Issue 8062

THE

INQUIRER £1 | Issue 8062 | 22 June 2023

Mystic Sweat Arek Malecki asks if gyms are the new churches

Inside this issue…

A journey towards Paradise Celebrating Pride It’s a Funny Old World

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INQUIRER

Arek Malecki considers the intersection of fitness and faith

Mystic Sweat I stepped outside; my body’s still warm. Heart’s pumping, lungs feel gigantic in the chest, I can feel the blood rushing through every vein. There is a sharpened awareness of every part of my body, every muscle fibre. Each breath is incredibly deep and satisfying. The loud music slowed my racing mind down, before it got soothed by the meditation at the end. Now, everything is steadied. The sun shines on my face. Gentle spring rain, a little more than mist, hits my skin.

The air smells fresh. I am present. Eva stationary bike to the beat of the erything within and without suddenly music. It is known for its ambiance: “Raphael draws parallels feels special and connected. There are the low-lit studios feature flashing no adequate words to describe this inlights, energizing music, motivating between the language tense feeling, but if you’ve experienced instructors, and enthusiastic riders.) of fitness and the it, you’ll recognise it. It brings the The gym experience can be deeply promise that everything is precisely immersive with its own rituals and language of religion … where it’s supposed to be. It’s so deepsymbols. Raphael draws parallels terms like ‘connection’, ly profound that it makes me want to between the language of fitness laugh out loud because I remember and the language of religion, noting ‘devotion’, or ‘sacrifice’ that living is so good. the use of terms like ‘connection’, in both contexts.”

I typed the above words on my ‘devotion’, or ‘sacrifice’ in both conphone, moments after completing texts. three gym classes back-to-back. It’s Brown University researchers found been over a year since I qualified as in 2021 that exercise class particia group exercise instructor, and every day I keep discovpants often spoke about their relation to one another and ering parallels between spirituality and group exercise. My their instructor, speaking of ‘the expression of feelings and fascination with this topic led me to undertake dissertathe installation of hope’. For people who come to classes, tion research into contemporary expressions of spiritualithis intrinsic motivation often outweighs the potential of ty, interviewing ‘gym rats’ about their perception of group bodily transformation. One class participant commented exercise as spiritual practice. to Raphael: In the recent book The Gospel of Wellness, a journalist Rina I can shut out to the world and my own thoughts for a while...

Raphael, critically analyses – among other things – ‘gym you don’t have time to fathom if you potentially chose the as church’. She recognises that exercise classes can offer a wrong career. You are jumping so hard that your shitty ex sense of community and meaning that is often associated melts into the abyss... Nothing else exists, for you have one with religion. task and one task only: complete the burpee. You are, for ‘I can never live anywhere where there’s not a SoulCycle!’ once, present. said one member in a Harvard Divinity School report on Such an altered state is created by the combination of nonreligious communities. One of SoulCycle’s straplines music with movement, similar to the way electric dance is: ‘We move people to move the world.’ (Classes combine music concerts inspire euphoric emotions. Morgan GeHIIT, resistance training, and strength training while riding rard, in his essay on the ritualistic dimension of the underContinued on page 4 > www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 3

“The immersive experience the instructors create attracts pastoral conversations from their ‘congregants’.”

Shown left: Arek Malecki (centre) celebrates with a class. Photo provided by Arek Malecki

Continued from page 3 >

ground rave culture and the DJ’s Techniques of Liminality, quotes author Tara McCall who wrote about her euphoric experiences of the dancefloor, which are strikingly similar to that of a fitness class: I come to have my soul awakened. The music thunders through my flesh, the notes swim through my veins. DJs spin their scriptures with eloquence, zest and assurance. The bass rattles my lungs and beats in unison with my heart. If I close my eyes, I can watch my flesh melt away and my soul rise between the spaces of sound.

Likewise, exploring Liberation and the Rave Imaginary Graham St John cites the so-called Raver’s Manifesto, which talks about ‘sharing the uncontrollable joy we feel from creating this magical bubble that can, for one evening, protect us from the horrors, atrocities, and pollution of the outside world. It is in that very instant, with these initial realisations, that each of us was truly born.’

