Issue 8071

THE

INQUIRER £1 | Issue 8071 | 11 November 2023

Inside this issue…

Jo James on unconventional faith Louise Baumberg on hidden stories Frank Walker’s morning meditation

www.inquirer.org.uk

The voice of British and Irish Unitarians and Free Christians

Remembrance

Cliff Reed on marking the day during yet another war

THE

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Cliff Reed traces the conflicts which brought us to today

Poisoned by the past Autumn is a time for remembrance, a sweetly melancholic time at its best, when the fading light and the turning, falling leaves display a special beauty that reminds us of transience and mortality as part of nature’s eternal cycle. It is a time to remember those we have lost, those who played their part in our own lives and in the life of our community, our country and our world. It is a time when ancient festivals and special days speak to us of ancestors and forbears and of what we owe them.

We mark Hallowe’en, All Saints of native Roman Catholics. The and All Souls, and the death poisonous effects of that, although anniversaries of two Unitarian lessened, are not yet a thing of the martyrs, Michael Servetus, a past and keep alive sentiments that “There are few – if pioneer theologian, burned to death should have no business in the 21st any – more egregious in Geneva as a ‘heretic’ in 1553 and century.

Norbert Čapek, founder of the It is coincidental that this season examples of the Prague Unitarian church, murdered of Remembrance also includes the poisonous influence of in Dachau in 1942. And, earlier this day in November that marks the week, was Guy Fawkes Day. anniversary of the end of the First the past.”

If the 1605 Gunpowder Plot had World War, a day when now we been successful, it would have commemorate the dead of all wars been one of the most devastating and resolve not to repeat them. terrorist attacks in history, and it Tragically, though, in that – as a is an example of how we can be world – we have failed, even if we poisoned by sectarianism and by history. The Gunpowder have succeeded in keeping vengefulness and triumphalism plotters were motivated by both: by rejection of the out of Remembrance Day itself.

Protestant Reformation in England and by the subsequent persecution of Roman Catholics which they saw as flowing Murderous terrorism in the Holy Land from it. But their act, born of religious hatred, bred yet Since 7 October and its utterly inhuman acts of more religious hatred and the result was nearly three murderous terrorism in Israel, and all that has followed, centuries of anti-Catholic discrimination. And the burning our focus has been on that disputed land that has been of the Guy – Guy Fawkes in effigy – on bonfire night called ‘Holy’ or, maybe more accurately, ‘too Holy for its lasted a lot longer than that. Its sectarian origins may own good’. The seat of the sacred shrines of three great be largely forgotten, but that poisonous heritage is not religions, it is the homeland of two peoples who show little without its effect even today. sign of being able to share it or to live peacefully together.

There are, of course, those in both communities who wish Long-term effects of the Troubles they could – and who try to make it so – but they are In Northern Ireland, the Troubles – with all their misery constantly forestalled by religious and political extremism and bloodshed – were deeply rooted in a history which and a variety of other powerful factors. One of these is included the ‘plantation’ of the province with Protestant geography. The land in question is simply too small for all settlers from Scotland and England and the displacement the people who claim it. Another is history, for there are Continued on page 4 > www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 3

Poisoned by the past Continued from page 3 >

few – if any – more egregious examples of the poisonous influence of the past.

Some will point to the Yom Kippur War of 1973, some to the Six Day War of 1967, some to the war of 1948 that accompanied modern Israel’s independence and which also saw the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the land they regarded as theirs. Is that when the problems started? Of course not! Just before that there was the Holocaust and then the desire to find the Jewish people a homeland where they would be safe after – not just 12 years of Nazi persecution and murder, but after centuries of anti-Semitism, with its appalling pogroms stretching back at least to the middle-ages. Much of this can be laid to the charge, not of Christianity as the Way taught by Jesus and his true disciples, but of Christianity as a corrupt, arrogant and intolerant institution, which all too often it has become.

Crusades attacked Muslims and Jews One of medieval Christianity’s greatest errors was the Crusades, which unleashed war and bloodshed against not just Muslims in the ‘Holy Land’ but against Jews too, who were quite falsely accused of responsibility for the death of Christ – an appalling lie that I have even heard repeated where I live in Ipswich. But the poison of the past doesn’t stop there. The spread of the Islamic empire may have saved the Jews from persecution by Christians in the ‘Holy Land’, but Jews and Muslims had their issues too, dating back to the time of Muhammad. Like Christians, Jews living under Muslim rule often did so on sufferance.

