Issue 8059

THE

INQUIRER £1 | Issue 8059 | 13 May 2023

Inside this issue…

Great Hucklow Peace Pole Showing up for ‘the big one’ A tribute to Marion Baker

www.inquirer.org.uk

The voice of British and Irish Unitarians and Free Christians

View from the crow’s nest Unitarian Chief Officer Elizabeth Slade scans the horizon

Great Hucklow Peace Pole

Shown above: The Rev John Carter, chair of the Unitarian Peace Fellowship, led the service of dedication.

Shown right: John Carter, GA President Vince McCully and Ed Fordham, Great Hucklow lay leader. Photo by John Hewerdine. All other photos by Shreya Jha

Ed Fordham writes of creating a Peace Pole at Great Hucklow

Learning the cost of peace I have travelled long distances to visit, photograph and pay my respects to many war memorials around the world.

These have been connected either to my own story or to my own interests in military history.

When in Sierra Leone I came across peace poles in marketplaces and in civic centres – in the aftermath of one of the most bloody and grim civil wars it was a clear ambition to learn the cost of peace.

In conversation with the late Rev General Assembly, we opened with Ernest Baker, I worried about the a statement in Ukrainian and EnOld Chapel at Great Hucklow beglish from the Ukrainian Embassy ing closed for much of the week thanking us for our undertaking.

“A small chapel with a due to a small congregation. It was We had poems and prayers read commitment to social Ernest who suggested that I look to

by Hazel Warhurst, Marion Baker our values and find ways of expressand Judith Short. I myself had the justice – and we are ing those not just within the chapel honour of wearing a knitted stole seeking to live our but outside the chapel – visible to in Ukrainian yellow and blue made the visitor and tourist, even when especially for the occasion faith.” the chapel was closed.

The Peace Pole is surrounded by At the same time, relations in candles and poppies and is framed Crimea were getting steadily worse by trees. It sits in glorious statement and it was not long after that the overlooking our Peak District. stream of Ukrainian refugees startThere has been talk of pilgrimages ed arriving in the UK and into Great Hucklow itself. between other Peace Poles. Which chapel will be next and The Peace Pole is a declaration to speak for peace, to work when we look back in four or five years how many others for peace, to fight for peace and to make a commitment will we count across our UK movement? (In 2018, Lewfor peace. I can’t deny some trepidation as I worry that I isham Unity marked the 120th anniversary of the foundmight not have the moral courage personally to stand up ing of their congregation with the creation of a Peace for peace in the face of future wars and conflicts.

Pole.)

The Rev John Carter, minister of Lincoln and Hull ChaAt Hucklow we started with a conversation. We decided pels, and chair of the Unitarian Peace Fellowship has been to act; we were supported and advised by others and we my ‘Peace Pole mentor’ these last three years. Through have now achieved our goal. As I stood with John Hewhis gentle guidance we bought the wood locally – rougherdine in the closing light of that Friday, I felt a deep hewn, we collectively as a congregation and trustees sense of pride at what we had done. A small chapel with a sanded it smooth and discussed long its height, whether it commitment to social justice – and we are seeking to live should be painted or carved and what it should say if anyour faith. I think this small painted pole may turn out to thing. be one our proudest ever days and one of the single most And so on Friday 28 April we 67 people gathered in the significant things I will ever achieve. Please, do come visit. garden of the chapel for the inauguration and blessing of We want to show it off to you. the Peace Pole. Led by Liza Bohdan, a Ukrainian residing Ed Fordham is a trustee and lay leader at Old Chapel, in Huckow and Vince McCully, president of the Unitarian Great Hucklow. www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 3

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www.unitarian.org.uk Page 4 | Issue 8059 – 13 May 2023

Inquiring Words…

Science can teach us, and I think our hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supporters, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make the world a fit place to live.

