EDITOR'S FOREWORD
A Revel without a Cause
Let me declare at the
outset that 1 am a robin-breasted, tinsel-tickled,
holly-berried card carrying Christmas addict. 1
celebrate Christmas. I like this giving and receiving,
this partying, this well-wishing, nostalgia-wallowing,
tree-dressing, carol-singing, tinsel-decked
festival..... but feelings are mixed. People tell me
they don't care for it. There's too much stress; it's
intrusive and too demanding; it's too expensive; it's
too commercialised. Some of us feel we just can't cope.
Some people feel under pressure to keep up with the
Christmas Jonses., in spending more than they can afford
on presents and entertainment. Some feel they will not
be able to live up to the expectations their family may
have of them in providing gifts and good cheer. Then
there is the religious aspect of Christmas. Some
serious-minded people are appalled by the tawdriness of
the secular festivities and troubled by the fact that
the spiritual significance is overlooked. If we are not
celebrating the birth of Jesus what are we celebrating?
Eating, drinking ,shopping, dressing up, having a good
time?
This conflict between the
spiritual and the material has troubled Christianity
from the very beginning. The creation story in Genesis
seems to suggest a material world but St. John's Gospel
prefers a spiritual origin. 'In the beginning was the
Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God'.
Jesus, himself, had no time at all for worldly matters.
He dismissed the whole apparatus of the Roman Empire in
the sentence, 'Render unto Caesar the things that are
Caesar's' while maintaining his focus upon the Kingdom
of Heaven. St Francis of Assisi, his 12th century
disciple, abandoned a life of luxury to follow the path
of penury and self-denial. The 17th century French
philosopher, Rene Descartes, the high priest of
certainty and reason, declared that the properties of
the mind and of the body are mutually exclusive and that
only those of the mind may be trusted as God functions
in the human mind rather than through the human senses.,
thus creating the 'mind/body problem' which still
bothers us today. The problem was exacerbated in the
fourth century by Pope Julius 1st who sanctioned a
religious festival to celebrate the Birth of Jesus to
coincide with several pagan festivals taking place at
the winter solstice. These festivals all involved eating
and drinking to extreme, decorating homes with holy
berries, ivy and mistletoe (symbols of life in the dead
of winter), giving and receiving presents, dancing,
singing and merry-making. Grafting a new spiritual event
to an ancient and very popular worldly occasion was
bound to lead to confusion. What were people
celebrating? The birth of the Sun God or the birth of
the Son of God? And was it a festival of prayer or a
feast of consumption? Various attempts have been made
throughout history to resolve the situation by
legislation. The Calvinists and the English Puritans
prohibited the celebration of Christmas as a popish
affectation. (The people of Scotland celebrated Hogmanay
instead!) But the notion of feasting rather than fasting
at the year's end has always been preferred and in these
secular times, as the spirit has waned so consumption
has once more gained its ancient yule-tide superiority.
So are we now celebrating the return of the Unconquered
Sun or are we just wallowing in self-indulgence? Proving
our existence by over-eating. 'I consume, therefore, I am!' Or has Christmas become a cultural event, a revel
without a cause? However, we may regard it, I hope that
we all may share in its tradition of good-fellowship,
good-neighbourliness, and its promise of peace and
good-will to all.
Wm. S. Stephen (Editor)
william134@btinternet.com
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CHRISTMAS GREETINGS
We wish all our members the
very best for themselves and their family and friends for
the Christmas Season and the New Year. We wish to assure
all our infirm and house-bound members of our continuing
concern for their well-being. We shall be thinking of you
particularly during this season of family togetherness and
community caring. Our Minister, Revd. Cal Courtney will be
with us over the weekend 8th/9th December and will be
happy to call upon any of our members who would like to
talk to him.
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Carol Service: December
2nd. Our Carol Service is slightly earlier this year
to facilitate another event. However, this will give us an
opportunity to welcome Advent by singing our favourite
carols and to prepare for other good things to come.