Yoga and ‘mystical religion’ Similarly, the participants in Spirituality and ‘Mystical Religion’ in Contemporary Society: A Case Study of British Practitioners of the Iyengar Method of Yoga, published in the Journal of Contemporary Religion reported that for them the importance of Yoga is in movement, ‘giving meaning to being alive, bringing a sense of sanity’, and providing ‘a contradiction to the rat race’. The research concludes that those practicing yoga tend to revolve around what can be described as ‘mystical religion’.

Such experience curated by movement and music, heightened by the adrenaline and endorphin rush, can lead to participants opening up to their ‘fitness pastors’. As an instructor myself, I know that the instructor-participant connection, albeit brief, can be intense. Raphael quotes a gym enthusiast: Your foot was on the same beat as their foot was on, and all of a sudden it became connected, and it became tribal... The

music was amazing, and an instructor is telling you that you could be more than you thought you could be... There’s something about a moving meditation with other people... that are there to elevate you so that they can be elevated as well.

Gym goers seek respite and connection This can be problematic as instructors rarely happen to be mental health professionals or pastoral carers ‘by day’. Yet the immersive experience they create attracts pastoral conversations from their ‘congregants’. Some of my class participants have spoken to me about poor mental health, self-harm, relationship problems, illness in family, addiction and bereavement. Raphael notes that people often come to gyms deeply wounded or dissatisfied with their life situation, seeking respite and connection. Rhythmic exercise routines are indeed calming. Intentional repetitive actions can redirect focus away from anxious and depressive thoughts, lulling us into a relaxing trance.

American Friends of Tel Aviv University researchers found that such repetitive ritualistic behaviour can increase people’s belief that they can manage situations that are otherwise out of their hands. But, unlike religion, gyms have not had centuries to develop frameworks that help to manage difficult life situations and crisis, or to mark life’s milestones.

This led me to exploration of the existing provision for spiritual care at fitness centres. A quick Google search revealed that fitness chaplains are already a thing! The Sports Chaplaincy UK even has a branch of Gym Chaplaincy. But it is still an extremely niche area.

Critics may say that a community built around the ability to exercise is superficial, that it is being alone together.

However, people often create close-knit friendship groups at gyms and support one another in and outside the studio. Raphael cites an instructor who said that for some people classes can feel like the church they were never Continued on page 5 >

Page 4 | Issue 8062 – 22 June 2023

“I do not want to suggest that gyms are wonderfully inclusive, and churches are not.

While the gym can provide a sense of spiritual fulfilment, it is ultimately a for-profit enterprise.”

Continued from page 4 >

quite welcome at. ‘When instructors mouth Lady Gaga’s lyrics such as “I’m beautiful in my way, ‘cause God makes no mistakes”, [the LGBTQ+] people can feel seen in a way that feels nearly therapeutic, a radical acceptance in a society that doesn’t always extend it.’

I have a memory of one class I attended at the end of a long day of theology lectures. An openly queer instructor had us jumping plyometric lunges to the beat of a remixed version of Hozier’s song Take Me to Church, proclaiming, ‘We don’t need no church, this is our church!’, and singing slightly altered lyrics: ‘Good God, let me give you my lunge!’.

I do not want to suggest that gyms are wonderfully inclusive, and churches are not. While the gym can provide a sense of spiritual fulfilment, it is ultimately a for-profit enterprise. And there are many ways in which it can be exclusionary, with certain body types and fitness levels being privileged over others. Even the most caring fitness instructor cannot pretend that their classes are for all.

A wheelchair user, a person sensitive to loud music, or someone who cannot afford the membership would know that well.

Classes are unapologetically spiritual But, as Raphael says, ‘as the spiritual landscape continues to expand, we see that faith isn’t disappearing, it’s evolving’. Exercise classes have evolved to be unapologetically spiritual, offering refuge for those who feel alienated by religious communities. In a 2019 survey of 2000 Americans, quoted in Vox, respondents were asked what kinds of social or ritualistic activities regularly provide purpose, community and identity. More than book clubs, bar outings, meditation gatherings, or political meetups, people named... exercise classes! And I sense that, by and large, churches are blissfully unaware of the huge extent to which gyms have become like places of worship for many.

