Aberdeen Unitarian Church
CALENDAR
JULY/AUGUST 2009
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CONTENTS |
FOREWORDI think it was after the Profumo scandal in 1963 that Harold Macmillan, the then prime minister said, 'Don't look to your politicians for moral leadership, look to the Archbishop of Canterbury', advice which, not only shows that he had a clear perception of the ethical standards to be expected of at least some if not all of his parliamentary colleagues, but also in view of the M.P.s' expenses fiasco of the past few months, advice that is still relevant to day. More than forty years on, it also raises the question of where in a secular society do we look for moral leadership if not from the people who make the laws. Our present culture has been created over the past forty years by legislation enacted by successive parliaments which have been dominated by materialistic values. Self-gratification and self-promotion have become the principal objectives of our society. It has been argued that parliament, far from leading simply follows public opinion and enacts laws to reflect the current wishes of the majority. If this is so, then it is little wonder that we are all blundering about in a moral labyrinth, being solely dependent upon our appetites to guide us. The financial crisis and the behaviour of many financiers and of many M.P.s suggest that the principal satisfaction in undertaking any task is the financial advantage that accrues from it and that social status is depended upon wealth and the display of affluence that it makes possible. 'Unless one is rich, one is a nobody' declared a property tycoon, recently, echoing the philosophy of another financial wizard from the USA, 'Greed is good. You cannot be too greedy'. The frenzied pursuit of wealth inevitably changes one's ethical perceptions from what is morally sound to doing whatever 'I can get away with' . Doing something for financial gain has eclipsed the notion of doing it because it is worthwhile doing for its own sake. For the vast majority of us, the intrinsic value of a task is of no significance at all compared with its remunerative value. This suggests, then, that what we value in ourselves is our capacity to acquire wealth, and not in our ability to serve our community, or gain the trust and respect of our fellows because we are honest, reliable, fair-minded and value our personal integrity. The M.P.s' expenses scandal demonstrates that legislation, rules and regulations, even when backed up by punishments, require the support of generally respected moral principles before they are effective. We really need to believe that behaving honestly and fairly is worthwhile in itself and not because we will be punished if we don't. Surely our self respect demands that we act in an honourable and upright manner and not in some mean, grubby, underhand way that we think we may get away with. In our secular society we must look to our own conscience, our own sense of decency for moral leadership. If we find ourselves pursuing self-interest to the exclusion of everything else, cheating, bending the law a little, acting at the expense of others then we are ignoring Harold Macmillan's advice and following the wrong leader. We each of us have our own spiritual counsellor in our conscience. We should place our trust there. Wm. S. Stephen (Editor) Email: william134@btinternet.com or editor@aberdeen-unitarians.org.uk PASTORAL GREETINGSTo our members who are housebound due to failing strength or illness we send this message of support and concern. We assure you that you are always in our mind and at our various weekly congregational meetings we often recall the days when you would have been present among us, and deeply regret your absence now. We hope the approaching summer months will bring you a measure of easement and contentment. JULY RECESSDuring the month of July Sunday Services will be discontinued, but the Wednesday and Saturday cafes will operate as usual. Sunday worship will resume on August 2nd at 11.00am with a service of words and song led by our augmented choir to celebrate our new hymnbook, Sing Your Faith, A fish and chips lunch will follow our service. If you wish to partake, please add your name to the list on the Church notice board. TRADITIONAL AFTERNOON TEASElegance, exquisite taste and ingredients of superior quality are again available over the summer months at the specific request of our clientele, renowned for its discrimination and refinement. Fine blended teas, succulent savouries and the daintiest of confections will be served on delicate eggshell china between 2.00pm and 3.30pm of the afternoon, on Monday 20th July and Monday 17th August at the modest cost of £1.50 per patron. Kathleen Bruce & Kathleen McGregor will be happy to furnish further details and to accept advanced bookings. CORONATION OF THE MUCKLE GOLLACHNow that the Summer Solstice is out of the way at last, we can look forward to the mellow and emollient diversions of the Autumn Equinox, the principal of which, of course, is the crowning of the Muckle Gollach at the conclusion of our annual Beetle Drive on Friday, 11th September (a little before the Equinox) at 7.30pm. Tickets £2.50 (Older people )and £1.50 (younger people). NEW HOMEMaureen Watt is shortly to move to a new address at 25 Kinmundy Avenue, Westhill,AB32 6TG. We wish Maureen every happiness in her new home. 2009 DATESWe shall celebrate our Harvest Festival on Sunday 27th September. We hope that our members will be able to provide flowers & foliage, produce and dry-packed foodstuffs to decorate the Church. Our Autumn Fair is scheduled for Saturday 3rd October 10.00am-12.00pm, when we hope to have our usual range of stalls. However, there is always room and encouragement for new money-making ideas. On November 13th we shall revive the old tradition of the Kirk Soirée, an evening of sheer entertainment dedicated to music, song and the spoken word, supported by sustaining food and drink. Our Christmas Craft Fair will occupy the first Saturday in December, the 5th, when hand-crafted, gifts, stationery, decorations and novelties suitable for Christmas will be on sale. Our Anniversary will be celebrated in October as usual but the date has yet to be finalised.