Bertrand Russell

Off to church with granny Bertrand Russell’s tenuous Unitarian connection

By Alan Ruston John Midgley writes in the 1 April Inquirer about reading the philosopher Bertrand Russell’s Autobiography (1967) and recalls being told that he had something of a family Unitarian connection. Following the death of his parents in the 1870s, Bertrand (1872-1970, the third Earl Russell) was brought up by his grandmother, Frances, Countess Russell (1815-1898). John adds, ‘I don’t know if he ever attended Unitarian worship.’

The answer is very probably yes, but only briefly as a teenager. The Russell family, for generations the Dukes of Bedford, has a long and much written about history. His grandfather Lord John Russell, the first Earl Russell (17921878) was twice Prime Minister and was much admired by Unitarians, for he had pressed and secured many of the liberties of nonconformists in the 1830s and 1840s. On his retirement from politics, a deputation of Unitarians went to see him to offer tributes and thanks for what he had done to secure their civil rights.

His second wife Frances had a very active mind and by about 1880 had taken on Unitarian views. She lived at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park, and was involved in its early years with Richmond Unitarian Church, founded in 1888. Her son Rollo Russell, Bertrand’s uncle, was a member of the church; he had published a book of psalms admired by Unitarians, and like his mother had an obituary in The Inquirer. Bertrand Russell mentions his early rejection of Unitarianism in his Autobiography, but as a teenager is unlikely to have avoided attending the occasional service with his forceful and dominant grandmother.

Alan Ruston is a Unitarian historian and a member of the Watford Fellowship Correction: In the 18 March issue of The Inquirer, a photo from the film Black Narcissus was mislabelled.

The actor in the picture is Deborah Kerr, playing the role of Sister Clodagh.

Gérard Niyungeko writes of his Burundi congregation’s support of LGBTQ+ people

Welcoming with joy

Shown above: Members of the UU Fraternity of Rutana

Our Unitarian Universalist Congregation is the second in our country and is located in the Southern Province of Burundi. It is called ‘Unitarian Universalist Fraternity of Rutana’ (Fraternité Unitarienne Universaliste de Rutana, in French). LGBTQ+ people in our country need a meeting place that is not official because the government and other churches are against the existence of these people. Our congregation welcomes them with joy and love like all other people.

The UU community of Rutana is committed to respect for human rights, justice and inclusive education.

Like everyone else, our LGBTQ+ friends and brothers were born with a specific sexual orientation. Nevertheless, even the government denies their existence as it is a separate society and has no place in our country. The Anglican Church in Burundi, which is supported in large part by the Church of England, has just communicated to its followers that the decision of the Church of England to bless same-sex marriage has no place in our country. The Anglican bishops in our country continue to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. Even the Catholic Church does not recognize the existence of LGBTQ+ people.

When the police see people involved, even a simple dialogue, these people are beaten and tortured. But they exist, and they need the rights that protect them. The only way, for the moment, is to support them psychologically and financially. Associations can be created in their favour and awareness and health supervision.

Pupils and students have failed their studies because of sexual orientation not accepted by their parents and their peers. In our congregation, we were able to pay the school fees for three students. For lack of sufficient means, we were unable to continue this year.

LGBTQ+ people need protection against sex-related diseases, but unlike heterosexual people they struggle to get treatment. This requires training workshops on sexual health. Training and sex education devices for good health and good management of sexual orientation are necessary.

Those who were rejected need health care costs.

LGBTQ+ people in Burundi feel like a minority community without freedom rights. Being rejected by other people and the government is a psychologically threatening action. Discrimination is promoting gender-based violence

which must be eradicated at all costs. This will require encounters in a safe environment where any LGBTQ+ person feels comfortable when they are with their sexual counterpart. Providing help with entrepreneurial opportunities help them to live at ease. Meetings to encourage dialogue and sharing are very important which help them feel a sense of security to think freely and offer some social integration.

We want to promote our UU faith through a readable action of letting others live, while growing our way of thinking. A religion free for the search for truth, freedom to believe in love and respect for human life, justice and gender equity would make our community a liberal religion that fights for respect for gender.

