A booklet was launched on 15 January in the Palace of Westminster to celebrate 300 years since the first abolition of a Test Act which is said to have ushered in an age of religious liberty in the West.
The event, attended by a number of Parliamentarians and their representatives, celebrated the 1719 repeal of the Schism Act, which had excluded non-Anglicans from becoming school teachers. The remaining Test Acts were repealed between 1828 and 1871 and led to religious freedoms developing in the UK and spreading around the world. Both the USA and Australia wrote into their Constitutions provisions to prevent any kind of Test Act ever being introduced.
Stand up for freedom
The Rt Hon. Sir John Hayes CBE MP called for people to stand up for religious freedom and ‘resist Test Acts’. He said that the ‘golden era of religious liberty may be coming to an end, unless people stand up for freedom. Religious believers are once again facing increased pressure to restrict their faith to the private sphere. We now see regular, and increasingly unapologetic, persecution of Christians who remain committed to biblical teaching, refusing to bow to liberal, secular orthodoxies.’
