EDITOR'S FOREWORD

An out-spoken literary critic who is now beyond the reach of any riposte from his victims once said that mystery writers refused to reveal the identity of the perpetrator until the very last sentence of the book simply to conceal the triteness and pointlessness of the plot! They over-did the suspense to compensate for their lack of imagination. Suspense is a vital ingredient in any good piece of story-telling, and given the unstoppable parade of TV detectives, our sense of mystery clearly demands frequent stimulation. 

This seems to be a perverse form of behaviour in a species that spends so much time and effort in scientific research, in pursuit of truth and understanding, constantly illuminating dark places, obsessed with accuracy, measuring, identifying, checking time and position, sizing-up the universe and everything in it. Yet, not-knowing intrigues us; mystery enthrals us.

No other creatures seem to possess a sense of mystery. Cats are reputed to possess an unusual degree of curiosity, but they, like all other animals, are much too practical to bother with mystery. They simply follow their instinct. For them there are no mysteries; the world is a simple, uncomplicated place where you can snatch a meal, find a mate, raise a family and ensure the survival of your genes for another generation or two. The average moggy, of course, is not overburdened with a sense of self, nor troubled by questions of meaning and purpose.

This sense of mystery is an effect of self awareness. "I know that I don't know," Socrates is reputed to have said, confusing his listeners but asserting his individuality, his unique consciousness, separate from everything else that has ever existed since the beginning of time in a universe whose moral purpose is an insoluble mystery. Why is there somethit1g rather than nothing? We measure, we investigate, we explore, we industriously gather up and store the facts like wholesome grain, but still the moral questions remain, the mystery is not explained. Physical existence is not enough to fulfil us. We see ourselves in a relationship with something that transcends whatever is measurable, whatever is knowable, a something that creates meaning. We need the reassurance that ultimately there is meaning, rather than meaninglessness; there is logos, a benevolent order, and not pointlessness. Meaningfulness, whatever it is that generates meaningfulness, is the mystery at the centre of our consciousness. Our sense of mystery is a reflection of that longing for meaning, for recognition, for moral purpose, and for spiritual significance.

Wm. S. Stephen (Editor)  

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VISION DAY

Elsewhere in the Calendar, Cal explains the thinking behind our Vision Day event. This is an important occasion in planning for our immediate future and one to which we may all contribute. Let us all do our utmost to attend, complete the Questionnaire and enjoy the fellowship of the occasion. Lunch will be provided by our usual congregational caterers and promises to be a happy social occasion as well as one of culinary distinction.

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BOOK LAUNCH

Cal's book 'Towards Beloved Community' has now been published and is currently available and selling well on Amazon, the Internet bookshop. It is at least half a century since any of our Aberdeen Minister's published a book and therefore the appearance of Cal's book,' hot off the press', is an event which we intend to celebrate. Before we serve lunch on Sunday 13th. we shall formally launch 'Towards Beloved Community' in Aberdeen and encourage our members and friends to purchase it and to read it.

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EASTER FAIR

At time of going to press, the Easter Fair total stands at £571. 18. However, plants sales have yet to be added to this total and these should elevate it towards the £600. Many congratulations to Rhona Stewart and her stall-holders who worked hard to raise this sum, and we express our appreciation to all who attended, brought the goods to sell and encouraged their friends and acquaintances to purchase them.

(The sale of plants and chutney raised a further £46 bringing the current total to £617.18)

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WOMEN'S LEAGUE PROGRAMME

MAY 2007  

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WOMEN'S LEAGUE SUMMER LUNCHES

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VISION DAY

by Revd. Cal Courtney

I am not a minister who is interested in growing congregations for the sake of growth itself. I just don't see the point of it. Religious communities who use numbers to quantify their success are, in my opinion, misguided. Unitarian communities do not exist to be large and strong. Nor do they exist to be small and weak. They exist, rather, to promote love as a value in our world. They exist to improve the quality of love shared within their walls and in the world beyond. They exist to encourage people to search for freedom, truth and contentment, and, when times are rough, they exist to support and care for the wounded.

Healthy communities share a common characteristic: they serve a vision. In the Unitarian movement, our visions are frequently related to the values of reason, freedom of conscience and tolerance. These values feature strongly in the historical development of our movement, and the story of the Unitarians is very much the story of the many ways in which these values were served in the wider world.

Today the Aberdeen community finds itself at a certain point in history, in a world where change seems to be an over-arching characteristic. As our city and our world changes, we must address ourselves to the ways in which the Spirit might be encouraging us to change. What do our values mean to us today? How do they look? Are they adequate? Do we need to add to the list? By exploring our values, by examining the ways in which our values can be lived in the world around us, we build a vision for the future.

In the Unitarian context, visions are born of collaboration. In a community of equals; each person is encouraged to play their part, whatever, that part might be, in creating the vision. When we talk about and explore our values together we take the first step towards creating the vision which our community will uphold and serve in the future.