We have a program to donate health care costs and pay school fees with psychosocial support for LGBTQ+ people. We organise dialogue and training workshops, talking about respect or human rights, justice for all, equity and the fight against gender-based violence. In the same vein, our congregation plans to establish an LGBTQ+ self-financing project. It is a program that will cost us 12,000 USD if we have the financial support for a period of 12 months. Your financial participation is welcome at our congregation to support our friends.

LGBTQ+ people in our country need a meeting place that is not official because the government and other churches are against the existence of these people. Our congregation welcomes them with joy and love like all other people.

The UU community of Rutana is committed to respect for human rights, justice and inclusive education.

Gérard Niyungeko is minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fraternity of Rutana in Burundi.

For more information, or to help, email Gérard Niyungeko: gerardniyungeko@gmail.com www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 5

Chief Officer Elizabeth Slade sees a future of change

View from the crow’s nest At last year’s General Assembly meetings, I said how in my role it feels like I’m up in the crow’s nest, with a particular vantage point looking out over our flotilla of little boats. I want to share with you what I can see from here now, and so we can think about how to respond to it together.

When I look out, there are three parts of our context, our circumstances that I want to talk about. The first is our place in Britain’s religious landscape.

The 2021 census results were refrom the Christian think tank leased a few months ago and show Theos, that looks more closely at that there have been big shifts in what people do believe if they idenpeople’s religious identity in just the tify as non-religious. I’d encourage “The landscape is last 20 years. you to read that, but the headline is The number of people identifying that a significant proportion of the different now, and to as Christian has dropped, and the non-religious have a huge appetite meet people where number saying they have no relifor spiritual community and they’re gion has increased. So what does not finding what they need in trathey are today, we must that mean for us? What struck me ditional religions. Spiritual inquiry is listen to their stories.” is what a short space of time in our important to people, and only one Unitarian timeline this change has third of the non-religious are not happened in. And beyond these open to religion – others are open changes in the religious landscape, and inquiring, and finding their own the technological, political and soways to practise a spiritual life. cial changes are happening quicker than ever before.

See: https://tinyurl.com/GA2022Report ) I know that many Unitarians were part of this community So the people coming to a Unitarian community for the 20 years ago, and although we have changed, there is also first time today are coming from a very different cultural much that has stayed the same. Our congregations have standpoint than the ones who arrived 20 years ago, or 20 offered a place of stability, and religious groups of course years before that. The landscape is different now, and to can look over a longer timespan than others. While society meet people where they are today, we must listen to their changes, the values and principles that we hold on to stay stories, and not assume they’re the same as our own. If I the same. It’s the way that we express them that adapts. think back even to a decade ago when I was first going to a Unitarian congregation, there have been huge cultural Cultural change changes – in particular that have put spirituality more The challenge though, is that most of our congregations firmly into the mainstream, that weren’t there when I are smaller now than they were 20 years ago. So while trepidatiously stepped through the door for the first time. these big cultural changes have been happening, we have And we know that the language can be such a barrier – had fewer people in our communities to navigate them. words like ‘church’ and ‘God’ and ‘worship’ can come with I wonder whether it would even be possible for any cona lot of stigma. We need to be able to have the conversagregation to keep adapting to the pace of change. I don’t tions to work through the assumptions about what those want to stay at those headline figures of Christian vs ideas mean or don’t mean to us. It can be easy to forget non-religious. We of all people know that religious identity when we’re used to talking in Unitarian circles, that some is more complex than that. of the things we take for granted might seem radically In our annual report I say more about the recent report different to the ideas about religion that most people hold.

Page 6 | Issue 8059 – 13 May 2023

Find what makes you come alive We can also be showing people what our core principles mean – not just telling them. The most direct way to show what we stand for is to embody it ourselves – to align ourselves to our values (and admit when we fail to), and to let ourselves be shining advocates for what is best about our community.

The second part of our context that feels important to mention is our membership. It’s not news to anyone here that our membership has been dwindling for some time. A full 50% of congregations have fewer than 20 members.

Three-quarters of our members are over 70 years old.

