Aberdeen Unitarian Church
CALENDAR
OCTOBER 2009
FOREWORDThere have been many times over the past 176 years of our existence as the only Unitarian Congregation in Aberdeen, when the issue of spiritual leadership has urgently demanded our attention, and none more so than now. Last month the Executive Committee of the ,G.A. decided after all the planning, all the to-ing and fro-ing about the country, all the negotiating, not to fund the Collaborative Ministry Pilot Scheme, won on merit by Scotland in competition with other Districts. The immediate effect of this outcome (apart from a sense of disillusionment) is that for the foreseeable future we shall not be able to participate in a shared ministry with other Scottish Churches, and so we are dependent upon our own resources to supply our pulpit with the assistance of our friends from elsewhere in Scotland. However, there is a great deal more to managing a church than simply finding someone to occupy the pulpit every Sunday. True, there are other religious groups who do not have professional ministers at all, but they function within the narrow limitations of a Creed which defines the nature of the universe they inhabit, their role in it and their obligations to the Supreme Being, their Creator. Spiritual guidance for them comes from their Holy Book, from tradition and from direct contact through prayer with their God who intervenes in their lives. Unitarians, however, are free of such imposed spiritual structures and find their own spiritual fulfilment in their own way. Just as the G.A. is an association of independent congregations, so every Unitarian Church is an association of free individuals, each with his or her own spiritual beliefs. Leadership in this situation is essential to inspire, to educate, to motivate and to promote a vision of community in which everyone may participate. To what extent are any of us aware of our spirituality on an ordinary day-to-day basis? Are we aware that, as we go about our normal, mundane affairs, we also exist on a much more profound level that is untouched by the annoyances and stresses that assail us daily? How do we express our spirituality? Do we do so by trying to give a helping hand to those in need; or do we stop to acknowledge the wonder of existence; or do we try to retain a sense of proportion when things go wrong for us? Our acute consciousness of this world within is one of the defining features of our species. How we explain the the outside world to ourselves, our acceptance of it and our capacity to cope with it are all dependent upon this, our spiritual being. Yet in spite of its importance to us, we know little of its nature, and most of us spend very little time and effort trying to understand it, nourish it and keep it healthy and strong. Indeed, to many it is an irrelevance and to others a mere fantasy. In this secular and materialist. world of ours that so resolutely promotes self-gratification and self-promotion above all else, there is little enough to support our wish to develop our spiritual being. Spiritual leadership, therefore, which acknowledges a reality beyond the practicalities of life and which encourages us to be aware of, to explore and develop it, is essential to our form of worship. A leader with a vision of how this spiritual existence may be communicated to us, consistently, a human being with whom we may engage and develop a trusting and creative relationship, will help us to realise the full potential of our Unitarian cause and encourage us to have faith in its future. Let us hope that such a leader may appear among us soon. Wm. S. Stephen (Editor) Email: william134@btinternet.com or editor@aberdeen-unitarians.org.uk ANNIVERSARY APPEAL - 2009Dear Friends, This month we celebrate our 176th Anniversary. The Rev. John Clifford, who served as G.A. Assistant General Secretary at Essex Hall before his retirement has accepted our invitation to be our Anniversary Preacher on Sunday 11th October at 11.00am. John and his wife Barbara, who are now resident in Scotland, will be the guests of Eva Burnett during the Anniversary weekend. There will be a congregational get-together at 18 Woodend Place, on Saturday 10th from 7.30pm. onwards, to which our members and friends are invited. We embark upon our 177th year without a professional minister in place. There was an intention to establish a Collaborative Ministry Scheme in Scotland in which we would have participated and gained the services of a professional minister. The Executive Committee of the G.A. however, has stated there is no finance available for this project and so we are back where we started, dependent upon our own resources to supply our pulpit and to provide 'rites of passage' services, with the help of our trained lay speakers from the other Scottish Churches, whose support we greatly appreciate. We celebrate our Anniversary joyfully and gratefully; to have maintained our brand of public worship in our city for so many years, is a great achievement and a memorial to the many thousands of Unitarians, whose identities are alas now lost in the mists of time but whose efforts have sustained our Church for almost two centuries. However, there is a serious aspect to our celebration, we are mindful of our debt to the past and our obligation