Raphael concludes her book by reflecting on her return to the gym:

Shown left: Tomas Mikzus, SoulCycle instructor, leads a class at Ramstein Air Base. Photo by Lane T Plummer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I had to admit I was thrilled to be back among my emotional jumpers. Maybe it wasn’t a cure-all or the community I had envisioned, but it sure did something... Do I wish there was more of an emphasis on community and less on personal intervention? Could we focus more on systemic issues? Of course. But what’s the alternative right here and now in our highly individualistic society? You have to appreciate that which is, at the very least, making modern life a bit more manageable.

Fitness at !Audacious Church The Gospel of Wellness, and the patterns I can see emerging in my dissertation research, beg the question of how our churches should respond missionally and pastorally to this growing phenomenon. We may be ignorant of it, downplay it, or choose to dismiss it. And yet, here I am, regularly looking into the faces of people in sports gear craving connection and meaning. People for whom it is more than mere exercise.

Les Mills, the international fitness company with which I trained recently held a fitness convention for the North of England, featuring a number of live ‘masterclasses’, at Manchester’s !Audacious Church (sic) – a Pentecostal megachurch. Perhaps the choice of venue was incidental, or of purely pragmatic nature, but the parallels between worship and group exercise now stare me directly in the face.

Arek Malecki Arek Malecki is a Unitarian ministry student at Unitarian College and Luther King Centre. He is also a Les Mills BodyAttack®, BodyPump® and BodyBalance® instructor and ministerelect of The Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel, Leicester. www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 5

Jim Corrigall writes of Stephen Lingwood’s talk at FUSE

A journey towards Paradise Why do religious liberals find it so hard to promote their faith positively. Why do we tend to do so only negatively or reactively? These questions were posed by Stephen Lingwood in his theme talk at the Festival of Unitarians in the South East (FUSE) held in Kent in June. Stephen suggested the reason we focus on explaining what we are not, is because we aren’t clear what positive message we can offer. Yet in this age of ‘permacrisis’, of global warming and pandemics, it is ever-more important that religious liberals offer hope, he said.

This year’s festival theme was paradise, Stephen argued, to see ‘Building Paradise’ – inspired by that it is ‘here and now, within us Stephen’s 2020 book Seeking Parand all around us, and within the adise, where he wrote that a vision practices of the Christian church “Much of the earliest of paradise is what Unitarians could such as communion and agape Christian theology offer to a hurting world. He works as meals’. a pioneer minister in Cardiff, after The image of paradise flows through emphasised that we serving for 15 years as minister to Jewish scriptures, particularly in have not lost paradise. It Unitarian congregations in Bolton Genesis and in the erotic poetry of and Cardiff. the Song of Songs, a romantic poem is still here. ” So what did he mean by ‘paradise’? about passionate love.

Well, Stephen said, it’s an image, a Stephen highlighted ‘a deeply Jewsymbol of humanity’s original home. ish practice of imagining the future’, It comes from the Garden of Eden of imagining liberation and a better in Genesis. But, in fact, the myth of world. It’s what the Jewish prophets the original garden goes back to the ancient Sumerian cidid and what Jesus did as a later Jewish prophet, he said. vilisation. It’s a myth about our ‘real home’, a garden of life It’s there in the preaching of Isaiah: ‘For I am about to and love and pleasure, with a joyful and easy relationship create new heavens and a new earth … no more shall the with nature and with God: a garden of abundance, where sound of weeping be heard in it, or the sound of distress.’ we live together in peace.

The Jewish prophets – particularly in times of difficulty We tend to talk of Eden as a place we’ve lost, a place we and oppression – paint pictures of a better world. And were expelled from, he said. But Stephen highlighted that that’s what Jesus was doing with his image of the kingdom much of the earliest Christian theology emphasised that of God, which he said was both within us and among us. we have not lost paradise. It is still here. But we need to The paradox is that paradise is both ‘here’ and ‘not here’, open our eyes for its presence to be realised in the world. for we are blinded to it by our greed, arrogance and egoFor early Christians, entering church was like entering tism. paradise. Quoting the book Saving Paradise Recovering Stephen suggested we can think of paradise as an alternaChristianity’s Forgotten Love for This Earth by Rita Native phrase for what Jesus call the kingdom of God. Parkashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker, Stephen said it adise is where forgiveness, compassion and justice reign, uncovers, ‘the persistent and rich symbol of paradise as a where the poor and oppressed are lifted up and the rich symbol for the church, for healing and liberation, and for taken down from their thrones. the earth’. We need to recapture that understanding of He listed the practices of paradise: Dreaming, using the Page 6 | Issue 8062 – 22 June 2023

“A sustainable faith is one that believes in grace. With a sense of grace, a sense of something bigger than us (where) we can find sources of hope.”