Meditation Service:
Friday 7th. December, 7.00pm. This is a deeply
spiritual service when, inspired by music, words and
candle-light, we can reach deep into ourselves to find
that source of peace and reassurance that will help us
cast off the vexations of the week. In the silence and the
soft lighting, a new rhythm emerges, steady, unhurried,
stilling our thoughts, preparing our mind for a more
profound introspection. Afterwards, relaxed and happy, we
enjoy an hour or so of pleasant company, over a cup of tea
or on this occasion something more festive. It is also an
opportunity to have an informal word with the Minister.
Please join us. We value your company.
Festivals of Light:
December 16th. Many religious traditions celebrate the
return of the sun, by incorporating this elemental event
into their mythology. Sue Good and her friends are to
explore this phenomenon as part of our worship on this
Sunday.
Christmas Cantata.
December 23rd. Our Family Christmas Service will be a
celebration of all the things we value at Christmastime,
family togetherness, kindliness, concern for others,
giving and receiving, tradition, peace and contentment, in
words, music, song and meditation.
The Cotter's Sunday
Lunch. January 27th. 12.00pm - 2.30pm. We usually pay
homage to the memory of Robert Burns in our worship at the
end of January. This year we thought we would include the
traditional meal of haggis, neeps and tatties etc. as well
as recalling the events of the poet's life in his songs
and poems. To facilitate catering, a list for the names of
those wishing to attend will eventually appear on the
Notice Board. There will be a charge of 4.00pounds per
person. Please join us to celebrate this important element
of Scottish culture.
Annual Scottish Country
Dance. Saturday February 2nd. One of the most popular
events in the Dancing calendar is our Annual Dance
organised by Kathleen Bruce and the Terrace Dancers.
World War 2. Evening of
Nostalgia. Friday 15th. February. 7.30pm. We plan to
arrange several 'nostalgia evening' featuring different
themes and occasions of our recent past. They will
include, music and song, films and slides, story-telling,
aand refreshments. We are to start by revisiting our
memories (those of an age to have any) of the times,
popular culture and events, local and national of W.W.2.
Tickets, 4.00 pounds per person will be on sale shortly.
Proceeds will be added to Church funds.
Quiz & Karaoke
Night. Friday March 7th. Transport Club 7.30pm. To
raise funds for our various Church projects, we are
arranging a quiz night, which will conclude with a karaoke
event! Substantial refreshments will be provided during
the evening. Tickets, 5.pounds per person will be available
son.
Annual General Meeting.
Sunday 16th.March 10.30am. Our AGM will be a little
earlier this year to accommodate other events. The Annual
Report will available on Sunday 2nd March. Material for
inclusion should be with the Church Secretary by 10th of
February. Treasurers of societies should close their
accounts on 31st. December and make their account books
and receipts etc. available to the accounts examiner, Dr.
Eric Naylor, as soon as possible thereafter.
General Assembly Annual
Meetings 26th -29th March 2008 at Hatfield. In
addition to the usual events, the GA will celebrate the
Centenary of the Women's League and the new Executive will
report on its first two years of office. The cost of full
board (in student accommodation) and conference fees is
360 pounds per person. Forms of application which must be
returned to Essex hall by 31st of January 2008, (late fee
of 50 pounds), are now available from Church Secretary.
Felix Club Sponsored
Walk. Saturday 12th. April. To raise funds for the
Church, members of the Felix Club and anyone else who
wishes to join them intend walking from Strichen to
Fraserburgh, along the former Buchan Railway track,a 10
mile route which takes us around Mormond Hill and down to
the sea, through interesting rural scenery. Sponsor Forms
will be available shortly. We anticipate a generous
response from non-participants.
Fashion Show. Another
fund-raising activity, planned for the Spring, is a
fashion Show. The date is still subject to negotiation.
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NON-FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Please note there will
be NO Morning Service on Sunday 30th. December 2007.
There will be NO Terrace Cafe on Wednesday 26th December
2007 and on Wednesday 2nd January 2008.