to the future. We must keep faith with our predecessors by creating a viable future for those who succeed us. We are important to our community (although our community may not recognise the fact) in that we maintain a liberal form of religion that is an alternative to traditional Christian denominations and also to the secular materialism which is so dominant at the moment. By providing accommodation for several societies providing education and spiritual support to their members, we contribute to the welfare of our community. We can be proud of what we do, but what we do costs money, and being an independent congregation, we must find that money for ourselves. Our financial strategy is to preserve our capital to ensure support for our future, by depending on live income to pay our day to day expenses. So far this year we have succeeded in doing this (just!) by free giving, fund raising, voluntary service to the Church and spending wisely. Living within our means is an on-going struggle, however, and so we depend upon our annual Anniversary Appeal to keep our head above water towards the end of the financial year, when various accounts have to be paid. We ask all our members and friends to respond generously to this appeal by means of the Special Appeal envelopes included in this Calendar, in the knowledge that every penny donated will help support the important work of our Church today, ensure a vigorous church in the future and aid worthwhile projects in our local community. We wish our Congregation a Happy Birthday and commend all the good work it is doing now and is capable of doing for itself and others in the years to come, Yours, in friendship, R.H.E.Inkson (Chairman); Alan Prosser (Treasurer); Wm. S. Stephen (Secretary). WOMEN'S LEAGUE PROGRAMMESOCTOBER 2009
PASTORAL GREETINGSTo all our members who are housebound, or recovering from surgery or inflicted by pain or who are low in spirits, we express our sympathy and continuing concern for your welfare. We dearly wish you could be present with us at our various congregational meetings. Your absence is deeply felt and you are constantly in our minds. BEETLE DRIVE
AUTUMN FAIRPlease note in your Diary, Sat. 3rd October, 9.30am-12.00pm. the date and time of our Autumn Fair. Please persuade all your friends and relatives to accompany you to Church that morning to swell the numbers enjoying this lively event. We can promise excellent home baking, irresistible Swiss milk toffee, a collection of stylish nearly new garments, fascinating Bric-a-Brac a busker, and a Wheel of Fortune, a Bottle Stall, a Raffle to test your luck and the famous Terrace Cafe catering to whet your appetite. If you can provide the goods or help to sell them, please inform Rhona Stewart at 742361. Rhona will be delighted to hear from you. The competition on the 3rd will be severe and so we need a full muster of our members and friends to make things go with a swing! THE KIRK SOIRÉEFor one night only, on Friday 13th November, we revive the traditional congregational entertainment of the 'Kirk Soirée'. Owing much to the Music Hall of the 19th century, (but rather more decorous), something to the local municipal talent show and a great deal to Saturday nights around the parlour piano, the Kirk Soirée provides songs and poems and funny stories in a rattle-bag of wholesome fun, accompanied by cakes and tasties washed down by gallons of tea. Tickets at £3.00 per person are now available. TABLE TOP SALESaturday 7th November, 2.00pm-3.00pm Kathleen Bruce and Kathleen McGregor have set aside for another of their popular indoor 'Car Boot Sales' when an array of goods, of a nature and category impossible to anticipate or define, will be offered for sale. Private enterprise entrepreneurs who wish to set up a stall on their own behalf may hire a table for £5.00 and retain whatever profit they earn. Customers may enter into the fun for a modest and nominal 20p. CHRISTMAS CRAFT FAIRYule-tide may not be nigh but it is there in the offing. Preparations are in hand. Kathleen Bruce and Kathleen McGregor, as industrious as Santa's little helpers, are creating, collating and collecting Christmas crafts for their Yule tide sale. Stationery, cards, gifts, decorations, table adornments, all in festive garb will be on sale on Saturday 5th December, 10.00am-12.00pm. ARTHUR BRUCE'S CONCERT
EVOLUTION REVISITEDBy Dr. John Robinson In January this year the New Scientist magazine, which is widely regarded as a reliable communicator of recent developments in. science, shocked and angered many of its readers by choosing the title 'Darwin was wrong' for its front cover and one of its feature articles. It was immediately seen by a largely atheist scientific community as playing into the hands of creationists, which of course it has done. Yet the article itself contained very useful information for lay readers. In stating that Darwin was wrong, the New Scientist magazine was merely pointing out that Darwin's concept of a Tree of Life in which the branches provide an illustration of how one species could eventually evolve, from a relatively simple structural form, into numerous more complex structural forms was an oversimplification of evolution. Indeed since Darwin's time the discovery, first of genes, then DNA and now, epigenetics, means