Guildford, known as a hotbed of religious dissent after the Reformation, celebrated the 500th anniversary at the end of October at an event in the Guildhall titled ‘The Reformation – the revolution that changed the world’.
It was organised by Life Matters, a group consisting of church members from across Guildford who organise lunchtime events for those enquiring about the gospel.
Exhibition
The celebration began with an exhibition of display panels detailing the Reformation in Europe and the events in England which led to the country becoming a Protestant nation. One panel dealt specifically with the translation of the Bible, as local man George Abbot was one of the team who gave us the King James Version: he later became Archbishop of Canterbury. Other panels dealt with the effects on society, education, business, politics, science, art and music. Although no-one from Guildford was martyred, there is evidence suggesting that the congregation now meeting as Chertsey Street Baptist Church goes back to the end of the 16th century.