A FAITH WORTH THINKING ABOUTBy Sue Good (Recently the members of Rev. John Clifford's Lay Training Course were required to compose for the benefit of an new-comer to a Unitarian Service, a short address which would contain a personal element and reflect upon a particular Unitarian promotional pamphlet. Sue Good's address follows) Is this your first time at a Unitarian Service? I wonder what you will notice most of all. For me, one of the most interesting things to note was that the readings did not come from the Bible and there was scarcely a mention of God. The hymns were also straightforward, almost humanist in tone, and neither emotional nor what could be described as praise songs. I'm not sure what I took home from my first service but it must have been enough to bring me back, in spite of a vague feeling of uneasiness at setting my own will against all I had ever been taught as a Catholic. After all, everything the Church taught had been handed down from Christ in an unbroken line through the succession of divinely chosen popes, hadn't it? Every Sunday I was accustomed to reciting the Nicene Creed, 'We believe in one God, the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth....' lt was the bedrock of our faith and yet there was so much of it that one had to take on trust and I had many doubts about what I was required to believe. The object of faith from a Catholic standpoint is to build a relationship with Jesus Christ 'the living lord' who was fully man but at the same time fully divine. I did try over the year, but somehow he always eluded me. It was only when I stopped thinking of him as God and when I became accustomed to the idea that it was not heresy to do so, that I began to appreciate his teaching and the examples of courage and integrity that he showed in living for others. What has been passed on to us of what he said and did, even though it comes in several versions, and was not written down by him, is enough to show that he is someone in whom love was uppermost and, therefore, someone to emulate. But that is not to say that the writings about his life are inerrant or that he is the only person throughout history to act as a pointer to God. As I said earlier, God does
not always figure very highly in Unitarian services, or at
least that's how it seemed to me at first encounter. But
then the ways in which Unitarians describe God are so many
and varied. Just some of the ways mentioned in Unitarian
literature are:
There are so many different ways to the spirit of love at the centre of the universe. On a visit to India a few years ago, I was shown a shrine. It contained pictures of everyone you might consider to be a messenger of God - Jesus, Buddha, Ganesh, Krishna, Gandhi and many others. It was a way of affirming progressive revelation; the idea that God has gradually revealed truths over a long interval, according to our needs and at a rate slow enough that human are capable of fully absorbing them. Unitarians would find the many diverse expressions of faith both inevitable and potentially enriching. Their basic tolerance of the many ways of understanding and interpreting the human condition mean that they are accepting of the different faiths and willing to learn from them. A Unitarian church provides probably the best venue for a service that is truly ecumenical accepting all the insights of all the constituent faiths and erecting nothing in the way of doctrinal barriers. Tolerance extends also to the field of sexual orientation and there is no barrier to a gay minister of either sex ministering to, a Unitarian congregation. At present we have a local dispute happening in Aberdeen where a Church of Scotland congregation wishes to appoint a gay minister. The reverberations of this dispute are rumbling around the world, as thousands of people, both within and without the Church of Scotland protest against the idea. The row centres not upon the character of the minister and not upon the effect he will have on the protesters' lives, but upon the fact that according to their view he is living in sin. Once again we have the view of the stern, judgmental God, not the indwelling spirit that accepts each person just as they are. Perhaps some of the protagonists will find a refuge with those who share a more open view of God when all the fighting is over. The concepts of peace and justice are very important to Unitarians, given that we believe in the essential unity of mankind and creation. Working for fair trade, for trade justice and a care for the environment seem to be just a logical extension of this belief. In the United States there is also an active mission to the UN, advocating the use of Esperanto as a world language of peace. Perhaps I have told you enough now to give you a flavour of what being a Unitarian might mean. If you come to our church without religious baggage it is easy to fit in, but even if you have been taught many things that have seemed to you difficult to believe, Unitarian thinking will expand your spiritual horizons so much you will wonder why it took you so long to find such freedom. Every Sunday, all over the country, services of worship will be taking place. Many will have the same format as that in a Unitarian Church, with hymns, prayers, readings, and a sermon or address. But there the similarity ends. In a Unitarian church the components of the service will be taken from an infinitely wider range of sources than would be the case in a mainstream Christian church. Those who attend will be seeking many different things and everyone will have a different idea of what they mean by the word 'God'. Yet each one is accepted and each may feel totally at home. The concept of 'Unity in diversity' is one of the most attractive and convincing reasons for becoming a Unitarian. Whoever you are and whatever your spiritual view, you are welcome in a Unitarian Church where we are all part of the one life which many people think of as God. SPIRITUAL AWARENESSBy Bill Stephen (Yet another contribution from the Lay Training Course sponsored by the Scottish Unitarian Association) The February day was ending in a sudden glimmer of sunshine. The grey stones of the breakwater glinted yellow. The surf breaking on the rocks below us wore a new yellow sheen and in this gratuitous, un-shadowing brightness we saw mirrored in each face, our own dismay and anguish. Ninety minutes ago, we had been sitting in the Higher History class. My friend, George, was called to the headmaster's office. He did not return. Now huddled together against the