that a number of evolutionary scientists now feel that a more appropriate illustration for how we evolved would be a Web of Life. So what you may ask is the scientific basis for a Web of Life? Well, Darwin's Tree of Life was based on the assumption that the passage of traits from parent to offspring involved only vertical transmission. Of course, we now know that this is not the only way in which traits are acquired. Species can acquire traits by lateral transmission from other species. That is how E.coli 0157 and MRSA acquired their exceptional virulence. At first it was thought that this phenomenon of horizontal gene transfer only occurred in bacteria and the lower life forms, but the most recent scientific findings show that viruses can act as nature's gene carriers in the horizontal transmission of genetic material in both plants and animals. Indeed some of the first 'man-made' genetically- modified animals involved the use of virus vectors to carry the foreign gene into the germ line. So much therefore for worrying about GM animals and plants; while society argues about their merits and risks, nature gets on with its evolutionary role of producing them, as it has done for millions .of years. For example, a gene that is required for the formation of the placenta, the structure that is essential for our pre-birth development, came from a virus. Indeed it is now estimated that almost half of our genetic make-up originated from viral sources through horizontal transmission. We live with the view that our beef stake is bovine in composition but in reality it is more of a mixed grill in that around 50 million years ago it was infiltrated with a piece of snake DNA. These happenings, and no doubt many others that will soon be uncovered by modern molecular techniques, have to be accepted as a natural and integral part of evolution's Web of Life. The current advances in our understanding of the mechanisms of evolution are doing to developmental biology what quantum physics did in the. early 20th century to the physical laws of the universe; they are creating uncertainty. It's another example of God playing dice, a phenomenon which is unacceptable to those who believe in the literal description of our origin as set out in the book of Genesis. A dice- playing God merely provides creationists with more justification for their rejection of evolution. For them a six-day creationist God left nothing to chance. Yet, had Darwin's evolution not been seized upon, over thirty years ago, by Richard Dawkins, that most influential communicator of popular science, to promote his militant atheist views, it is quite likely that the New Scientist article could have gone unnoticed. Immediately the article was published Dawkins called for a boycott of the magazine. This was not surprising; implicit in the new research findings on evolution is an undermining of Dawkins' view that Darwinian evolution dispenses with God. But such is Dawkins' influence in scientific circles still, that many other scientists followed his lead and voiced their disapproval of the New Scientist magazine. One can't help wondering what Charles Darwin's reaction would have been to the article; after all, when he made his famous hand drawing of evolution in the form of a tree, over 170 years ago, he wrote beside it 'I think'. Neither its elevation to a position where it was regarded as the perfect portrayal of evolution nor its current fall to imperfection were Darwin's doing; he was too modest to claim the former and, despite his God- like qualities, too mortal to achieve the latter! And this leads me to an aspect of the current bi-centenary celebrations of Darwin's life that 1 find disappointing. Every documentary on Darwin that I have seen on television this year, whether it was scripted by Colin Blakemore, past Head of the Medical Research Council, Andrew Marr, one-time Political Editor for the BBC, or indeed Sir David Attenborough, has been at pains to impress upon its audience that Darwin's evolution provides very strong evidence for the view that God does not exist. Almost all popular science communicators have extended their scientific interpretation of Darwin's Tree of Life in ways that promote atheism. Yet one can't help feeling that Darwin would have been uncomfortable with this interpretation; after all in the second edition of his book 'On the Origin of Species' he wrote these words: 'I see no good reason why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of anyone. A celebrated author and divine has written to me that he has gradually learnt to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms capable of self- development into other and needful forms, as to believe that He required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of His laws'. Darwin didn't see evolution as incompatible with religious belief. Neither did he rule out the possibility that the Tree of Life might be an over simplistic view of evolution. By complete contrast Dawkins, who is now widely regarded as a superb wordsmith when it comes to the popularisation of science, saw his role as Professor of the Public Understanding of Science as one in which the message that evolution equals atheism had to be stressed at every opportunity.. But such a stance seems to