Looking for energy and vision We have a small number of people spread thinly to crew this precious fleet. In most cases the limited resource is not money, but energy or vision. Energy and vision might not be found in the same places that they were 20 years ago, and after the disruption of covid, they might not be in the same places they were three years ago. But energy and vision can often be found in unexpected places. And, once they are found, things can happen very quickly.

A third part of our context today is the climate crisis. I know that Unitarians are a ‘clued-up’ audience. It was back in 1994 that this GA membership passed a motion highlighting the risk to the ‘foundation of our continued existence’ of environmental damage, calling for economic and social policies that would have ‘far-reaching implications for our way of life’. We know that the ecological crisis is not just another item in the list of concerns about the world. That motion was nearly 30 years ago, and the people born since then are bearing the brunt.

Research published in 2021 in The Lancet medical journal shows that 45% of 16-25 year olds have their daily life affected by the anxiety that they’re feeling about the environmental crisis.

I was staggered by that figure: 45% of young people have their daily life affected by climate anxiety. Apparently, for my age group, it’s 5%.

They feel sad, angry, powerless, helpless, despair, hurt, grief…

The cause of anxiety is not just the direct concerns about the impact of climate breakdown, but also the inaction of governments and older adults. Large numbers of young people see governments as failing to act, and feel betrayed and ‘stranded by a generational gap’. And they can feel people’s defence mechanisms against their anxiety as dismissive, or negating their experience.

The paper goes on to say that factors known to protect against the impact of these kinds of negative emotions on mental health include psychosocial resources, coping skills, and agency, and in having their feelings and views heard, validated, respected and acted upon. (See: https:// tinyurl.com/Lancet-Climate ) We can help.

What does it look like if we open our doors to those who are experiencing this climate anxiety? This isn’t the

language that we use ourselves, but our congregations already are what The Lancet calls ‘psychosocial resources’.

It’s what we always have been. Through the wisdom and practice we carry, we can offer ‘coping skills’, and by offering the opportunity to get involved in congregational decisions, we provide agency. We can listen to their feelings, and give them space. And we can work alongside them to do what we can to make a difference. These younger generations may be struggling the most, but of course these benefits are there for anyone. Yes, we can take action to help prevent further climate damage, but we can also take action by throwing open our doors wider.

So we’ve heard the context. What it all tells me, is that we’re needed.

Hold on and let go And in order to be welcoming to people in a way that meets them where they are, we need to hold on to some things, let go of others, and allow ourselves to change, knowing that if we do, we ourselves will be changed.

Change isn’t something we do to other people – it’s what we allow to happen in ourselves.

This line from Howard Thurman is written on a chalkboard in the Torquay chapel, and it’s also in a prominent place on the GA website, and no doubt lots of other places across our ecosystem.

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

It’s an idea that has led me to doing this work. Because what makes me come alive is helping other people come alive, in the kinds of communities like the one that helped me know that was even a thing that could happen.

A greater sense of aliveness I have seen in so many people the incredible things they can do when they are tuned into a greater sense of aliveness, being more connected to our common humanity, more in tune with the common good. Whatever language you might use for it, I suspect that there’s something similar that means you’re part of this movement.

This is what we do. And this is what is needed by so many people in this country today.

We know that change is needed in many parts of our movement. But I see that change as a doubling-down on what’s important. And, that means really checking what is important, and what’s needed here, now. We may need to let go of some things that we will be sad to lose. And we will hold on to others that are so needed for these times. It won’t be the same in every congregation. We are a constellation of stars that each have a unique shine and twinkle.

May we all find what makes us come alive, and bring it lovingly back to our communities.

Elizabeth Slade is chief officer of the Unitarian General Assembly. www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 7

Elizabeth Slade pays tribute to EC Convenor Marion Baker

Too much to sum up

Shown above: Marion Baker was presented with a plant in appreciation for her service. GA photo by Aaron Scott Richards

Marion Baker stepped down as convenor and as a member of the Unitarian General Assembly’s Executive Committee at the annual meetings. This is a tribute offered by Chief Officer Elizabeth Slade: Many in our movement have known Marion for a very long time, and will already have a sense of how marvellous a convenor she has been. And I know there are many who haven’t crossed paths with her. But I don’t think there are many people in our movement who haven’t benefited from her work.