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"LEFT TO TELL"
by Immaculee llibagiza
Reviewed by Essie Wise
Felicien was sobbing. I good feel his shame. He looked up
at me for only a moment, but our eyes met. I reached out, touched his hands
lightly, and quietly said what I'd come to say.
"I forgive you. "
My heart eased immediately, and I saw the tension release in Felicien's
shoulders before Semana pushed him out the door and into the courtyard.
This is the incredible climax to Immaculee Ilibagiza's
autobiography "Left to Tell" in which she describes the horror of
living through the Rwanda genocide of 1994, 91 days of madness, in which
more than a million people died at the hands of their neighbours.
Two
soldiers yanked Felicien up by his armpits and dragged him back towards his
cell. Semana was furious.
"What was that all about, lmmaculee? That was
the man who murdered your family. I brought him to you to question, to spit
on if you wanted to. But you forgave him. How could you. do that? Why did
you forgive him?
I, answered him with the truth: "Forgiveness is all
I have to offer. "
None of the Christian virtues is easy to exercise
but forgiveness is surely the most difficult of all, and Immaculee did not
find it easy to forgive her neighbour who killed her mother and her brother,
looted their home and pursued her relentlessly for three month, during which
she lived in terror of this man and his mob of killers and hated him as much
as she feared. By sheer willpower, however, Immaculee, a devout Catholic, resolved to transform hatred into forgiveness in order to
put the suffering of the Rwanda holocaust behind her and find peace of mind
at last.
Immaculee was a member of a Tutsi family. Her father, Leonard was
the headmaster of the local secondary school, her mother a primary school
teacher, her two older brothers were university graduates, her younger
brother was at secondary school and she was studying maths and science at
the State University of Butare. They were a close-knit family,
undemonstrative, but deeply committed to each other and to their religious
beliefs.
Immaculee, then, was a tall, attractive girl, highly intelligent,
articulate in French as well as her native language, exuberant,
self-confident, free of prejudice and deeply religious. She made friends
easily, had a highly developed sense of fun, was high-spirited and took part
in various student societies.
The family lived in the Kibuye province on the
banks of Lake Kivu, which separates Rwanda from Zaire. Their home village
was quiet and remote. Hutus and Tutsis lived happily together,
inter-marrying, cooperating, sharing, concerned about keeping body and soul
together in one of Africa's poorest countries, untroubled by tribal
differences, historical rivalries and past resentments. However, in Kigale,
the capital, political events, provoked by unresolved tribal conflicts and exploited by ambitious and
unscrupulous politicians, spread suspicion, unrest, terror and eventually
open warfare throughout the country. The government was dominated by Hutu extremists who employed the media, particularly the radio, to demonise and
dehumanise the Tutsis and to encourage their Hutu neighbours to exterminate
them as vermin, burn their homes, seize their land and possessions and
destroy every record of their very existence. Emboldened by the government's
licence to kill, and with the promise of rich booty to be had, inspired by
old resentments and long-suppressed jealousies, many of the Hutus, armed
with machetes, spears, sticks, rocks and guns turned upon their unarmed and
vulnerable Tutsi neighbours. Men, women and children were hacked to death,
in their own homes, in the streets, in their fields, schools, university,
wherever they might be found. Immaculee's Tutsi neighbours sought help from
her father, the most respected man in the area. Panic stricken, they crowded
around his house, seeking refuge, urging him to negotiate with the local
extremists on their behalf. He tried, and was hacked to pieces. Their home
was attacked. The family fled. Immaculee and her younger brother sought
refuge with Murinzi, the local Protestant Pastor, a family friend, a widower
and a Hutu, who had married a Tutsi, and who, with great courage, for
friendship's sake and in fulfIlment of his Christian duty, agreed to
help.
Although grateful to Murinzi for saving her life, and
jeopardising his own and that of his family in doing so, Immaculee admits to
hating him as well, because, in the end he refused to shelter her younger
brother and his friend, and drove them out of his house. They tried to
conceal themselves in the fields, but were eventually discovered, beaten to
death and dismembered.
