Twiston Quaker Cemetery and its Slippery Slope

Between Newchurch and Twiston is the old Quaker cemetery, in use from 1667, sitting in the shadow of Pendle Hill. You'd easily miss it if you had no guide. Quakers were strong near Rimington in the seventeenth century, and many were horribly persecuted. The government had passed the Five Mile Act designed to hinder the worship of non-Anglicans. Their leaders could not minister within five miles of any settlement. This is one of the reasons why so many chapels and grave yards were seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

We are glad to have religious freedom in this nation, denied to so many for so long. The current goverment's suggestion of having a 'register' of religious leaders, though well meant, could be part of the slippery slope towards what a previous government enacted in the 1660s.

http://www.christian.org.uk/news/govt-watchlist-for-faith-leaders-is-dee...