On Sunday 13th May a Vision Day will take place from 11.00 am until 4.30pm. This event will create our plan for where we want to go, what we want to do and what we want to look like in the years ahead. I cannot stress enough how important it is for as many people as possible to attend this event. Every point of view is valuable, every idea is worth listening to and every person is a potential source of direction as we attempt to build our vision together.

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VISION DAY PROGRAMME

Here's the programme as it stands at the moment. If you feel we're leaving anything out, get in touch and let me know.

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AN AFRICAN EXPERIENCE

by John Robinson

In a lecture on Happiness given at the University of Birmingham just a few years before his death in 2004, Sir Peter Ustinov commented thus: "if one can take a sensuous pleasure in the sounds and tastes and sights and odours which one has on file in the treasury of over half a life time, then I don't know what more one has any right to ask". For Margaret and I, life's sensuous pleasures were enriched enormously by our recent holiday in South Africa and Zambia. In searching for a one-line description of the beauty of so much of what we saw, my mind kept telling me that this surely must be a little bit of heaven here on earth. Yet, I have no real concept of heaven, other than the portrayal of it as a place or state of joy and happiness. Neither have I any concept of hell, other than the idea that it is the opposite of heaven, yet on our holiday we also saw numerous examples of what seemed to be best described as hell on earth. These extremes came pouring in on our senses with such speed, I found myself continuously caught up in an emotional roller-coaster. To witness at close range the beauty and elegance of wild animals free to roam in Mala-Mala Game Reserve and Kruger National Park, a land area the size of Wales, and then in a matter of days to peer into the 2 x 2 metre cell where, for 27 years Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, on Robben Island, brought my concept of heaven and hell into close juxtaposition in a way that I had never witnessed before. I had been brought up seeing wild animals imprisoned in cages while man was free to roam. As I pondered on the irony of this role reversal, I was engulfed by sadness for, in neither case, was the incarceration justified. Yet, when released, Mandela expressed no anger or bitterness. By forgiving those who were responsible for his suffering he won respect and admiration, brought an end to apartheid and now, in his late 80s, is striving with all his power and influence to alleviate the poverty that still blights the indigenous peoples of South Africa. He emerged from his hell-on-earth experience with heaven-like attributes. He, like Jesus, came through his 'crucifixion' and returned to his people to inspire and give hope. Continuing with the biblical analogy, We were privileged to meet and talk to one of Mandela's disciples who, for 18 years, was also incarcerated in Robben Island prison. His job now is showing visitors around the prison. He too harbours no anger or bitterness, rather he exudes tolerance and forgiveness. Despite the very poor conditions in which people live in the townships this ethos of forgiveness prevails there too. Our guide on a tour of one of these townships in Cape Town revealed the reasoning behind their lack of bitterness when he put it this way: "The longer we take to forgive the longer we remain slaves".

At that point I realised that herein lies a lesson for us all; we don't just need to forgive in order to end torture and harassment of us by others, we also need to forgive in order to remove the torture and torment from within ourselves. That, to me, is the real reason behind Nelson Mandela's success. In his forgiving he put the hell of his incarceration on Robben Island behind Mm and moved on.

Had we not visited Robben Island and had we not seen the townships and squatter camps, which incidentally, numerous visitors ignore, we could have come away from Cape Town believing all of it is heaven on earth. The top of Table Mountain is best described as a massive natural rock garden, in which small beautifully-shaped and coloured wild birds flit in and out I of the equally beautiful blossoms of the shrubs. It is an elevated Garden of Eden with the added view of the 12 Apostle peaks on one side and, on the other, not surprisingly in a city of such contrasts, Devil's peak and, in the distance beyond, Robben Island. And then there is the peace and tranquility of sunset at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront where we stayed and where the seals intermingled their cavorting in the water with lying close by on the boardwalks in that posture of relaxation that comes so naturally to them.

The coastal route drive from Cape Town to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope brings its own unique mix of sensations, heightened by the anticipation that one is about to stand at the most southerly tip of Africa; well not quite for that is Cape Aqulhus which is not on the tourist route. In addition to the beauty of the beaches and the surf beyond, there is the drive along the cliff face of Chapman's Peak with a vertical rise of 1500 feet on the one side and, on the other, a drop of 500 feet to the swirling Atlantic below. There is also the drive through the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, home of the small antelopes and chacma baboons, before the short funicular railway trip up to Cape Point. From here the view is spectacular both to the naked eye and, with the aid of binoculars, which allow one to peer down the precipitous drop of a thousand feet to the rocky beach below in the hope of catching a glimpse of the cape penguins. But our snap shots of our all-too-brief stay in South Africa had many other moments to savour. The 5am sunrises over Durban; the drive along the famous and beautiful Garden Route running across the bottom of the Southern Cape from Port Elizabeth in the West to Mossel Bay in the East, and taking in indigenous forests, beaches, lakes, lagoons, rivers and mountains. Here, I would willingly have extended our en route stop over in Wilderness to the biblical 40 days and 40 nights but not of course, without food or water!