Murinzi, however, kept faith with Immaculee and seven
other Tutsi women whom he concealed in a tiny bathroom attached to his own
bedroom. There was insufficient space to lie down so they were obliged to
stand and to take it in turns to sit on the floor. There was a flushing
toilet and Murinzi brought them food and drink late at night, if he could do
so unobserved.
Felicien and his band, searching for Immaculee, ransacked
the Pastor's house several times, convinced he was hiding her, but failed to
discover the bathroom door, concealed behind a large wardrobe. In these
cramped conditions and never free of the fear of discovery, Immaculee and
her companions spent ninety days, during which their family and friends were
hunted down and killed.
Severe as the physical suffering was, it was nothing
compared to the mental torture they endured hour by hour, day by day, the
dread of imminent discovery bearing down upon them, crushing their spirit,
and reducing them to trembling nonentities during the frequent raids made by
their pursuers.
Immaculee's account of these 90 days is the spiritual heart
of her book. As with the others, she .was powerless in the grip of terror.
Fear furnished her mind with images of her seizure, of her humiliation,
naked in the hands of her enemies, of witnessing her own dismemberment, limb
by limb and finally of feeling grateful for the coup de grace. Their
situation was hopeless. They could not remain concealed for ever. What if
their benefactor turned against them, yielding to the fear of reprisals and
the murderous radio propaganda? Why should they escape, when their family
and friends had already met their doom? Were they so special? Negative
thoughts washed through her brain like a tide, sweeping away hope and the
desire to survive. 'Let's get it over with as soon as possible.' Immaculee
characterised these negative feelings as evil, brewed by the Devil, and
turned to prayer as an antidote. She felt her Catholic faith was under
attack. God was on trial. Using her rosary, she prayed non-stop throughout
the day and night, asking for God's protection. She meditated for hours on
end upon Biblical passages that dealt. with the power of faith; faith would
be her refuge; she visualised two shafts of bright light piercing the
ceiling and guarding the bathroom door, God's presence, reassuring her of
his concern for her plight. However, anger towards the whole world which
seemed unconcerned by their plight, and hatred for the Hutus, including
Murinzi, more consuming than she had ever experienced before, created a
barrier between herself and her God. God excluded no one from his embracing
love. To deserve God's protection, she too had to forgive and love everyone,
even her tormentors, She withdrew into herself and tried to understand the
killers, to find some compassion for them, even to forgive them. A week past
as she struggled with her thoughts, constantly interrupted from outside by
the screams and moans of the dying, the innocent victims of these same
killers. Eventually she persuaded herself that they were children misled by
evil, and that the ignorance and mistakes of children are more easily
forgiven than those of adults. Suddenly she pitied them and asked God to
forgive them. Having achieved this spiritual victory over self, she felt
calmer, more assured of God's love and protection. From now on, until the
end of her confinement, she lived almost entirely in her own mind, creating
for herself a mental refuge, constructed out of prayer, contemplation and
submission to the will of God. Whatever happened to her now, happened with
God's approval.
Eventually, the Hutu extremists were overthrown and the
killing ended. Immaculee went in search of her murdered family, discovering
the mutilated remains of her mother and oldest brother whom she laid to
rest. Of her father and youngest brother, there was no sign; they had
perished in the holocaust and they would remain unidentified for ever.
The
value of "Left to Tell" lies in its authenticity as testimony to
human depravity and cruelty, unsparing in its frankness and unchallengeable
in its accuracy, on the one hand, but also to the human spirit, its
resilience, its strength and its ability to transcend. Immaculee's anger,
hatred and terror were thoroughly justified, but she had a vision of a
nobler humanity that aspires to an understanding and love of her, fellow
creatures that transcends transitory impressions and selfish concerns.
Forgiveness, however it is achieved, through religious exercise or emotional
maturity or compassion or common sense or as a response to genuine remorse
is surely the most difficult relationship to enter into and also the most
divine.
"Left to Tell" is published by Hay House
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WHAT IS YOUR GOD LIKE?
by Sue Good
Gandhi said that there are
as many gods as there are people. I thought I might
explore the different views we may hold about God. It
sounds like a good idea, but as usual, it's quite
difficult to express. The result is very subjective, but I
hope that some bits of it may strike a chord with you,
whatever your own experience.