me to be dangerous, for even in the public understanding of science evolution is also at work. Society is no longer dominated by a silent majority of uninformed individuals waiting to be educated and to be told what or what not to believe. Many of us now seek to engage in the scientific debate. The move in the communication of new developments in science and technology is now towards a system that actively engages the public. And this move seems to be wrong footing Dawkins. In the past those who have taken issue with him regarding his use of Darwinian evolution to aggressively promote atheism have quickly been dismissed. In response to the palaeontologist/ philosopher Stephen Jay Gould who criticised him on the basis that he should not use science to bring conflict into religion, for the 'teachings of science and religion occupy different domains', Dawkins argued that religion hasn't a monopoly on morality. For him, Biblical claims regarding our origin, the virgin birth, the resurrection of Jesus and the existence and post- death survival of our souls all require scientific proof. The biophysicist and theologian, Alister Mc Grath and his psychologist/deacon wife who responded to his book 'The God Delusion' by writing the book 'The Dawkins Delusion' in which they concentrated on Dawkins' lack of theological knowledge, were immediately accused by Dawkins of riding on the back of his popularity. But now, for the first time to my knowledge, Dawkins has been openly challenged, not only from a religious perspective but also from a modern molecular science one, and his scientific vulnerability is beginning to show. His views on evolution are being seen by some experts in the field as out-dated. Leading the criticism of Dawkins is Fern Elsdon-Baker who is currently working for the British Council on organising the International 'Darwin Now' project. With a doctorate in the history and philosophy of evolutionary theory and up-to-date scientific knowledge of recent research showing that the mechanisms of evolution are a lot more complex than the gross simplification by Dawkins of Darwin's theory, Elsdon-Baker is a daunting challenge to Dawkins. In her recent book, 'The Selfish Genius', a play on Dawkins' book title 'The Selfish Gene', she uses modern scientific arguments to accuse Dawkins of distorting Darwin's theory of evolution. In her view Dawkins' oversimplification and bending of Darwin's evolution in ways that justify his atheist views is doing scientific understanding a great disservice; it is also acting as a recruiting agent for creationism. Dawkins' self- formulated conclusion from Darwin's Origin of Species, that we are merely survival machines for our genes is, in Elsdon-Baker's view, neither what Darwin had in mind, nor is it scientific fact. Yet interestingly, more than thirty years on from his. publication of 'The Sefish Gene' Dawkins seems more convinced than ever about the immortal nature of our genes. He now feels that 'The Immortal Gene' rather than 'The Selfish Gene' might have been a more appropriate title for his book. Had that been the title I can only assume that Elsdon-Baker would have had no option but to title her book 'The Immoral Genius' and, no doubt, that would have been warmly received in religious circles! It does now seem that Dawkins, either by ignoring the findings of modern molecular genetics which embrace the role that epigenetics can play in the acquisition and expression of our traits, or by failing to understand them, has become out- of- date; he has failed to grasp the impact of new research findings on our interpretation of evolution and how we have evolved to our present level of complexity. Evolution bears witness to the malleable nature of our genes and epigenetics plays a supporting role. Contrary to Dawkins' view, genes are also mortal and their loss can, in some cases, have a far more profound effect on the body's form and function than their presence. An excellent recent example of this is the loss of a gene for controlling muscle growth in cattle. This loss results in what can only be described as grotesque double muscling and a body shape so far removed from the norm that one could be forgiven for thinking that, on seeing the animal for the first time, a completely new species had suddenly emerged from the Web of Life. This is just a very brief insight into the new science. But how is it affecting Dawkins' image and reputation? Well, it does seem to be denting his credibility. Also, in a way akin to the splinter groups which so often arise out of what once appeared to be a united warring group, in this case against religion, Dawkins is now seen by a growing number of scientists as the military wing of secularism. Yet, in view of the new scientific findings regarding how genes acquire and transmit the effects that constitute evolution, there are some scientists who would now prefer to be seen, not as belonging to the military wing, but rather to the diplomatic wing. This provides them with the option to approach scientific and indeed religious writings with an open mind. And it is that open minde~ness that has prompted Professor Andrew Parker, one of the top eight scientists in the UK to be selected in the year 2000 as Scientists for the New Century, to write his recent book 