For the next few weeks our Facebook posting will highlight some excerpts from our recent program entitled Faiths of Our Fathers which covered the religious traditions of the people of Warren who were not members of the Congregational Church.
State of religious freedom
Thomas Hooker, a leading Puritan clergyman, founded the Colony of Connecticut in 1636 and, in accordance with every other sovereign nation of the time, ordained an established church. Puritans insured their right to practice their faith freely and fined, imprisoned or banished non-Conformists. The Toleration Act of 1708 gave Christians of every denomination the right to worship, but the tax revenues of conformists and non-coformists alike supported the established church.