If you have ever had to
find a joke with a religious theme for a particular
occasion, you'll know that the stock of "God"
jokes are all fairly hoary old chestnuts, but I hope
you'll forgive my telling you this one, as it fits into my
subject today so well. The wee girl was busy drawing and
her mum asked her what the picture was all about.
"It's a picture of God", the girl replied.
"But no-one knows what God looks like" said the
mother. "Well, they will do once I've finished",
was the reply. I have often wondered what sort of picture
she might have produced. Was it the classic old man, with
flowing beard and dressed in a nightdress? Or would it
have been more of a Superman figure or something like ET?
Inevitably, our ideas about God and at least at first, our
experiences of God, tend to come to us from others. That
can leave us seriously open to what may be very deformed
images of God. Take this one, for instance, which Gerard
Hughes relates:-
| It is though as little children
our loving parents take us to visit "Good Old
Uncle George", a man of great wealth and
influence. Our parents tell us he lives to help us
all. Uncle George, an elderly, bearded and
forbidding man, lives in a large and gloomy
mansion. One day, at the end of your visit, Uncle
George turns to you and declares, "I want you
to visit me here regularly, and if you fail to
come, let me show you what
will happen." He leads you down to the
mansion's overheated basement. He opens a steel
door and you see row upon row of blazing furnaces,
into which men, women and children are being
hurled by little demons. "That", says
Uncle George, "is what will happen to you if
you don't visit me regularly" Safely upstairs
again, you clutch at your parents in terror. On
the way home, Mummy leans over and says "And
don't you love Uncle George with all your heart
and soul and mind and strength?" Remembering
the furnaces, you lie and say "Yes", but
you loathe Uncle George and consider him a
monster. The lie becomes part of your life, so
that you continue to profess love of Uncle George,
visit him dutifully, say all the right things
about how wonderful he is and how grateful you are
for his kindness, but deep down you detest him and
want nothing to do with him |
That's quite a fearsome
picture and one which those of you lucky enough to have
been brought up as Unitarians may find quite strange, but
it's probably quite a common one to linger on into
adulthood. My own childhood fears were less to do with
hell than with purgatory, a sort of lesser fiery place
that just about everyone was said to end up in for a time
before being allowed into heaven, even if they were great
saints. My impression of God at that time was that he was
incredibly nitpicking:- you only had to forget to say your
prayers, or take a drink of water before going to
communion and you had committed a sin. Speaking to him was
always done in set prayers, full of words like
"beseech" and "vouchsafe" that hadn't
got a lot to do with everyday life. Another barrier for me
was that God was always portrayed as a father. Brought up
in an exclusively female atmosphere at home and at
boarding school, I didn't know any fathers: in fact, apart
from priests and doctors, I didn't know any men at all. So
while God as a mother would have made sense, God as a
father did not. My childhood idea of God was of a
benevolent sort of village policeman, happy to look after
you and jovial just as long as you behaved, but woe betide
you if you flouted any of the bye-laws.
At the very opposite end of
the spectrum is the view of God that sometimes bursts on
the mind with great power. It's encountered at evangelical
gatherings and services, radiates enthusiasm and is
especially attractive to young people, who become very
committed Christians leading biblically-based lives. It
also often requires an outpouring of emotion, particularly
in worship situations. Great Uncle George and the village
policemen were caricatures, but this view of God as the
object of love and the purpose of life is genuine. The
trouble is, for those of us of a more phlegmatic turn of
mind, the way of responding to it is almost
incomprehensible. If getting in touch with God is going to
involve hand-waving, swaying or bursts of visible emotion,
we just don't want to do it. It seems akin to falling in
love, in human terms; the very early stages or honeymoon
period of a relationship. Long-term, I feel that this high
level emotional involvement is just not sustainable and
has eventually to change into something that's more
comfortable. I'm not saying that one would never have
moments of emotion, just that if you eat caviar every day
you would cease to regard it as a treat.
