Aberdeen Unitarian ChurchCALENDARNOVEMBER 2007
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EDITOR'S FOREWORDAt a meeting of Unitarians recently a question was asked but immediately set aside as being too difficult to answer. The question was, ‘What is the role of worship in a secular/materialist society?’ One of course might argue that such a question is irrelevant as worship is a religious rather than a secular notion. Worship acknowledges that there is something much more admirable, immeasurably greater, more comprehensive than we; something infinite and eternal, a reality beyond the limits of our means of perception, a vast well of knowledge and experience which we are not equipped to access. Secularists, on the other hand, consider themselves to be the highest form of existence. They look around the world and see creatures that are physically stronger, can run faster, live longer, fly and plumb the ocean depths without the aid of machinery, but none that can think, communicate, imagine, calculate, create, invent, organise, cooperate etc. as mankind can. The secularist looks around the world and says, ‘I am the measure of all things, therefore, what is there to worship?’ So, one might claim, there is no question to answer. However, in the absence of anything else to worship, does the secularist not practise self-worship? What one values most is what one worships. It may be self, i.e. one’s health and well-being, one’s social or financial status, possessions etc. or it may be one’s loved ones, what ever it is that one would sacrifice everything else to retain that ‘pearl of great price’, without which one could not happily exist. In making such a choice, we all consider what makes us happy, where is fulfilment to be found, where is meaning lodged. Would life be meaningless if I were not healthy or not wealthy, or were socially insignificant, or were unloved? To seek the answer we need to examine the roots of our being and if we do so honestly and rigorously, most of us will discover that there is a moral/spiritual issue to be addressed that takes us beyond the personal and the temporal. What would it be right for me to do; what would it be wrong for me to do, are questions human beings have been asking themselves for thousands of years, and frequently they have sought for guidance or reassurance beyond themselves, from some transcendent authority they feel they can trust. These are abstract, non-material concerns and the consequences are also non-material. What choice we eventually make will decide whether we live with a clear conscience or with a sense of guilt. In so far as worship involves making priorities and doing so becomes a spiritual exercise, the role of worship in a secular/materialist society seems little different from that of a religious community. The difference seems to be that the members of the religious community readily acknowledge the fact and celebrate it whereas the secularist seems committed to doing neither. Clearly there is an important task here to be undertaken by the religious communities. Wm. S. Stephen (Editor) William134@btinternet.com PASTORAL MESSAGE.We send our best wishes to all our house-bound and infirm members. You are always in our thoughts and we care deeply about your welfare. Please try to keep us informed of your situation either by telephoning the Minister or any member of the Committee or by speaking to your Calendar person. Our Minister goes out visiting during the weekend he is in Aberdeen. If you would like Cal to visit you please let us know. MEDITATION SERVICETo end the week on a meditative and contemplative note, to relax the mind and refresh the spirit, Cal has organised a regular Service on the second Friday of every month. The next Service will be on the 9th of November. It takes place in the upstairs room. We sit in a candlelit circle and by means of words, music and periods of silence, Cal helps us to reach into our inner selves, sort out the concerns of the week and help us find a quiet place within ourselves where we may be at peace. Afterwards we stay together to enjoy each other’s company, chat and drink tea; and of course it is another opportunity to speak with our Minister. ANNIVERSARY FAIROur Anniversary Fair on 13th October, raised £720, an excellent result for our two-hour long event. Of course, many hours were spent in preparation before hand, baking, mixing, stirring, whipping up ingredients, icing cakes, making toffee, boiling apples, hours spent in the kitchen, hours spent cutting out, sewing, embroidering, gathering together materials, bottles, books, bric-a-brac, goodies for the raffle and the wheel of fortune, making and selling tokens, setting up, laying tables, washing dishes, tidying away and staffing the stalls on the day. £720 well earned after many hours work by many willing hands. Anita Stephen who organised the Anniversary Fair wishes to to thank everyone who helped, contributed, donated and participated. It showed us at our best, cooperating, committed to a single aim, motivated by the same vision of a vibrant and energetic congregation shaping its own destiny. Well done everyone. Your hard work and commitment are deeply appreciated. CHRISTMAS CRAFT FAIR.Our final fund-raiser of the year is our Christmas Craft Fair on Saturday 1st December, starting at 10.00am. Organised by Kathleen Bruce and Kathleen McGregor, on sale will be a wide selection of hand-crafted gifts, decorations, stationery, greetings cards and other merchandise. Terrace Café catering will also be available as usual. Please attend and encourage your friends and family to accompany you. WOMEN'S