They may have enjoyed greater tolerance than Jews did in most of Christian Europe, but it had its limits.

It was, though, the collapse of the Muslim Ottoman Empire after the First World War, when the ‘Holy Land’ came under British administration, that triggered more recent problems. The Palestinians hoped for independence like other former Ottoman territories, but Britain’s Balfour Declaration of 1917, offered what it called, ‘a national home for the Jewish people’. For reasons of history and religion, Palestine was chosen.

On the strength of this, Jewish people – mainly from Europe – began to settle there even before World War II, something which Palestinians, given little say in the matter, feared and resented even then.

So is this when the trouble started? Well, not really. It all depends on how far back you go. With the Romans, who crucified a Jewish teacher from Galilee sometime around AD 30? Who brutally crushed a Jewish revolt and destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple in AD 70? With the Greeks, under Alexander’s successors, who, having conquered the ‘Holy Land’ and desecrated the Temple, tried to replace the Jewish religion with worship of their Page 4 | Issue 8071 – 11 November 2023

king, so provoking the Maccabean revolt? With the Babylonians who defeated the successors of King David and reduced the people of Israel and Judah to exile or servitude? With King David himself and his defeat of the Israelites’ enemies, rival claimants to the land he made his own? With the wars of the Judges, like Samson, against the Philistines and all who resisted the claims of the invading Israelites to the ‘Promised Land’ – as the followers of Moses, fleeing slavery in Egypt, believed it to be? It is a long tale involving a great deal of war and violence.

And that claim to a God-given ‘Promised Land’ is what, for many, to this day, underlies the modern state of Israel.

It drives the policies of those who want to re-create King David’s empire by annexing more territory within its ancient borders. And with some Palestinian organisations – notably Hamas – and their allies still denying Israel’s right to exist at all, the prospects for compromise are increasingly bleak.

Many shifting empires have cast their shadows over this land for 3000 years, creating an awful lot of history.

And it is out of that history that the poison seeps into the present, as we have recently seen. It is not only in the disputed land of Israel/Palestine that we see the poison of the past at work. We see it too in such a phenomenon as the legacy of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, which continue to exert their toxic influence today.

So what do we do about our poisoned past? Try and forget it? Not teach history anymore? Of course not! If we don’t attempt to teach and to learn history as critically and as honestly as we can then the way is clear for those who would – and do – substitute lies and propaganda.

Be honest with history Forgetting history, it has been said, means being fated to repeat it. But besides being honest with history we must also beware of the poison it contains. There are things which are more important than history. One of those is the present, when the human duty is to see history for what it is – the past: to be remembered, learned from but, in its negative aspects, acknowledged and left behind.

Another is the future, when humanity must learn to put aside the poison of the past – the nationalism, the sectarianism and all those other baleful –isms – and make common cause in saving ourselves and our successors from war and oppression, and our societies from the destruction that our abuse of the planet is bringing about.

May it be so.

The Rev Cliff Reed is a Unitarian writer and is minister emeritus with Ipswich Unitarians.

Nude Quakers? Read on The annual Ilkley Literature Festival gave me a chance to see and hear again one of my heroes from the world of journalism. Gary Younge has actually left the Guardian to become Professor of Sociology at Manchester University.

In All Saints church in Ilkley, he spoke about Dispatches from the Diaspora, a collection of his writings which I had read and very much enjoyed. A friend later forwarded to me a piece from the Guardian in which Younge describes the time he met Sir Garfield Sobers, the West Indian cricketer from Barbados who caused a sensation in a 1968 test match by hitting six sixes in an over. ‘Garry Sobers makes sporting history,’ cried the press to cricket-lovers around the world. ‘The crowd stood in an ovation.’ Fifty years later, when Younge was able to meet Sir Garfield, he blurted it out. ‘I’m Gary. My parents came from Barbados and named me after you!’ In their conversation they compared the different spelling of their name. ‘Garry Sobers explained why he spells his name with two ‘r’s when Garfield only has one. “When you shorten a name, you add the ‘r’”, he said. “Gerald only has one ‘r’ but how many does Gerry have? Harold only has one ‘r’ but how many does Harry have?” He added on a roll and with a laugh.