I’m not going to try to sum up all tion, a wise course will unfold, and it of Marion’s work in her role as does. We’ve seen this time and time convenor because there would be again in EC meetings. too much to say. And I don’t think I’m grateful for the trust Marion that’s even an exaggeration. So I will has put in me. She’s let me make just share a bit of my personal expemistakes, and what I’ve learnt “Her leadership allows rience of working alongside her for from them has strengthened my the last four years. judgement and deepened my unother people to shine.”

I first met Marion in my interderstanding of the Unitarian moveview for this role – along with Rob ment. She’s encouraged me to get Whiteman, Philip Colfox, and Paul on with things when she’s seen that Parker, my counterpart at the I’m on the right track, and she’s Quakers. My main impression then given me space to work things out. was that she was measured and She’s recognised and respected the calm and kind – and smiled a lot. As professionalism of the staff team. convenor, she’s the EC member I’ve worked most closely Her leadership allows other people to shine. with, and it’s been a complete pleasure and privilege to get I know that she’s given a listening ear and been a calm to know her. sounding board, to many of you, as well as to me.

In a world where gung-ho alpha-male leadership can still I admire her integrity, her discernment, and of course I be seen as the default, it’s been valuable and inspiring to don’t think I’ve been in a meeting or a zoom call with her witness Marion’s collaborative leadership style in action. where there hasn’t been a fair amount of laughing.

She brings cast iron expertise in the management, finance Most of all I have felt encouraged by Marion. And that’s and governance side of things, and is unfazed by knotty what I feel she has done in her time on the EC, ‘encourproblems. What is a rare gift is that Marion combines this aged’ in its original meaning, ‘to put the heart into’. expertise with a deep understanding of what makes people Although she leaves the EC, she, of course, has fingers tick. She has the kind of well-honed practice that makes in many Unitarian pies (being on the board of Unitarian her work seem – from the outside – to be effortless. I’ve College, which in her time on the EC she played such a yet to encounter a challenge that Marion hasn’t taken key part in setting up, and being a trustee of the Ministers calmly in her stride.

Pension Fund, and of course the management committee I have learned so much from her these last four years, of the Nightingale Centre to name just three). I’m sure seeing the way she lets things unfold, without trying to there will be new adventures ahead too. control or dominate. She trusts that with careful attenElizabeth Slade is chief officer of the GA. Page 8 | Issue 8059 – 13 May 2023

What’s in a name?

I have a friend who, whenever we get into conversations about more meaningful things, always says to me that ‘more will be revealed’. Well it seems that more was revealed to me recently. I learnt the true origin of my name.

It seems I am named after an ‘oss (a horse to most normal-speaking folk). My mum recently told me that my grandma loved Old Testament names, especially David – which would have been my mum’s name if she had been a boy, and is my auntie’s son’s name. When my mum was pregnant with me, the second son was going to be called David. My older brother was named Billy, after my dad and grandad.

Well, it seems that my grandad’s favourite ‘oss, a mare named Dolly, had a foal named Billy and then another called Danny. While my mum was pregnant she would see the foals together, and she thought Billy and Danny sounded good together and brotherly.

So it seems that ‘David Daniel’ became ‘Daniel David’, although I have never, ever, been known as Daniel. Always Danny after what my mum described as a lovely playful foal.

My paternal grandad had wanted to name me after his little brother Harry who had died when he was a small child. I am told I looked a lot like him as a little boy. But my mum wouldn’t have it. Compromises had to be made, and no kid was called Harry in those days. She had actually wanted to call me and my brother Otis and Levi, as she was a big Motown fan. But I am not sure that would have worked in small Yorkshire town in the 1970s. My brother later changed his name to Otis. It kind-of worked for him, as he is a musician. I have always felt happy with Danny.

I’m kind-of pleased I was named after an ‘oss.

