FORMER Bolton minister Rev Dr Arthur J Long has been given the Unitarian movement's greatest honour.

Rev Long, who was minister of Unity Church, then in Deane Road, for 23 years was made an Honorary Member at the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches' annual conference in Chester.

Secretary of Bolton Council of Churches for 13 years he was minister at Unity Church from 1952 to 1975 and Horwich Unitarian Free Church from 1963 to 1975.s

Before coming to Bolton he was minister at Stamford Street Chapel, Blackfriars, London, for seven years and this was where he first met Margaret Christine Cyphus , a student then at the Royal Academy of Music, who went on to become his church organist and later his wife.

Mr Long became a BA of Oxford in 1941 after reading philosophy, politics and economics then went on to gain his MA in 1945 also from Oxford University.

After leaving Bolton he become principal of Unitarian College, Manchester, and retired in 1988.

At the Chester conference Mr Long told 400 delegates, who gave him a standing ovation: "I am deeply honoured and very moved."