LEAGUE PROGRAMME
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| 7th | Craft Display | |
| 14th | "Age Concern" | A talk by Louise Farmer |
| 21st | "Moving House" | Members recount their experiences |
| 28th | What is an Orange | |
TRAVELLING WITH MARGARET
By Bill Stephen
What one encounters on a holiday trip often depends upon who the tour leader is. Some travel guides may emphasise architecture, or gastronomy, others history, husbandry, heavy industry or horticulture. Travelling with Margaret Robinson, one encounters people. All sorts of people, from all walks of life, doing all sorts of different people-type things. Driving buses, eating sweets (fruit jellies), serving meals (chicken, roast-beef, turkey), forming queues, eating sweets (mint humbug), running down steps, puffing up again, eating sweets (chocolate fudge) open-top touring, quizzing, getting lost, map-reading, direction finding, digitally snapping, out and about with Harry Springer, chuffing up a mountain, steaming down again, sweetie-shopping (a kilo of mixed boilings), sitting in the sunshine, swapping crosswords, teasing the brain, getting married in Portmeirion, losing map, shopping (still), staying lost (again);eating sweets (liquorice thingies), dental discomfort, traffic jamming (awful sticky), singing in the Choir, belting the barley, sipping the grape, eating sweets (sticky toffee), lock-jaw……………
Seventeen Unitarians, off on a jolly, all went west, in the care of Margaret R. North Wales welcomed us; Chester enchanted us; Albert Docks (Liverpool) entranced us; and wherever we went people succumbed to us …….or at any rate to Margaret.
Beware of Margaret Robinson bearing sweets. The combination is irresistible! No matter where she goes, Margaret makes friends. Dozens of people were surprised to discover they had become honorary Unitarians. Fellow passengers, wedding guests, hotel staff, foreign tourists lost and hungry in an alien land, shop-keepers and service station gastronomes all enriched their life experience by encountering Margaret and her retinue. I collogued with a canon in a Cathedral close (C.of E.), yarned with a yank (from Yonkers N.Y.) conversed with a couple from Crieff (N.B.) so fluently they thought I was Irish! Such is the influence of a friendly smile, a warm heart and a generous spirit. (Margaret’s, not mine.) Itineraries arranged for our convenience. Stressed-out bus-drivers comforted, counselled and set on the right road. Hotel staff, cheerful and helpful. Even the weather, capricious and self willed as ever, was kept on a tight rein, or so it appeared, so sunny was our mood and warm our disposition.
Thank you, Margaret, for taking us travelling, once again. We enjoyed the fellowship, the food, the fun and the fooling, the fistfulls of sweeties and the family feeling that somehow you always manage to generate on these excursions of ours.
Like all the others to Oban and Iona, York and York again, Orkney and Shetland, Dublin and the Cotswolds, the North Wales escapade will become part of our folklore and will be recalled across our hospitable tables for many years to come.
Where are we going next year?
NONE LIKE IT HOT
Terence Skene reviews
‘AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH’
Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth’ has recently fallen foul of the English judiciary. High Court Judge, Sir Michael Burton, in a written judgement declared that ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ contained nine factual errors, over-stated its claims about the Apocalyptic effect of global warming, was biased and partisan and was a political rather than a scientific document. This being so, if the government were to implement its decision to have this film shown in every secondary school in England, it could do so only after producing guidance notes for teachers, providing a more balanced view of the topic. He did, however, accept the main thrust of the film’s argument, ‘that climate change is mainly attributable to man-made emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide’. He also accepted that ‘global temperatures are rising, that climate change will cause serious damage if left unchecked and that it is entirely possible for governments and individuals to reduce its impact.’ The case had been brought by a member of the New Party who accused the government of brainwashing school children. The film also upset creationists and religious fundamentalists in America who claim it contradicts Biblical teaching about the age and the creation of the world etc. and they oppose its showing in schools unless alternative views are also included in the lesson.
‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is basically an old-fashioned sermon dealing with global warming and placing the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of humankind. The film is based on an illustrated lecture delivered by Al Gore and cross cut with inserts of his own autobiography to demonstrate his green credentials, his childhood experiences on his father’s farm, growing tobacco and breeding ‘Black Angus’ cattle, the influence of science teachers and professors, warning of climate change forty years ago, the death of his sister from lung cancer as a result of smoking, the decision to abandon tobacco cultivation, his efforts as congressman and senator to raise the global warming issue ‘on Capitol Hill’ and his commitment to the cause as a life-time aim, after the survival of his six-year-old son from a near fatal accident.