Many people don’t go by the name on their birth certificates, not just musicians like our Otis. I remember attempting many years ago to visit a member of my congregation. I asked for Molly Clarke at Wythenshawe hospital and was told there was no one there by that name. I had to think quickly, and remembered somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind that Molly had another name. Her birth name was Enid Mary, though she had always been called Molly.

Naming can be a tricky business. Names describe things, but never fully a person or situation or thing. As Paul Tillich said, ‘That which reveals, also hides.’ I suspect it is true with naming of things. As Justin Sullivan sang, ‘Trouble always begins in the naming of things. Like Gods and desires, lines in the sand.’

People change their names for a variety of reasons. Folk adopt stage names. Sometimes in naming things, we close and seal them. I have been known by other names like ‘Dan Denver’ and even ‘Mr Jolly’ (although, in truth, that was the name of the band, not me). A friend use to call me ‘Danny Darko’. In some Christian traditions people

FROM NOTHING TO EVERYTHING

By Danny Crosby

take on confirmation names. There are many other reasons too. Companies, political parties, even places and sports teams change their names – often in an attempt to rebrand something.

As Daniel C Matt wrote in God and the Big Bang: We need names to navigate through life, but those very names obscure the flowing continuum. Behind each handy name is a teeming reality that resists our neat definitions. If this is true of the names we assign to the hundreds of thousands of things of this world, how much more so with our names for God, for the Oneness of it all.

It seems we are nothing without a name; well, actually, not always. Some of the most memorable characters in cinema history were nameless. Such as Clint Eastwood’s character in the Serge Leone’s Spaghetti Western Trilogy, The Man With No Name; or Sam Elliott’s character in The Big Lebowski, who was simply known as ‘the Stranger’; or Charlie Chaplin’s nameless ‘Little Tramp’. Or ‘The Doctor’ in Dr Who. ‘Who’ is not the Doctor’s name. Dr Who is the name of the series, he – and now she – is simply named ‘The Doctor’. ‘Fleabag’, in the series by Phoebe WallerBridge is not named, she is just known as ‘Fleabag’.

Most of us have a name. We are known by our names.

When we introduce ourselves we usually say, ‘hello my name is …’ Our names are one way of connecting to others.

There can be other types of calling people by one-word names that are less connecting and inviting. They can be quite the opposite. I am not going to name such names here, but I am sure we can all think of some. They are often powerful words used to exclude people and make them feel somehow less than welcome. Such words deny the inherent worth and dignity of people, they reduce them to lesser people, or they try to. I am sure we can all recall such words and name calling. We should call one another by names of love and not names of shame.

So, what’s in a name? Well maybe this is something to think about. Why are you called by your name? What do you think of your name? Would you consider changing it?

Perhaps you have? If so why? What other names, nouns and pro-nouns describe who you are? Do you live up to your name?

Me, I’m happy I was named after an ‘oss, I’m just glad it wasn’t a horse with no name.

Robert Oulton writes of ‘The Big One’ a climate protest which drew Unitarians

We have to try UK Unitarians join 60,000 others in London on ‘Earth Day’ for the biggest climate protest yet.

This New Year’s Day, the Extinction Rebellion (XR) community was shaken by a stark statement put out from XR’s national organising hub which said, ‘We Quit’. Was this ‘New Year message’ a declaration of intention to disband? It seemed unbelievable after five years of sometimes challenging climate activism, and so contrary to everything about the climate crisis’ accelerating urgency, XR activists understood.

Despite government rhetoric, ‘green policies, international conferences and increasingly dire warnings from the UN, global CO2 emissions were still rising at too fast a rate for a 1.5-degree limit. Species extinction was accelerating and extreme weather events becoming more frequent; and plans to open a new UK deep coal mine, and exploit new North Sea oil and gas fields.

Yes, it had been tough over the intervening years with Covid lockdowns and the UK government and media preferring to demonise climate protestors rather than address the climate emergency itself; but why quit now with the peril facing our global community undiminished?