So far we've come from
childhood views of God to a more adult one, but where do
we go from there? Do we seek out different views of God,
or do we stick to the one we have found? Does our idea of
God change and develop as we grow older, or is it
basically the same as when we were 21? Do we even believe
in a personal God at all, or simply in a shared spirit or
ancestral memory? Does it matter that we all hold
differing views? Once upon a time I would have been
convinced that it did, but now I simply look on it as each
person's unique way of looking at exactly the same thing;
the common spark of love that we all possess and that some
call God. Keeping the spark active is something that we
also have so many different ways of doing, depending on
our background. You might call it ways of encountering God
and I think humans need some high points to identify
contact. The mainstream Christian churches have always
understood this well and their services are a blend of
music and prayer that can be very moving, particularly the
celebration of Holy Communion. But it is possible to take
part in that totally as an individual, as part of a
personal encounter with God. Contrast that with the lunch
we held here in the summer, sharing food and conversation,
then sharing thoughts and songs and it seems to me that
that was much more of a communion than many masses are.
It seems that my view of
God changes and develops as I do, although always
influenced by the past. There's a line in one of the songs
in the hymn-book. It says "Roots hold me close, wings
set me free" and that does seem to describe my
experience of God quite well. Knowing about God is one
thing, however, and knowing God is something very
different. The unknown author of "The Cloud of
Unknowing", which was written around 1350, says
"Though we cannot know him we can love him. By love
he may be touched and embraced, never by thought" But
if we're going to love someone, we have to at least speak
to them and try to get to know them better. Whole
libraries of books have been written on how to go about
getting in contact with God and it probably won't surprise
you to know that this topic today was sparked off by my
discovery of two of these books.
Both of them are modern,
both American and both might be described as belonging to
the New Age Spirituality category. Julia Cameron is an
artist and writer of novels, plays, films, poetry etc. Her
book "God is no laughing matter" was written as
an antidote to the kind of artificial piety that's
prevalent in American media circles. Her style and the
situations are very American, but if you can see past
that, she gives many very useful suggestions for exploring
the God connection in ways you might never have thought
of. Here's one of her short pieces, called "Blind
Date":-
|
Most of us don't
know where to start with God. We've got a lot of
excess baggage and expectations and "God as
Told to Us By" and it can feel an awful lot
like a Blind Date - the kind you see in those
vintage romantic comedies where everybody knows
he's the right guy or she's the right girl except
the one resisting the date.
The trick with God
- just like with Blind Dates - is to suit up and
show up. Who knows? God might turn out to be tall
and handsome. Or blond and curvy. Someone you
might really like. Somebody you can actually talk
to and go salsa dancing with. Somebody who gets
your jokes and likes the same terrible monster
movies that you do.
The point is that
until you try to meet God, you aren't going to
know. If your earphones are unspooling the
"Here's what God is like" tapes of
everybody else, the Spiritual Big Cheeses, you
might miss God disguised as the nice trash man who
takes your extra load of stuff without making you
phone in to bureaucracy hell for another truck and
driver. You might miss God as the red-winged
blackbird or the shiny river stone. You might miss
God, period. Much of what you learn about God in
this country can sound a lot like a military
training film, very stern and authoritarian. The
message runs along the lines of "God is no
laughing matter". Pm not so sure about that.
I think God might have a pretty good sense of
humour. Look at octopuses, for example, and
baboons. Yes, sometimes I think we
are the ones who are grim and God is just pacing
around cloud nine, waiting for us to lighten up a
little. It's possible.
If God is very
"serious" to you, you may want to
explore just why. Is it God or your conditioning?
A bad experience with God, as with dating, can
leave you soured. |
Then she goes on to detail
various exercises to help you sort out your ideas of what
God is like and where they come from. I wonder whether it
is a coincidence that Julia started out in life as a
Catholic, I did myself and the author of the second book
I'm going to speak about did too. Perhaps childhood
conditioning kick-starts the process of searching, or
perhaps conscience operates more powerfully in us, Neale
Donald Walsch was always a seeker and a restless character
in his personal and professional life. He was a radio
producer and later had his own public relations firm. His
relationships were problematical and he was lucky to
survive a head-on car collision. In 1992, following a
period of deep despair, Neale awoke in the middle of a
February night and wrote an anguished letter to God.