Shown left: FUSE organisers with Stephen Lingwood, speaker. (l-r) The Revs Sue Sinnamon, Jim Corrigall, with Stephen, Jacqueline Woodman and Helen White.

radical imagination, the prophetic imagination. The image of paradise is the image of the world we’re trying to reach, the Promised Land.

This is what Martin Luther King was doing in his great ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, drawing on the Bible to paint a vision of the future. He did not say: ‘I have a plan’. This is dreaming, this is storytelling, dreaming futures of healing and justice as the Afro-futurists do. To dream that the world could be abundant, with enough for everyone, to dream of a world where all people are liberated as equal children of God. It may seem idealistic, but he was not being optimistic.

Stephen said the worse the world gets, the more important dreaming becomes. And, he believes things are about to get much worse – that climate chaos is about to make an extremely scary world. But dreaming then becomes an essential element in survival. To tell the truth while also having faith in the dream of paradise.

Stephen highlighted another key practice of paradise: prayer. He defined it ‘as any deep practice that helps us reject the programming of the ego and operate out of the true self, not an isolated self, but a self (that’s) dependent on and in relationship with what I call God’.

Prayer is a great gift in a time of crisis, he said. He quoted an environmental lawyer who said he once believed that science could address the top global environmental problems in the world. But now he believes only spiritual transformation could do that, as the top environmental problems were selfishness, greed and apathy; science could not solve these.

‘Prayer is doing the work of reclaiming the human spirit, and it does this through sustained spiritual practice,’ Stephen said. In Christian terms, prayer is the act of becoming aware that we are in the presence of the love of God, and simply surrendering to that presence. ‘Every time we surrender to the presence of God, we are creating psychological change that shifts us away from the ego, the source of selfishness and greed.’

The author said he preferred the term ‘seeking’ rather than ‘building’ paradise. He said liberal Christians have tended to believe it was their job to build the kingdom of

God, rather than God’s work (however understood). The problems come for us when things go wrong. We so easily despair, as we realise there are some things we just can’t fix: the state of the world but also sometimes we can’t even get the people in our own churches to be civil to one another. We come up against the limits of our faith.

Stephen said without a sense of transcendent grace there was no answer to these problems: ‘So I want to make the point that a sustainable faith is one that believes in grace.

With a sense of grace, a sense of something bigger than us, (where) we can find sources of hope and strength that enable us to keep going.’

The author told of a podcast he’d heard recently, a political discussion with three climate activists. One said some of the most courageous activists he’d seen were those in Christian Climate Action. It had become clear to him that people of faith survived more easily because they were not simply focused on winning.

Another key practice of paradise? Feasting. Stephen told how he helps organise community meals in his Cardiff neighbourhood – breaking bread together, eating together. ‘It breaks down barriers, it makes us feel connected with each other, and invites us to enjoy the abundance of life.

‘I want to talk about feasting as a practice that’s about more than eating. The spirituality of paradise invites us to a deeper sensuality that delights in the body and the senses. I’m talking about embracing a sensual spirituality, a bodily spirituality that delights in this world, in the natural world, and in our own senses, and in our own bodies.

‘In a society where so many feel shame towards their own bodies (and their sense of self) there is an urgent need for us to get back into right relationship with both the earth and our bodies that are part of the earth.”

The final practice Stephen highlighted was ‘talking’. By this he meant, ‘real dialogue, engaging with others, talking and listening ... a real encounter where people come alive and encounter the divine’.

The Rev Jim Corrigall is District Minister for Unitarians in London and south-east England. www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 7

Did the Gaskells have a wine cellar?