The answer was XR was not quitting but looking to build a much bigger alliance with organisations and individuals, all wanting to see urgent action on climate change but without breaking the law or inconveniencing the public. So, the ‘quitting’ was all about foregoing arrestable direct action, not abandoning the struggle for a sustainable future for life on our planet.

But in typical, irrepressible XR style, the ambition was big and bold. By 21 April XR intended to build a movement of 100,000 like-minded people to come to Westminster and collectively express our concern for our planet’s sustainable future, and the need for action now. The gathering was to be called ‘The Big One’.

Over that 100 days, UK XR groups made local and national connections, as more and more organisations – green, ecological, social justice, trade union, faith groups and many more – committed to come or expressed their support.

Unitarians alert to the climate crisis had also picked up on what XR was doing and began to express a wish to be involved and add our voice at this big national event where Buddhists, Quakers and ‘Christian Climate Action’, were all planning to be present. The new Unitarian book about the ecological crisis edited by the Rev Maria Curtis – Nurturing the Earth, Nourishing the Spirit powerfully showed how our world’s travails are as much those of the spirit and the soul, as of biological and life systems. As people of faith, we had to be involved.

From a GA meeting about climate hosted by GA officers, Lizzie Kingston-Harrison and Ann Howell and drawing on the powerful message taken from Rev Winnie Gordon’s anniversary service that ‘Climate Justice’ was the most important social justice issue, a group of interested people came together, made a ‘WhatsApp’ group, and planned for a Unitarian presence on the biggest day of ‘The Big One’ – Saturday 22 April – ‘Earth Day’. The centre piece of the day was to be a big march round Westminster to celebrate the beautiful diversity of the natural world as well as our collective fear for its future.

With very little time to forward plan, about 20 Unitarians from chapels as far apart as Cardiff, Hinkley, Brighton and Framlingham managed to gather near the ‘Faith Hub’ just by Parliament Square at noon, form up behind their own banner, carrying placards announcing, ‘Unitarians for Climate Justice’, some in costume, and join with the exhilaration of one of the biggest climate demonstrations ever in London, estimated at 60,000 people.

As the march ended in front of Parliament, participants all Continued on page 11 >

Page 10 | Issue 8059 – 13 May 2023

Photos provided by Robert Oulton

We have to try Continued from page 10 >

lay down in the street in a symbolic mass ‘die-in’ to highlight the coming mass extinction of so many species and our deep fear that we also could be numbered amongst the earth’s vanished species. The recorded bird song on our phones; the drums, the happy excited voices, all fell silent, while the haunting ‘Lost Words Blessing’ music played above the thousands of inert bodies outside our ‘Mother of Parliaments’. We felt a sense of connection and hope – as late as it now is. The way to a better future is still open – just.

For some Unitarians, it was the first protest march they had ever gone on, and one voice summed up how many of us felt: I felt alternating despair and faint hope about manmade climate change; to me it’s a weight always on my mind.

I was there on my first demonstration – encouraged by the

knowledge that my own chapel and other ‘Unis’ were coming along too. So, thanks, we have to try’.

This hastily convened ‘Unitarians for Climate Justice’ group – those at the demonstration and those who supported it – are determined this will be the beginning of something for our Unitarian movement and we will meet soon to plan how to channel this deeply felt need to make a difference.

We have to try.

For more information on Unitarians for Climate Justice, contact Lizzie Kingston-Harrison: EKingston@unitarian. org.uk Robert Oulton is a member of Godalming Unitarians and is an XR member. www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 11

Oh source of all beauty May we see the beauty in the humble and unexpected: the patient spider and the wayside flower, the daisy and the buttercup; the wheeling of silver birds against a leaden sky.

May we manifest the sacred art of love in all our words and deeds, and to forgive ourselves and begin again when we fail.

May we tread gently on the Earth who is our holy Mother and protect her from harm.

May we honour the sacred in the everyday: a smile, a look, a word; a simple act of kindness; a meal shared, or help with mending.

Amen.

Yvonne Aburrow A prayer available on Worship Words https://worshipwords.unitarian.org.uk Photo by Ronny Overhate