'The Genesis Enigma'. The central theme of the book is the remarkable similarity between the Genesis sequence of the events in creation and that which evolution indicates to be the case. Genesis makes it clear that life started in the sea: '.....let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life.' Then followed the birds of the air and then the dry-land animals; exactly the same sequence as evolution's fossil records indicate. How, Parker asks, did the ancient Hebrew writers of the book of Genesis, in the absence of the huge base of scientific knowledge that now contributes to Darwinian evolution, manage to get the sequence right? On the basis that 'by chance' seems far too remote, Parker leans towards some form of divine intervention. For my own part I would opt for our possession of inuate knowledge or intuition regarding our evolutionary origin. I would also suggest that it is intuition that has generated humankind's spirituality and its associated yearning for meaning and purpose iu life. These unique features are, in my view, attributes of humankind that, through evolution's complex Web of Life, have become integral components of our DNA. Far from being mere vehicles for the genes that control these important attributes it is my feeling that we have intuitively played our part in both their acquisition and expression. For this reason I would regard a more constructive and valuable title for Dawkins' book would have been 'The Intuitive Gene'. Given the general tenor of Fern Elsdon-Baker's book, her knowledge of the history of human thought regarding evolution going back to well before the birth of Jesus and her acceptance of humankind's spiritual hankering, I would be surprised if she didn't nod her head in agreement. And, given our privileged position in the Web of Life, we just might find, from now on, that an ability to recognise and embrace the spiritual dimension of our being will be more valuable than the competitive selfishness that, in Dawkins' view, got us here. Such a perspective of our genetic make-up, how we interpret it and how we harness its unique power for good in our lives, goes well beyond Dawkins' view, based on an outdated concept of evolution, that we are nothing more than survival machines for our genes. It involves the acceptance that within our DNA there is a component, probably epigenetic in origin, that research has not yet identified and maybe never will, but which gives us a unique spiritual awareness of our origin and purpose. SPIRITUALITY NOWBy Bill Stephen The recent publication of the new hymnbook, "Sing Your Faith" reminds us that Unitarian worship is a dynamic process, both in its exercise and in its development as it tries to reflect the spiritual needs of our members. The hymns selected and the anthology itself proceed from a contemporary theological background and I thought it might be interesting to analyse the main components of this background, in other words to take a snap-shot of the Unitarian theological landscape at the beginning of the 21st century. Although there are several works describing Unitarian worship practice and beliefs, there is not currently any survey of current Unitarian Theology, probably because such a work might suggest a consistency of belief that does not exist, and given the movements tendency towards innovation, would be out of date as soon as published. By studying the purple hymn book, contributions to the "Inquirer" and a few of the American websites it is possible to compile a picture of contemporary thinking, and to identify certain themes that have a general currency. Unitarian spirituality tends to focus on the meaning and purpose of life, what these may be, how they may be identified and how possession of this knowledge may lead to spiritual fulfilment. Within this general aim there appears to be three specific concerns, the Mystery of Existence, Our Ambiguous Relationship with Existence and our Yearning for Transcendence, all of which are eventually resolved by faith, as I hope to demonstrate later. As Unitarian spirituality is based on human experience, rather than scripture or mythology, these three topics emerge from our awareness of . how we respond to what is happening to us in our life. Our commitment to the principles of Reason, Freedom and Tolerance, influences how we express our spirituality and this has been responsible for the development of a Religious and a Humanist point of view, which more recently have been joined by a third, Wiccan, or Earth Spirit viewpoint, which seeks spiritual enhancement in the close appreciation of Nature, in the changing Seasons and in the festivals and religious beliefs of the ancient Celtic culture. Our sense of who we are, of our worth, of our place in the universe, is intimately linked to the mystery of our origin. Most religions include a creation myth, and the importance of this today is demonstrated in the controversy between the Creationists and the supporters of Intelligent Design on the one hand and Evolutionists on the other. Unitarians support evolutionary theory and the scientific hypothesis for the origins of the Universe, the so called, "Big Bang" theory, while acknowledging that this does not solve the mystery of existence, because it does not explain what happened before the "Big Bang" nor why there should be such a thing as Existence anyway. 