Recent weeks have seen me with a cascade of appointments with the medical profession. The most dramatic of these was what I hoped would be a little operation on my little finger. It turned out to be a major event. I was wheeled into an operating theatre along with two surgeons, two anaesthetists, three nurses for a six-hour procedure, my whole arm anaesthetized and in a sling. Follow-up visits to a physiotherapist included learning to pronounce the name of the ‘op’. It is a Dupuytren’s Fasciectomy, to straighten out a curved finger. I am enormously grateful for all of this. However, if there were to be a further invitation to stand outside my front door and applaud the wonderful NHS, I would have difficulty at present. My hand is still in a splint, and not ready to be clapped against the other. * * * This brought back memories of Zen Buddhism. One way to reach enlightenment, some say, is to take a psychological leap beyond common sense and seek the answer to a mysterious question. Best known example of this was, ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping?’ Such questions, called kōans, were set before monks training to be Zen Masters, to facilitate experiences of pure consciousness. Zen enjoyed something of a vogue in the west during the 1960s, though very few Unitarians were ever attracted to it. We are too attached to Reason in our religious seeking. I have memories of a small Unitarian Buddhist group, but it has disappeared, I think. * * * The kindly physiotherapist who later changed the dressing on my hand chatted amiably about the sunny weather.

Her face fell, however, when she told me she had planned to play netball that evening, but the netball pitch had been occupied by Travellers. They were probably on their way to the famous Appleby Horse Fair, in Cumbria, scheduled to be a much larger gathering this year after a few years restricted by Covid. Thousands of Roma and Travellers of various kinds take their caravans there, along with innumerable tourists for an exciting dramatic festival.

Clearly annoyed by the seemingly freewheeling attitude Travellers have towards the use of other people’s land, and the loss of the netball pitch, my physiotherapist was also trying hard not to sound bigoted. Tolerance is tested in many ways. * * * Corrections corner: In the 27 May Inquirer I noted that when he becomes GA President, Geoffrey Levermore will be only the second professor to hold this denominational post. My Rev Colleague Peter Hewis wrote expressing his astonishment that I had overlooked Dorothy Tarrant, Page 8 | Issue 8062 – 22 June 2023

FUNNY OLD WORLD

By John Midgley

GA President from 1952 to 53. She was indeed a most eminent professor of Greek, the first woman to hold such a post anywhere in the UK, teaching at Bedford College, London from 1909 to 1950. She researched the philosophical work of Plato, pioneering the use of stylistic analysis to conclude that he had not written all the work previously attributed to him. (I bet that ruffled some feathers!) She was awarded numerous scholarly prizes and served as president of several academic institutions, as well as the Unitarian Temperance Association. Daughter of a former editor of the Inquirer and composer of several hymns, the Rev WG Tarrant, she gave her support to both Unitarian College, Manchester where she served as president, as well as (Harris) Manchester College, Oxford.

My excuse for overlooking her is that she is listed among past GA presidents as simply ‘Miss’ Dorothy Tarrant. Was she coy of using the title ‘professor’? * * * Yes, there was until recent times a Unitarian Temperance Association. Like most non-conformists of past centuries, there was grave concern among Unitarians about the social problems caused by the abuse of alcohol. There was a number of total abstainers among us and the association held a gathering at the Unitarian General Assembly Annual Meetings. I have memories of debates as to whether ‘temperance’ really meant ‘total abstinence’.

At one time they published a temperance hymn book.

The Rev William Gaskell contributed to this, so we may assume he was a total abstainer and presumably his novelist wife Elizabeth too. Do any copies of the hymnal survive, I wonder?

Does Elizabeth Gaskell’s now restored handsome house, where the couple lived and entertained, in Manchester have a wine cellar? A nearby house, called Summerville, former home of Unitarian College, Manchester, had an extensive wine cellar. It was always very empty during my student days there, and a ‘no alcohol to be brought onto the premises’ rule was firmly in place, though perhaps not so firmly adhered to. It was the time before breathalysers, thank goodness.

Maud Robinson tells the story of Ilse, who fled violence in WWII and became a Unitarian ‘Yorkshire girl’

Devoted to her chapel

Shown above: Ilse and Ernest married at Underbank Chapel in 1952

Ilse Meta Edith Peschke and her twin Helene (always known as Layna) were born on 1 May 1931 in Meesow (Mieszewo), a German/Polish village in Western Pomerania, now in north-western Poland. From 1943, Pomerania became a target of allied air raids; and in 1945 became a battlefield when Russia’s Red Army started the East Pomeranian Offensive, and Soviet tanks rolled in. In 1945 the Polish Army, under the Soviet command, deported 110,000 ethnic Germans from the area.