The lecture is delivered to an alert audience of students and academics, in a large auditorium. Al Gore stands in front of a huge screen upon which graphs, diagrams, tables of statistics, photographs and video-clips appear, mix and dissolve in a high-tech visual ballet, while he strides about the platform explaining, arguing, indicating, narrating and all the while behind him, ice cliffs, hundred of feet high, tumble into the sea, houses collapse on the melting permafrost, floods overwhelm entire towns and cities, deserts baked by a relentless sun replace green and fertile valleys, summits lose their snowy caps, glaciers shrivel, hurricanes, typhoons and tornados roar across land and sea and creatures of the wild struggle to survive. Computer-graphics predict the catastrophic consequences of unrestrained climate-change: the polar ice melts, sea-board towns and cities, New York, London, Beijing, Shanghai, San Francisco become part of the sea-bed; Holland, Florida, large tracts of China and the Indian Sub-continent, Indonesia, the Pacific States, sink beneath the waves; the British Isles shivers in a permanent winter as ocean currents change direction and the Gulf Stream ceases to flow; billions of people are rendered homeless, desperate for food and water, vulnerable to new diseases and pandemics. The graphics chart the relentless rise in green-house gasses and the consequential rise in world temperature, while the lecturer describes the mechanics of global melt-down.
Al Gore’s style is professorial, occasionally brushed by pomposity, but engaging and leavened with humour. He introduces himself, for instance, as ‘formerly the next President of the United States of America.’
Mr Justice Burton is right, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is certainly not a scientific document and it does not claim to be. It has more in common with Old Testament prophecy than with a peer - assessed scientific paper. It tries hard to involve our emotions as well as our brains. It opens with a series of affective images: the white flecked blue sphere of the planet swimming serenely through space; a polar bear desperately trying to find an ice flow big enough to support it; dried up river beds; rock-bare mountain tops, denuded of snow, exposed to the sun; acres of withered pine trees killed by pollution; forests of chimneys belching out noxious gasses; choked highways drowning in diesel fumes. It thrusts our culpability right in our face, as later on its worse case scenarios demonstrate our puniness in comparison to the titanic forces which we have unleashed. This film frankly declares itself to be a call to action, to join the struggle against the complacency and indifference of the indolent and the propaganda of the oil-companies, the motor industry, economists and politicians who claim that environmentalists are mean-spirited, joyless scare-mongers bent upon ruining the economy and undermining our comfortable life-style.
As I left the cinema, I was aware of a tendency to dismiss the worst case scenarios; they appeared just too horrific to contemplate. Then, I thought, perhaps I’m just being complacent, too self-centred to face an inconvenient truth. A quotation from the film had stuck in my mind.
He said, ‘The problem doesn’t lie in what we don’t know but in what we know for sure that just isn’t so.’
Arrogance has been our downfall in the past. I think we should heed his warning!
BRITISH UNITARIAN WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
Professor Geoff Levermore
By Bill Stephen
It was announced on 12th October that the Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counter such change”. The U.K. nominated Lead Author on the IPCC Working Group is Geoff Levermore, a member of Norcliffe Unitarian Chapel at Styal in Cheshire. Geoff, who is Professor of the Built Environment at the University of Manchester, helped to write and edit a chapter on Residential and Commercial Buildings in the IPCC’s ‘Fourth Assessment Report’ to be published later this year. The Chairman of the IPCC, Rachendra Pachauri wrote to Geoff saying the award “makes each one of us a Nobel Laureate”.
The research undertaken by the Intergovernmental Panel provides the basis upon which governments take their decisions on limiting greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the environment. Their work helps to create international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol.
Professor Levermore says he sees close parallels between his work on climate change and the philosophy and practice of Unitarianism. He said that the studies he and his colleagues undertook on climate change went beyond academic discourse. “These are concerned with ethical questions, how we share the earth’s resources, how we live together.”
He said the IPCC’s investigations were carried out “in a free and open spirit, accepting that there is no final answer, that there will always be new interpretations based on new evidence. Our conclusions can only be about probabilities”.
He added that this had been the approach of the great eighteenth century Unitarian scientist, Joseph Priestley, the man who discovered Oxygen. “This to my mind has been and remains the Unitarian approach to truth, both religious and scientific, that in your explorations you are on an open search.”