"What does it take," he angrily scratched across
a yellow legal pad, "to make life work'?" Now
well chronicled and widely talked about, it was this
questioning letter that received a Divine answer. Neale
says that he heard a voice, soft and kind, warm and
loving, that gave him an answer to this and other
questions. Awestruck and inspired, he quickly scribbled
these responses onto the tablet. These and subsequent
answers became the basis for a series of book called
"Conversations with God" Now, whether you
believe that actually happened or not doesn't really
matter. What is important is whether the material produced
has any value, any clues as to how to know God. You can
judge for yourself in this passage, which purports to be
God's instructions on that topic,
|
Get close to me! Do
what you can. Do what you have to. Do what it
takes. Say a rosary. Kiss a stone. Bow to the
East. Chant a chant, Swing a pendulum. Test a
muscle. Or write a book.
Do what it takes.
Each of you has your own construction. Each of you
has understood me - created me - in your own way.
To some of you I am a man. To some of you I am a
woman. To some, I am both. To some, I am neither.
To some of you I am pure energy. To some, the
ultimate feeling, which you call love. And some of
you have no idea what I am. You simply know that I
AM. And so it is, I AM.
I am the wind which rustles your hair. I am the
sun which warms your body. I am the rain which
dances on your face. I am the smell of flowers in
the air, and I am the flowers which send their
fragrance upward. I am the air which carries the
fragrance.
I am the beginning of your first thought. I am the
end of your last. I am the idea which sparked your
most brilliant moment. I am the glory of its
fulfillment. I am the feeling which fuelled the
most loving thing you ever did. I am the part of
you which yearns for that feeling again and again.
Whatever works for you, whatever makes in happen-
whatever ritual, ceremony, demonstration,
meditation, thought, song, word or action it takes
for you to "reconnect" - do this. Do
this in remembrance of me. |
Whatever you may think
about the origins of that passage, you would have to admit
that it is a very inclusive and liberal view of God,
perhaps a very Unitarian one. We each have an individual
view of God and being convinced that ours is the right one
is surely good thing, since it is right for us. Just
as each part of the jigsaw is different, but together they
make a whole picture, so is each one of us part of the
whole picture that is God. That must be so if is is true
that we are made in his image. I don't know what your God
is like, I'm not even entirely sure what mine is like, but
I am working on it. It's seen quite a few changes and
adjustments already and I'm sure there will be more to
come. After all, it's a lifetime project. The comedian
Dave Allen used to sign off his show in the same way every
time and it seems an appropriate ending for me. He used to
say "Good night and may your God go with you."
(The title for this address is borrowed
from a practical book by the Jesuit theologian, Gerard
Hughes.)
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FINANCIAL
The Anniversary Fair
final total reached £724.50. We wish to thank
everyone who helped to raise this sum, both the givers and
the workers.
The Anniversary Appeal
has so far raised £749.00. The Appeal is still open
and if you have not yet subscribed to it, our Treasurer
will be delighted to receive your donation. As we
indicated in the October Calendar, we need to do our
utmost to pay our way, month by month, from live income.
The Women's League's
Sales Table on Saturday 17th. November, raised £100.00,
a truly magnificent response. The Women's League wish to
thank everyone who helped staff the stall, baked, donated
goods and made their purchases.
The Diabetic collection
box this year has yielded £100.05. We express our
appreciation of the generosity of our members who week by
week donate their small change to this worthwhile
charity.
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WOMEN'S
LEAGUE PROGRAMME
JANUARY 2008
| 9th |
R.S.P.B. |
A talk by Mr Parnaby |
| 16th |
The I.A.L.R.W. |
A talk by Jean Inkson |
| 23rd |
Robert Burns Remembered |
|
| 30th |
An Afternoon at the Opera |
|
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