In 2008, Ilse wrote a piece for the Underbank Chapel Calendar, in which she told the story of her first glimpse of Stannington Unitarian Chapel: Our village was about to be overrun by the advancing Russian army. We were being shot at, so we had no choice but to flee. Taking the bare essentials on our horse-drawn wagon, we walked for a month, ‘til we were behind Allied Lines. Then we were allotted a stone shack on a farm, near a town called Eckernförde, on the Baltic coast of Schleswig Holstein.

There being no work, I (along with other girls) was offered work in England. We arrived in England in November 1949 [she was 18 and spoke very little English]. We were offered various jobs, and I chose Nether Edge Hospital in Sheffield.

In April 1950, one night my friends got me out of bed to go dancing at the City Hall where I danced all night. A young airman from Stannington was nearing the end of an overseas tour in Egypt, and was posted back home a fortnight early, arriving home on a Friday. He arranged to go dancing to the City Hall the next day. We met at the last dance. Then he escorted me home. We arranged to meet the following day and decided to go for a walk.

That walk was from Nether Edge to Stannington. We arrived at the top of an embankment looking down onto a chapel. We walked down a path to the chapel and attended a service conducted by the Rev Dr Tindall. This is the way I came to know Underbank Chapel. Time passed and eventually I married the young airman.

She settled in Sheffield and became a hospital worker at Nether Edge Hospital. Although there could have been some hostility towards her, as a German so soon after the war, she was accepted and made welcome by everyone.

No doubt this was largely down to her always cheerful

and kind character, despite all the hardships she had been through.

She married Ernest in Underbank Chapel on 19 March 1952. Ilse’s mother and stepfather in Germany didn’t meet Ernest until 10 years after they married.

Ernest was posted to Gibraltar and Ilse would have happily settled there. But in 1956 Ernest was posted back to the UK. They got a house in Stannington where they lived together until March 2021. At one time Ernest wanted to go and live in Germany, but Ilse wouldn’t go, saying ‘I’m a Stannington girl, a Yorkshire girl.’

Ilse embraced Underbank Chapel and often helped with Bring & Buy events and other activities.

She was a royalist through and through (although she thought some of them were ‘hangers-on’). She was very proud when, aged 60, she was selected to visit Buckingham Palace, with Ernest, for a garden party. In March 2008, Ernest and Ilse asked the then-minister the Rev June Pettitt to conduct a service for them, in Stannington chapel to renew their wedding vows – 56 years after they had been married there. June says: ‘they wanted something very personal, just having the three of us suited them. Something short and to the point. It was about reaffirming their vows and there was a ring from Ernest to Ilse.’

When Ernest died in 2021, they had been married for nearly 70 years.

Ilse’s health declined until she didn’t know her family; but she could still smile. She died peacefully in her sleep on 21 May having reached her 92nd birthday.

Maud Robinson is minister at Underbank Chapel. www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 9

Letters to the Editor Red Cross are grateful for support The Rev Feargus O’Connor Golders Green Unitarians To the Editor ›The British Red Cross has asked me to pass on its thanks to the editor of The Inquirer, Inquirer readers, the Unitarian Peace Fellowship and all generous donors

to its emergency humanitarian appeals, most recently those for the victims of the war in Ukraine and the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

Our ongoing appeal, originally called the Clara Barton Appeal, is now the Gandhi Tolstoy Peace Appeal, which now incorporates the Clara Barton Appeal itself. It is named in honour of Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy.

In continuing to support British Red Cross lifesaving appeals we are honouring our 2014, 2016 and 2021 GA resolutions by taking practical action to give humanitarian, in particular medical, aid to victims of war and natural disasters alike. Since our original 2012 Clara Barton Appeal

was launched, £203,621 has been donated. Your continued generosity and the support of The Inquirer and Peace Fellowship are very warmly appreciated by the charity.

Details of current crisis appeals, including those for Ukraine. the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan can be seen on the British Red Cross website: www.redcross.org.uk. Donations can be sent at any time to 44 Moorfields, London EC2Y 9AL. All cheques should be made payable to the British Red Cross, noting the Gandhi/Tolstoy appeal on the back.