‘When I asked him for a selfie I neglected to mention that the reasons I had just the one “r” and for the extra “e” on my surname were buried with my late mother.’ *** Younge adds, ‘When I go to Barbados, it always comes as a bit of a surprise when I realise that I have some connection – albeit self-created and one-way – with a man who has a statue (outside the Kensington Oval cricket ground) and a roundabout bearing his name not far from the Sir Garfield Sobers Gymnasium; who also enjoys the honorary prefix The Right Excellent. He stands among a slave rebel, former prime ministers and trade union leaders as one of Barbados’s 10 national heroes. I think names should mean something. My son is called Osceola, after the Native American Seminole chief; my daughter is called Zora, after the Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston.

So, given that I had no say in what my name would mean, if anything at all, I’m glad it means this.’ *** As a child I knew nothing of Hallowe’en and caused raised eyebrows as a teenager when I had to ask what it was all about. I was distinctly unimpressed, wanting no truck with ghosts or the supposed fun of scaring people. It feels a long way from Unitarianism and goes even further away when I see hundreds of pumpkins in the shops that I feel sure will go to waste. However, if any children come to my

FUNNY OLD WORLD

By John Midgley

door with ‘Trick or treat’, I relent and give them something. In the past I had attributed: From ghoulies and ghosties, and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night good Lord deliver us to Robert Burns. On checking, I find it is anonymous Cornish. I do now get anxious when things go bump in the night, since last February when nefarious human beings, not ghosts, came in the dark and stole our car. *** Autumn is a good time to visit a Quaker Meeting. They hold Quaker Week, a time to be proactive in telling the world that they are alive and in business. Their magazine the Friend has a column that is roughly equivalent to Funny Old World. It’s called Q-Eye. A recent item caught my attention. Have Quaker Oats anything to do with Quakers? The short answer is, No. Were the original owners of the company Quakers? No. It seems that in 1877 they simply helped themselves to the name and to the be-hatted face which beams from the packets on the supermarket shelves. Is this a real person? No. Speculation that it was William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, is refuted by the company. Nor was there a ‘typical garb’ for Quakers.

They simply wore plain versions of normal outfits.

Mostly they are comfortable with the association with porridge. It gives them loads of free publicity. I can’t help wishing there was a Unitarian equivalent for all of this. *** The article goes on to mention, however, that ‘garb’ has played another role in their history. In the 1650s and 1660s, ‘Some Quakers would protest in the nude in public places, such as marketplaces, aiming to denounce the spiritual nudity of those around them. It sought to demonstrate what God was about to inflict upon them: a laying bare, a complete stripping of all their possessions, powers and social prerogatives.’

The writer astutely adds, ‘It’s been a while though folks, so definitely get consent before whipping any togs off at a Meeting!’ www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 5

Jo James seeks to end the ‘tyranny of structurelessness’

The price of being unconventional As well as understanding challenges facing successful communities, the Executive Committee (EC) also have a responsibility to consider the risks facing the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches. The year I began my ministry in Leeds, Matt Carmichael and Alistair McIntosh wrote a book called Spiritual Activism (GreenBooks, Cambridge, 2015).

I asked Matt for permission to which renders us vulnerable to all share with the EC an excerpt sorts of negative influences and from Chapter 1: Activism and even takeovers, often from well“As hard as it is to Spirituality, in which the writers meaning ‘rescuers’ who come in explore problems likely to afflict with great ideas – which rapidly admit this, ‘oddball and organisations like ours which aim to come unstuck. dysfunctional’ seems to be non-hierarchical. I immediately Carmichael and McIntosh go on to recognised their analysis of one point out: describe many of our key problem, and over the years … A generation raised with little or ailing congregations I’ve found myself returning to this no experience of religion is vulnerable passage often: to the pejorative terms and simplistic well.”

Inclusive organisations can attract a caricatures of spirituality that pervade disproportionate number of people popular discourse. There are all that more mainstream groups have kinds of good reasons why society rejected. Such people can introduce has rejected traditional conservative creativity and innovation religion, but it would seem that this is not the end of the and become a part of demonstrating what it means to story… be caring and inclusive, but they can also damage the While traditional and conservative forms of religion are organisation, rendering it oddball and dysfunctional. Group unpopular within a certain demographic, it turns out that wisdom or policies need to be developed to define what liberal and new-age forms of religion are not particularly burden of society’s casualties can be carried, what support more popular, but may be way more open to takeover and and constraints should be in place, and when to draw a line to abuse. prevent the organisation’s main point from being subverted ...

