it does not yet have full disabled access.
Baby-changing facilities
Baby-changing facilities are installed.
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Car Parking and easy access
The Chapel and rooms have their own car-parking facilities – up to 18 cars – at weekends and in the evenings. During the working day public parking is available nearby on-street and in secure car-parks.
Trains and Coaches
Leicester Station is less than 20 minutes walk and St Margaret’s Bus and Coach station is less than 5 minutes away.
Full details of the facilities and rates can be obtained by email to;
The Secretary
Tel: 01509 812236 Mob: 07802 713215
lettings@LeicesterUnitarians.co.uk
Photographs below show the Garden Room and garden. In fine weather tables and chairs can be arranged outside to enjoy the garden. (click photos to enlarge)
The Christopher Wykes Room
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WEDDINGS
Whether you are single or divorced, of mixed faiths or no particular faith, gay or straight, you can be married or celebrate your civil partnership at our historic Unitarian chapel in the heart of Leicester with the service of your choice.
For many people a civil ceremony is too brief and impersonal, yet they are not at home with the traditional church wedding service. They may not be churchgoers, or even religious in the conventional sense, but they nevertheless feel a reverence for the vows they make at marriage and wish to express their faith in life, in one another and in their future together.
So how do you go about arranging a marriage at Great Meeting?Firstly contact our Minister, Dr Arthur Stewart, for a preliminary discussion. He will want to clarify the formal details of the intended marriage and will instruct you regarding the necessary notifications to the Register Office.
Then you can move onto the ceremony itself such as order of service, the wording of the declaration and promises, the music (with or without organ), and witnesses.
Please contact the Minister for more information on 01509 812236
Same sex blessings and weddingsWe are pleased to conduct blessings for couples of the same sex, either as a complement to a legal civil union or simply as a way to celebrate a relationship. We are also able to offer same sex couples a marriage ceremony at our chapel. For further details please contact the Minister.
Simon Hall and David KentSaturday 26th May 2018 some 180 guests, including many members of the congregation, gathered at chapel to celebrate the wedding of Simon Hall and David Kent.
Chapel was decorated with lovely floral arrangements, and the car park was transformed by a huge marquee in which the after-service speeches and celebrations took place. There was (to use the expression) “a lot of love in the room”.
Photographs courtesy of Tony Fletcher
Click any photo for enlargement
Wedding of Simon Hall and David Kent
We have excellent facilities
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- Seating in the chapel for more than 200 (+ 100 more on the balcony)
- Our own parking for over 18 cars with lots of public parking nearby
- A beautiful organ; an excellent piano; a modern speaker system or space for your own musicians
- A wonderful garden for photos and for guests to meet
- Light and spacious rooms which have been used for the reception (although the kitchen is quite small)
- Accessible on foot from the Holiday Inn (about 10 minutes) the
- Travelodge (less than 5 minutes) the Marriott (about 15 minutes)
- Easy access on foot or by car to other City Centre venues for receptions (click here to see how to find us)
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Schedule of fees
Hire of Chapel and Garden Room for the ceremony | £350 |
Minister’s fee | £150 |
Authorised person | £50 |
Organist Schedule of fees | Price on application |
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NAMINGS
Namings and Blessing Ceremonies
Celebrating new lifeYour child needs a name thoughtfully given – a welcome from the family and the blessing of your community. Your child needs the open expression of your love and your commitment to its future.
When a new life is celebrated in a Unitarian chapel, we affirm the inherent worth of that person and his or her potential for making a difference in the world.
Any notion of inherited sinfulness or institutional authority over this life is alien to our way of thinking and acting.
Photos of Naming ceremonies at Leicester Unitarians. Click any photo for enlargement
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FUNERALS
Funerals and Memorial Services
Unitarians will offer funeral and memorial services that are designed to meet the needs and wishes of family and friends and that reflect the life and beliefs of the person who has died.
To discuss your needs, whether in the chapel; at the crematorium; at the graveside or at home – call or e-mail our Minister, Arthur Stewart.
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CONTACT US
Contact us…
Drawing particularly on Christian and humanist traditions, we respect other faiths and beliefs.Through our services of worship every Sunday and good social fellowship we meet to encourage one another along the way.
We warmly welcome visitors and friends to join with us at any time. Please come along to any of our services. Or, if you want further information, don’t hesitate to contact us, either by completing the form with details of your requirements, or by email or telephone as shown below.
Contact us using details below or complete the form opposite |
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| . Weddings, Namings and Funerals | Revd Dr Arthur Stewart 01509 812 236 The.Minister@LeicesterUnitarians.co.uk |
| ' ' Lettings and General Enquiries Secretary | Secretary: Nick Linnett mobile: 07802 713 215 lettings@LeicesterUnitarians.co.uk |
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FIND US
Find us…
We are in East Bond Street on the corner of Causeway Lane next to the very new Highcross Shopping. The chapel looks out onto the new Highcross Bus Station and is opposite the Tax Offices.
The Chapel has about 15 car parking spaces which can be full on special occasions. It is often much better to park in the new Highcross Car Park which is very near or in the Haymarket or Abbey Street Car Parks which are a short walk away.
DirectionsThe best way to get to us by car is from Vaughan Way into Church Gate – ‘then 2nd right onto St Peter’s Lane which leads you directly onto East Bond Street’. Don’t be deterred by the signs that say ‘No access to the City Centre via Church Gate’!
If you do not see the map above press your browser refresh button
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