National Union of Protestants

The National Union of Protestants was a campaign group of evangelical Protestants in the United Kingdom.

The group was founded in or shortly before 1944, when it placed an advert in The Times setting out its principles, which centred on the elimination of various practices in the Church of England which it held were not in line with Protestantism. In particular, it was opposed to the celebration of Mass, belief in transubstantiation, the veneration of saints and the adoration of the sacrament.

The group's general secretary was W. St Clair Taylor, who described himself as a reverend, although he was not attached to any church. Taylor's nephew was Ian Paisley, a young preacher in Northern Ireland, who was later to become leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and First Minister of Northern Ireland.

The group organised protests in Anglican churches. In 1945, members sat in various locations during the confirmation of William Wand as Bishop of London, shouting out slogans at intervals to disrupt the service. The following year, they targeted a mass at St Cuthbert's, Earls Court, and Taylor invaded the pulpit to give a short speech before he was ejected. Later in the year, fifty supporters delayed the Bishop of Liverpool's mass at the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Liverpool for thirty minutes; he later stated that he had received anonymous threats not to attend the church.

The Church Times printed a strongly worded article complaining about the tactics of the National Union of Protestants. It claimed that the group had avoided protests in parishes "where there is a larger proportion of Christians engaged in heavy industries, who sometimes might not know their own physical strength", and noted that disrupting a clergyman celebrating a sacrament was punishable by up to two months in prison, or a fine of up to £5. However, it stated that Christians should "turn the other cheek" to the protesters.

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