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' The universe is energy in the form of matter. Where did this energy come from? "In the beginning", says the writer of St. John's Gospel, "was the word". He used the Greek word, 'Logos' which also means 'thought' or 'reason'. Then he says the "Word was God", equating God with thought, and attributing a spiritual origin to the Universe, implying that spirit gave birth to substance, a paradox and a mystery. Existence invented life, but what invented existence? Our own existence and that of the universe around us is second by second confirmed by our consciousness. Second by second, our world is created by our mind processing the data we receive from our senses. Without our consciousness there would be no existence for us. Is there then some transcendent consciousness, some creative spirit, a source of all being, that initiated and still sustains existence, indeed, may very well be existence? Faced with the mystery of existence the religious and the humanist part company. The humanist, who is uncomfortable with the concept of transcendence, acknowledges the mystery but will not speculate further. The religious, however, following instinct and imaginative insight, crosses the boundary between material and spirit and places his faith in a spiritual final cause. That our origin, as a race and as individuals was there at the very beginning of the Universe, and that life is a remarkable gift to be celebrated, explored to the full in all its varied aspects and cherished, Unitarians agree. We live more profoundly than we realise. We exist on several levels of consciousness, and while we may appear to be fully focused upon what ever is engaging our mind at the moment, we are still subject to other influences deep within, taking control unnoticed, of the decision making process. We have an ambiguous relationship with existence. We are mortal creatures. Our bodies are vulnerable to disease, accident, the elements, famine, the actions of other people and everyone we love and everything we do or create or plan or possess are subject to the ravages of time, and of this we are constantly aware a background to our every waking moment, consisting of many different emotions and none of them pleasant. Simultaneously, we have a concept of eternity and immortality which interacts powerfully with our consciousness of death. We are body; we are now; but we are also mind and free to range across eternity and in spirit (or perhaps in imagination) feel at one with the whole of existence. In our mind we exist simultaneously in the now and in eternity. The spiritual consequences of this are colossal. Some religions cope with it, as does Christianity and Islam, by promising a life after death, others, such as Buddhism by suggesting existence is cyclical and that the spirit survives to inhabit another body, while Taoism believes that each individual life is a wave riding over a cosmic ocean to which it will return for ever when the person dies. Nonreligious groups, such as atheists reject any notion of the survival of individuality after death, and advise acceptance of that fact. While Unitarians hold a wide variety of views on this topic, a few believing in survival after death, some in the idea that the spirit returns to God, others that it is absorbed into spiritual life of the universe, most regard this as an area of mystery and prefer not to commit themselves to any specific idea. (We shall encounter this reluctance to be specific again when we consider Transcendence.) Many Unitarians, particularly the Humanists, think that one life at a time is more than enough to cope with, and that speculation about an after life is an exercise in futility. There is, however, general agreement first of all, that a degree of comfort is to be found in the knowledge that the true essence of the departed lives on in the memories of those who loved and cared for them and that the support and care of the bereaved should be our priority. Our concept of eternity is, like life, a gift to be cherished and celebrated. Its contrast with our mortality should not cast a shadow over our present, even when infirmity, disease, worry and depression make us particularly apprehensive of this mortality, either of ourselves or those we love. Unitarians agree that while acknowledging our responsibilities towards the future, we should try to live for now, taking full advantage of whatever opportunities for happiness and spiritual fulfilment that our life affords. Meaning and purpose are to be found in this life. Loving relationships, the care and consideration of our fellow beings, the exercise of our talents, the protection of the natural world and our delight in the experience of just being, all contribute towards our feeling that our life has been worthwhile and all are dependent upon our commitment to now. The Unitarian approach to our mortality may be expressed simply as, 'live at peace with ourselves and do good to others'. The English poet Robert Browning, when writing about faith referred to the "dangerous edge of things", by which be meant attempting to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time, for instance trying to reconcile