Pritchard held various
Dissenting religious views over his lifetime, holding that
science and religion were one. Through the Varleys he attended a
Sandemanian church, where he became acquainted with
Michael Faraday. In the end, he joined a Unitarian congregation, because religious freedom and self-improvement were the watchwords of
the movement, which still struggled against
civil disabilities. Money aside, Pritchard would not have been able to attend an English university as a young man, for example, because the only two, Oxford and Cambridge, restricted entry to members of the
Church of England. "No-one exists divorced from immediate and larger social environments. Dissenters led educational reform, especially in giving "lower orders" scientific knowledge and skill." Pritchard joined the congregation of
Newington Green Unitarian Church, an establishment long connected with scientific enquiry (
Joseph Priestley), education (
Mary Wollstonecraft), and political dissent (
Richard Price). He is described in the church's history as "the leading member of the congregation". From 1850 to 1873, he was its treasurer, during which time donations doubled. Before the passage of the
Elementary Education Act 1870,
compulsory schooling did not exist, so the church started a school to offer education to the village children. He led the Newington Green Conversation Society, membership restricted to 16, a successor to the Mutual Instruction Society. Faraday was a frequent visitor. ==Death==