He also compared the strong democratic element in the Unitarian denomination with the way the IPCC worked, which he said was “open, democratic and transparent”. Professor Levermore contrasted this approach with that of Fundamentalism in both science and religion, saying, because it clung to dogma, Fundamentalism was unable to respect democracy or transparency.
( Material for this article appears on the General Assembly website, http://www.unitarian.org.uk and at IPCC web page: http://www.ipcc.ch )
REFLECTIONS ON THE FALKLANDS WAR
By John Robinson
It was a Sunday afternoon and I had just returned home from church. After lunch I found myself half watching the BBC ‘Country File’ programme which had been recorded, and simultaneously scanning the Sunday newspapers. There were emails to check in the office and a 2-day deadline for a report to be met. I needed to be up and going.
As I stood up to switch off the television I realized that the ‘Country File’ tape had run out and the TV had returned to live broadcast. A young lady was walking up to a rostrum and as she turned to face the TV cameras she said "I am Kathyrn Nutbeem, daughter of Major Roger Nutbeem who died on board the Sir Galahad during the Falklands War. I was only 5 years old at the time so I have only childhood memories of my father but I am lucky to share one of his passions, singing". In memory of her father, and all the men who gave their lives during the Falklands conflict, she sang "Somewhere along the road someone waits for me". Long before she had finished singing, the urgency of my report had evaporated from my mind. It was such a moving rendition made even more moving by intermittent backdrop snaps of her as a child, happily playing in an amusement park with her father, that I couldn't switch the TV off and walk away.
What I was watching was part of the BBC's coverage of the ceremonies being held at Horseguards Parade in London and Port San Carlos cemetery in the Falkland's to mark the 25th anniversary of the Falklands war. Moments earlier I hadn't been aware that these
memorial events were taking place. Even if I had known about them I doubt if I would have shown any interest, yet I was now compelled through emotion, to continue viewing. Details from Port San Carlos of the land battles followed with first hand accounts of the gripping cold (-10ºC) at night with a wind-chill factor that made it more like -30ºC, and the final night-time assault on the mountains surrounding Port Stanley made under moonlight by soldiers crawling in pairs, each covering the other in an attempt to ensure that their moonlight silhouettes were not spotted by the Argentinean soldiers. Then in the growing light of dawn the surprise attack and the Argentinean soldiers' counter attack with bullets ricocheting off the mountain rock less than an arm's length away.Back at Horseguards Parade, outstanding acts of bravery were recounted, with one singled out for special mention - the store man who became a stretcher bearer, repeatedly risking his life retrieving the wounded from the battle field, his courage and modesty an inspiration to all. Back in the Falklands there were emotional scenes as the Falkland Islanders expressed their gratitude to the wife of Lieutenant Colonel H. Jones, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment who in their words "died giving them their freedom".
The programme then moved on to the Drum Head Ceremonies, with alternating coverage from London and San Carlos. The tributes by leading members of the armed forces to the bravery displayed by their members gave way to Bible readings and prayers by religious leaders. There was an outpouring of thanks and gratitude in word and song to God for his liberation of the Falkland Islands. This was followed by a fly-pass of helicopters and combat aircraft representing the different types that had been involved in the conflict. These were joined by more recent types with greater combat capability.
My emotions changed. Was this display of extra naval power and military might really necessary? Within minutes of portraying the horrors of the war, it was being recast within the context of the glory and trappings of victory and against the backdrop of our improved capability to do, with God on our side, the same again. War and religion had again embraced each other, as so often is the case. I could just hear all those authors of recently published 'anti-religion' books, Dawkins, Grayling and Hitchens, if watching the programme, say, there you have it, religion and conflict are inseparable. In a recent review of Hitchens's book 'God is not Great, The Case Against Religion', Christopher Hart illustrated the dangers of war today embracing Religion by putting it this way, "Primitive, harsh, desert-nomad conceptions of a vengeful Father-God are bad enough; but couple such Dark Age beliefs with 21st century weaponry and you have a problem that is not merely philosophical; it leads along a corpse-strewn trail straight to the Twin Towers".