things we know for certain with things we can never fully comprehend, the conclusions of reason on the one band, the impressions of instinct on the other. We Unitarians find ourselves balancing on this dangerous edge when we debate the significance of the transcendent in our spiritual beliefs. For instance we are uncertain about what we mean by the word God. Although a number of Unitarians accept the traditional view of God the Father, most would rather not define God, because to do so would be to impose limitations upon a concept that is beyond understanding. Aspects of this God are referred to as Spirit of Love, or Spirit of Life or the Life Force or Source of all Being or as a synonym for all existence. God is that which is beyond our comprehension but which we associate with love, wholeness and perfection. and to which we aspire. While by the exercise of our reason we have as far as we can tell, abandoned superstition, the yearning for some relationship with an ineffable being persists. It is an instinctive awareness that there is a reality beyond the purely physical which enriches our experience of living and reassures us of our significance in the scheme of things, that we are much, much more than we appear to be, that we are the beneficiary of an eternal love. We seek a sense of the miraculous, a sense of eternal possibilities that offers hope beyond human failings and shortcomings. We seek an ethical perfection that ensures the well being of all living things in a world dedicated to freedom and equality. Communicating the awe and wonder inspired by these feelings has over the history of humankind created human art, poetry and music, since only our creative imagination can do justice to the intensity of the experience. There are Unitarians, however, particularly Humanists, who are unconvinced that transcendence is anything more than a figment of the imagination. They accept that we experience life at a deep emotional level, feel a kinship with all living things. are overawed by the beauty and complexity of Nature and seek spiritual fulfilment, all of which may be expressed imaginatively and may be given a heightened significance through an act of worship, but all contained within the compass of the human mind, without recourse to a reality beyond the reach of reason. Aspiration is a reflection of our strong ethical impulse, our conscience, a highly developed sense of human kinship and community that inspires us to deal fairly and compassionately with all living things but particularly with fellow human beings. It inspires us to create a beloved community of our Church, inspired by the teaching ascribed to Jesus of Nazareth and other enlightened sages, where everyone is welcomed and valued for their humanity. All this is embraced in the Humanist interpretation of the term, 'spirituality'. Living on the edge is dangerous, particularly if some people are facing one way and the others in a different direction while everyone wishes to belong to the same community and identifies unity as the fundamental principle of creation. We quote tolerance and a respect for freedom of belief as mitigating factors, but the cement that keeps Unitarians together, I think, is faith. A major difference between a social club or a debating society and a congregation is faith. The congregation is a community based upon faith and hope. Unitarians, in spite of shrinking membership, closing churches and diminishing resources, have faith in life, faith in human nature and faith in the ultimate goodness of existence. Of course there is evil, virulent evil, but it is not the fundamental nature of creation, if it were the human race would have perished from this earth aeons ago. Evil erupts into a landscape of harmony and compassion, spreads its misery and devastation, and then subsides. Wounds are healed, ruins rebuilt, harmony is restored and hope is reborn. Faith is the reconciling factor that holds the religious and the humanist together in the Unitarian movement; faith in the goodness of creation or faith in the ultimate goodness of humankind. Faith is not an easy option, particularly for the sceptically minded as many Unitarians are. Cynicism, disappointment, frustration, betrayal are all familiar alternatives to optimism and all enemies of faith, but there is a Unitarian conviction that love and benevolence are stronger than these negative responses to experience and that it is our aim in life to assert their supremacy. The title of the purple hymn book, "Sing Your Faith" is well chosen. While the collection includes hymns from the religious, humanist and earth-spirit traditions, it tries to show that as well as loyalty to our cause, the cement that binds us all together is faith, the quality that sustains us and remains constant, as we continue to explore our spirituality in the time to come. It has been suggested that Unitarianism has run its course, has nothing new to offer the religious community as a whole apart from fanciful notions and meaningless rituals, but I think any serious study of Unitarian Theology will show that it is a serious and responsible movement whose basis for belief is firmly founded in human experience and whose insights into human spirituality help us to understand our role and purpose in this world. |