onshore gale, we stood above the shoreline, peering through a mist of spray to catch a glimpse of the white flank of the lifeboat momentarily revealed by the receding wave. Earlier that afternoon, the lifeboat had been stationed beyond the breakwater in increasingly heavy weather, ready to assist any of the fishing fleet encountering difficulty crossing the harbour bar. Attempting the same manoeuvre herself, she was caught broadside on by an avalanche of green water which rolled her over and over and then crashed on top of her. Momentarily her stern was seen projecting from a frenzy of breaking waves before slipping below the surface. Driven shore-wards, she now lay in fifteen feet of water, jammed between the breakwater and a submerged reef, about thirty feet from where we stood. As the sun retired below the land, the yellow light withdrew except where the lifeboat lay. There, a soft, yellow glow persisted, drifting up from the depths. In the cabin a light was still burning, casting a halo around the remains of the six lifeboat men who had perished in that first encounter with the giant wave, George's father among them. Confronted by our vulnerability, our community struggled to make sense of this disaster, Six brave men dead; six families bereft of their breadwinners. Some said it was God's will. Some that they had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. One group claimed it was divine retribution. Others blamed the design of the boat, the inexperience of the coxswain, the greed of the fishermen who had gone to sea in deteriorating conditions. Without an answer, we could not be reconciled to their passing A week later I was in the choir at the funeral service. The six coffins were arranged in front of the pulpit, the chief mourners seated behind. We were singing the 'There is a land of pure delight' a hymn about the joy that awaits the dead in heaven. I could see George. He was not singing. He was not listening. He was adrift on a sea of meaninglessness. I could see desolation and bewilderment etched in his face and at that same instant, for the first time, I recognised my own spiritual identity. The Minister was saying, 'Let us lay our grief at the feet of the risen Christ. Have faith in him and he will transform our sorrow into love.' It sounded so easy. It sounded so glib. We were spiritually defenceless, helpless, our wound open wide, seeking to place this disaster in a context which would justify it. But there was no balm in Gilead for us. We needed to come to terms with sudden death and singing about a Happy Land beyond the grave did not help. My first spiritual experience, at the age of seventeen, left me disillusioned with Christianity, aware of a vast emptiness within me, convinced that ultimate reality consisted of pain, suffering and death, a conclusion that an intense study of classical literature and philosophy over the next seven years did little to contradict. Had I encountered the Unitarian pamphlet, 'A Faith worth thinking about' in my student days, I might have explored my own spiritual life as enthusiastically as I investigated the Stoics or the Epicureans. Listing the aims of a Unitarian Congregation in order of priority, the pamphlet places first,... 'to meet the spiritual needs of the individual in the context of a loving community'. It says a great deal more, about Unitarian worship, Religious Education, Unitarian Communities, Unitarians and Christianity, Unitarians and other Faiths, Unitarian History and Unitarians and Society, all of it very informative and impressive, but as far as I am concerned that first aim is the most important statement of all. It is a bold ambition and a challenging one, but if seriously addressed, is more worthwhile pursuing than anything else we may set our hand to. This booklet focuses upon the individual and his or her humanity. It encourages each of us to identify what our values are and to live with them, to centre our worship in our experience, whether it is expression of gratitude, awe and wonder, celebration, or admission of our vulnerability, our need for consolation and comfort. It encourages us to seek spiritual insight and inspiration in the religious, literary and artistic resources of our species and to acknowledge our common humanity by reaching out to other people, irrespective of culture and creed. What I found difficult when first entering this Unitarian context was the question of authority, the fact that there did not appear to be any recognised spiritual authority, and although I was advised many times that I was my own authority and that the responsibility was mine alone, I was too diffident to embark upon a spiritual exploration on my own. I was not sure that what I identified as spiritual within myself was indeed anything of the sort. Brought up as a Calvinist, I expected there to be a right answer to every question. But here I was floundering in ignorance and uncertainty. What if my way were the wrong way? What is this Faith I am supposed to feel? The spiritual options offered by Unitarianism seemed too many, too confusing: was I a Christian, a Universalist, an Agnostic, a Humanist, a Religious Humanist, an Atheist, a Stoic? I read and listened, but the labels would not fit. Still, there was a vast emptiness at the centre of my being; still, there was pain, suffering and death to be reckoned with. I think we need to acknowledge in our promotional literature, in our conversations with people encountering Unitarianism for the first time, the difficulty they may have in assuming responsibility for their own spiritual development. Eventually, I realised, I had to concentrate upon myself; I examined my motives, my values and priorities, my hopes and fears, my needs, the level of my awareness of the needs of others, my role in my community and so on. From this activity my spiritual identity emerged. It had been there all the time, of course, but incoherent. With greater self knowledge, came confidence, not only to pursue one's own spiritual exploration, but also to confront reality. Pain, suffering and death are powerful presences that push themselves into the foreground and are not to be ignored. They may overwhelm us but they are contingent and not the ground of all being. That, I have discovered, is love and love is the begetter of life in all its myriad forms. Had I not been encouraged to think for myself, I would never have had the spiritual insight to reach such a conclusion. That's what Unitarianism has done for me. |
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