Throughout history, virtually all war leaders have claimed to have God on their side. Just before the invasion of Iraq by America and Britain, George Bush claimed that "behind all of life and all of history there is a dedication and purpose, set by the hand of a just and faithful God". I can only assume that his cue for such a view came from some Biblical battle cry such as in Jeremiah, Chapter 51 verse 20 where it says "Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms". As for Saddam Hussein his order to his soldiers was "Fight as God ordered you to do"; his cue no doubt coming from Chapter 2 verse 190 of the Koran where it states "Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you". From this viewpoint one can see how most wars, whatever their true cause, take on a religious dimension and fervour akin to the truly religious wars of the Crusades and, half a millennium later, the Reformation. Yet in truth most of them are about oppression, inequality and disagreements over territory. This is the case in the Arab-Israeli wars of the past 60 years, the Falklands war, the 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland and the current terrorist attacks by the Taliban. Those who have studied why religion is so often implicated in war, have suggested that this is because it serves two essential human requirements. Firstly it is seen as moral justification for resorting to the horrors of war and secondly, political leaders know that religious differences are powerful motivators of hatred and therefore good mobilisers of support for aggressive action. We saw this in Northern Ireland. I, as a Protestant growing up there in a predominately Roman Catholic area, and attending a Roman Catholic primary school, witnessed no animosity yet, 20 years later, those intent on using religious differences as their rallying call created conflict in communities where none existed previously. It has often occurred to me that it was probably the tolerance of Unitarianism that allowed my parents to send me to a Roman Catholic school in the first place.
So where do Unitarians stand on the issue of war and conflict. Some leading Unitarians argue the case for pacifism, others take the view that the 'Just War Theory' as first expressed by St Augustine is a much closer representation of our moral and spiritual beliefs. Thus force is justified to defend the innocent but only when all alternatives have failed. Eminent American Unitarians such as William Ellery Channing and Ralph Waldo Emerson were influential in moulding Unitarian's abhorrence of War. For Channing war was to be "deprecated in all circumstances and at all times" and Emerson seemed hopeful that as humankind evolved wars would wane. It was natural for primitive man to fight provided he was of sound body and mind; his survival depended on being able to do so. But as Emerson put it, "at a certain higher state, he makes no offensive demonstration, but is alert to repel injury, and of an unconquerable heart. At a still higher stage, he comes into the region of holiness; passion has passed away from him; his warlike nature is all converted into an active medicinal principle; … being attacked, he bears it, and turns the other cheek, as one engaged throughout his being, no longer to the service of an individual, but to the common soul of all men". In Emerson's view when a nation embraces the doctrine of peace at that level it will have no enemies; it will be "one against which no weapon can prosper". From Emerson's perspective therefore, one could argue that the Falklands war, for example, was avoidable. We can be in no doubt that we should have been, indeed were, alert to an impending invasion. Our waning interest in the islands was clear for all to see, and with the Argentine military junta facing increasing internal opposition, invasion was an obvious opportunity to boost its standing. One senses therefore, that both Channing and Emerson would be very disappointed with our lack of success, in preventing wars and conflicts since their time of writing almost two centuries ago. One suspects also that they would be disappointed that the influence that Unitarianism had on US Presidents in their time is no longer there. But, no doubt they would rejoice in ex-President Jimmy Carter's current open condemnation of the political and religious fundamentalists that now run the Whitehouse, particularly as Carter, a Southern Baptist, is widely regarded as the first President to be a born-again Christian, but in 2000 left the Southern Baptist Convention in favour of a more liberal approach to religion. His criticisms of Bush and his administration are open and forthright. "Fundamentalism in politics as well as in religion strikes at the heart of democracy. At stake is justice, religious freedom and the rule of law both domestically and under binding international treaties. Instead of a nation dedicated to pursuing peace one has a nation instigating war, as in the case of Iraq".
Although Carter's criticisms are directed to this new brand of Christian fundamentalists, identified in the US by their rigidity, domination and exclusion, he points to the same process now taking place in some sects of the other major religions, notably Islam, Judaism and Hinduism. The consequences in terms of conflict, war and human suffering are too horrendous to contemplate, yet contemplate them we must. America and the world urgently needs people of the intellectual standing of those great Unitarian ministers of the past who so effectively articulated the philosophy of peace. People whose sermons were, in the words of Emerson, when paying tribute to Channing, a kind of public Conscience, people who abhor violence and who have learned how to control that primitive aggressive trait that once was essential to our survival but, which by now, should have evolved to Emerson's higher intellectual stage that pre-empts and avoids war.
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CONTENTS
EDITOR''S FOREWORD |
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| Top Left: Dr
John Robinson
& Professor Gill Left: Entertaining Professor Gill Left: Rev. Celia Midgley & Rev. Bob Wightman at SUA Meeting in Dundee Bottom Left: In Pormeirion |
Top Right:
Entertaining Prof.Gill Right: SUA Meeting in Dundee Right: Welsh Mountain Railway Bottom Right: In Chester |
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