And then there are the Cango Caves that have taken hundreds of thousands of years to form; so difficult to capture by camera but so amazing in formation and colour and so precious that one is forbidden from touching lest their intricate chemistry is catered by human sweat; should we even be breathing I wondered! Well maybe, but gently! The names of some of the formations, for example, the cathedral organ pipes and the nativity scene, tell their own story of the awe and reverence that they convey. Such a scene of silent beauty could never however obliterate fro6n my imagination the horrors of the many battles fought on South African soil. These are recorded across the country in impressive monuments and statues and were particularly well described and animated by our tour guide. I will remind you of just one in order to recall the horror. It is the changing of the name of the Ncome River to Blood River following the battle between the Voortrekkers and Zulus in 1838 in which not a single Voortrekker died but over 3000 Zulus were killed, their blood turning the flowing water to red; a massacre, yes; and hell-on-earth as well!

Enough on South Africa, it is now on to Zambia or more precisely the town of Livingstone, the Zambezi River and the Victoria Falls. We are now in a part of Africa where, from a religious perspective, the link with Scotland is world renowned. I am referring of course to David Livingstone, the Scottish doctor, explorer, missionary and antislavery activist, who discovered the Victoria Falls and after whom the nearby town of Livingstone is named.

Choosing to stay near Livingstone, at Songwe Point village on the banks of the Zambezi gorge, gave us an insight into life in rural Zambia, and I suspect many other rural areas of Africa, that few visitors see. We may have forfeited almost all of the luxuries of the neighbouring Western-style Hotels, but for me it was the nearest I will ever get to heaven. There was so much that was unique and special. Sundown round the log fire on tile edge of the Zambezi gorge; the advancing darkness and the light of the rising moon reflecting on the water flowing down the canyon; the ten different African dishes specially prepared for our evening meal; the after dinner singing and dancing of the staff to live drumbeat music and then, the party over, the quiet walk back along the hurricane-lamp-lit path to our bed in the openness of a rondavel and time to savour the peace and tranquility of an African night in which the water of the mighty Zambezi, on its way to Mozambique and the Indian Ocean beyond, seemed to be the only bit of creation in a hurry. But there was much more to stir the emotions, not least the power and noise of the Victoria Falls where over 1 million litres per second of vertically falling water is haloed above by the beauty of that biblical symbol of promise, the rainbow, created by the sun shining on the rising spray of the falling water. I doubt if there is anything else on earth more humbling and more ego-diminishing than the Victoria Falls; and to realise that we were seeing them much the same as they must have been when Livingstone discovered them in 1855, unspoiled by any of the moneymaking trappings that are so much a part of today's tourist industry elsewhere.

But intertwined with nature's beauty and its awe-inspiring scenes, there is well-hidden human suffering nearby that only comes to light when one gets close to the village families. Mingling, as we did with them, and seeing the bright-eyed well-dressed children returning from school, keen to show us their exercise books and what they were learning, it was both difficult and heart-breaking to accept that for the 1000 or so people in the village there are over 100 orphaned children through AIDS. Much hope is being placed on a new health centre, now being built, but obviously long overdue, for even pregnancy and child birth still carry an unacceptably-high risk of death for mothers as well as babies. As for malaria, sporadic bouts of fever are part of life. But even with available modern medicines there can be obstacles to their use as witchcraft practices still exist amongst some of the older generation. Nonetheless, with three Christian Churches in the village there can be no doubting the impact of Livingstone's religious legacy.

At the Livingstone Museum in the town itself, where many of Livingstone's personal possessions, most notably items of clothing, his medical kit and his hand-written letters are on display, there is a heightening of the senses to the pain and suffering that he too endured; mauled by a lion, weakened by fever and dysentery and his life threatened by infuriated native Africans along the banks of the Zambezi are just a few examples. In his own account of this latter incident he records that, with Bible in hand, he turned and said "See, 0 Lord how they rise up against me as they did to Thy Son". But in Livingstone Museum, a small uncaptioned photograph provides, for me, the most powerful and poignant illustration of our true legacy to Africa. It is a photograph of a white man holding the Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. It is a picture that paints far, far more than a thousand words!

If, despite my limited literary ability, I have managed, to portray the idea that our brief holiday in South Africa and Zambia was life-enhancing far beyond anything I had experienced before, then I am pleased. Like many others, I feel that our spirituality is enriched by our knowledge of, and our love for, nature. The beauty and wonder of what we saw and heard added a new dimension to that enrichment. But so too did the ugliness, the injustice and the suffering. The Jesus-like attributes of David Livingstone, Nelson Mandela and the unsung heroes, those in the townships and at Songwe Point village who, without bitterness or anger, are dealing with their own .crucifixion. in the form of disease and poverty, are surely powerful examples of what true religion is all about.

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