Shown left: Red Cross photo of Ukrainian refugees in Poland in 2022. ©

‘Cherishing the Earth’ fizzes off the page Catherine Andrews Horsham Unitarians To the Editor ›Having just turned the final page of Cherishing the Earth - Nourishing the Spirit, may I encourage your readers to go out and buy a copy for themselves and perhaps a present for a friend if they are feeling generous. Maria Curtis has done a really skilful job of editing and has divided the book up into five themed parts which makes it very digestible.

The reader is made starkly aware of the ecological crisis facing our planet and is offered a range of possible spiritual responses to consider. Maria and her other Unitarian contributors have many years of knowledge and life experience to draw upon, but I have to say that the piece I found most inspiring was that by #Blessed, the Youth Group at Gellionnen Chapel. Their initiative, imagination, commitment, and enthusiasm practically fizz off the page. They seem to have a clear understanding of the social and environmental challenges ahead, but an

equally clear vision of what they, as a group, want to do about them. I was also deeply impressed by what Unitarianism means to them, and their keenness to learn more about its heritage and traditions by reaching out to other young Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists not only in the UK, but also in the Czech Republic, the US and Canada.

Our church reading group has now tackled two books on Spiritual Activism and Active Hope but, for me, #Blessed really brought the concept alive; I felt greatly cheered having read their essay.

Congratulations to Maria, our former minister at Horsham.

Royal connection

While Prince of Wales, King Charles visited Styal – twice!

In his article ‘King follows a Unitarian Example’ (Inquirer, 27 May), Cliff Reed thought that King Charles had only once visited a Unitarian church.

The king actually visited Norcliffe Chapel, Styal, on two occasions. Once was before 1988, from whence we have a photograph of his meeting the Rev Penny Johnson and the chair of the congregation, Kate Jacks. He spent about seven minutes in the chapel.

He ensured he took away with him some Unitarian literature which Penny had prepared for him, but in the excitement of the event had forgotten to hand to him. More recently on a visit to Styal, he spent some 20 minutes in the Chapel being introduced to about a dozen people connected with the congregation, including the organist, Alan Myerscough, whom he recognised as a gardener who had worked on his estate at Highgrove.

Shown above: Then-Prince of Wales at Styal Unitarian Chapel. Photo provided by Ken Johnson

Ken Johnson

Meditational Fellowship weekend On the weekend of 5-7 May, the Meditation Fellowship held its spring meeting in the close of Salisbury Cathedral. Our regular venue is Sarum College, a historic building in a truly classic setting. The power-

Shown above: Meditation weekend participants in the shadow of Salisbury Cathedral

ful cathedral is ever present through its front windows, providing a timeless backdrop.

Our dates were booked two years ago, and the palace did not check in advance about the clash with the Coronation on the 6th. The organisers responded very well, fitting in time for those who wanted to watch the proceedings. As a result, we still enjoyed our usual sessions of talks, meditation, circle dancing, chanting, grounding exercises and spiritual sharings, whilst being able to attend cathedral services, go for walks and have personal time for reflection. As always, the Fellowship time together was uplifting and returned us all to what matters more deeply in life.

Another retreat is scheduled for 10-12 November.

For more information, contact Alf Withington at: alfwithington@gmail.com Peter Owen

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Blessed Are the Queer

May We Live the Spirit of Pride

Blessed are the wanderers, Seeking affirmation.

With gratitude for the freedom to be our true authentic selves, may we live the Spirit of Pride

Blessed are the worshipers, Praying from closets, Pulpits, pews, and hardship.

With the courage that comes from challenging fear, may we live the Spirit of Pride

Blessed are the lovers of leaving – Leaving family and familiarity, Leaving tables Where love is not being served.

Blessed are those who stay.

Blessed are those Who hunger and thirst for justice – For they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the queer Disciples of Truth, Living, breathing, sacred Reflections of Divine Love.

HP Rivers

With sorrow for those who could not be here with us today, and in honour of those who died of AIDS or who lost their lives, may we live the Spirit of Pride With grief for those whose pain was unbearable and who left us too soon, may we live the Spirit of Pride Looking ahead to the justice still withheld, may we live the Spirit of Pride With the confidence that a sense of community banishes isolation and loneliness, may we live the Spirit of Pride With the rainbow flag flying high, a sense of beloved community among us, and the joy that comes from making new connections, may we live the Spirit of Pride Elizabeth Ketcham Shown above: Unitarians celebrated at Swansea Pride, 2019 Background Image by Sergio Carabajal via Pixabay