Carmichael and McIntosh describe the ‘Tyranny of As hard as it is to admit this, ‘oddball and dysfunctional’ Structurelessness’… and how: Well-meaning people can be seems to describe many of our ailing congregations well, naïve about the possibility of self-serving individuals existing, and this becomes an increasing problem as numbers drop and exploiting open doors to power. The maxim: ‘Power and our traditional gatekeepers and boundary markers denied is power abused” warns us that losing awareness of diminish. where power lies and how it is being used leaves us vulnerable I’m now aware of several small congregations which have to tyrants or self-serving factions who wish to exploit it.’ traversed a familiar downward spiral as numbers decrease: So along with undoubtedly great advantages, our free we become subject to a kind of dysfunctional dynamic religious congregations come with a particular set of Continued on page 7 > Page 6 | Issue 8071 – 11 November 2023

EC co-opts three new members The Unitarian General Assembly has announced the co-option of three new members to the Executive Committee: Sarah Benfield, Simon Hall, and Sue Morrison.

Sarah Benfield lives in Berkshire and is a retired solicitor specialising in family law. She is a member of Reading Unitarian fellowship. The daughter of a Unitarian minister, Sarah has been involved in the denomination all of her life, including in Sheffield, Reading, and as Chair of the Send a Child to Hucklow charity which helps children from deprived areas experience the natural world. Sarah enjoys travelling with her family, volunteering in her local park and as a National Trust guide, singing in a choir and dance exercise classes.

Simon Hall has worked in information technology for the public sector for many years and is now studying a BA in Theology. He is active in both Northampton and Leicester Unitarians.

Sue Morrison lives in London and is a former GP, medical

Sarah Benfield

Simon Hall

Sue Morrison

educator and life coach. Her health education work has taken her around the world, including to Bangladesh and Kenya. Sue began her Unitarian journey at Monton Unitarians, Lancashire, attending as a child with her grandmother – memories which she cherishes. She is now a leader at New Unity in north London, but remains a proud Northerner. Sue loves being an active grandmother, making patchwork quilts and choral singing.

By Rory Castle-Jones, GA information officer

Unconventional Continued from page 6 >

issues: lack of identity, definition or theological clarity, the ‘tyranny of structurelessness’, open doors to power which can be easily exploited, the false worship of inclusivity as an end in itself, and the tendency of the ‘spiritual but not religious’ crowd toward conspiracy theories. All these combine to present clear and present risks and dangers for smaller congregations in the here and now.

To put it bluntly: without a revitalisation of the rigorous critical thinking and theological/philosophical framework which used to be central to Unitarian discourse, we will see further takeovers, and more closures.

So how do we respond?

To help congregations navigate good practice in safeguarding, financial management, strategic planning and organisational structure, the EC have commissioned the new Congregational Toolkit which is currently in development. This will be a practical set of guides and apps and will update and replace the old ‘Help is at Hand’ document. We are also investigating ways to develop trustee training, facilitating best practice throughout the movement and finding new ways to open lines of communications between trustees across the denomination.

We have initiated District webinars encouraging District activists to communicate directly with one another sharing experience and wisdom.

I was hugely relieved to attend the open Zoom session led by Congregation Connections Lead Lizzie Kingston and hosted by Claire MacDonald at Harris Manchester College Oxford to learn that one of the ways in which

they will seek to maintain our Unitarian learning presence at Oxford is by launching a centre for Unitarian Studies with a particular focus of restoring academic insight to our sense of identity and contemporary witness.

I participated along with staff from Unitarian College and the GA in a two-day learning session aimed at investigating on a deep level what we are training towards and how modern ministry training may serve our congregations and ministers in the future, looking within our movement and beyond ourselves for inspiration.

Unitarian College was one of the architects of a Global Unitarian conversation on theological training and leadership held last month in Prague, and I’m looking forward to bringing key conversations from there to our next EC meeting and, hopefully, out to the wider movement.

Revitalising our longstanding commitment to theological and philosophical inquiry will be crucial to engaging well with a new century of religious change.

Jo James The Rev Jo James is convenor of the Executive Committee of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, and is minister at Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds.

www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 7

Louise Baumberg encourages us to seek out hidden stories

Too many are invisible Many people’s stories are not heard because the stereotypes, the dominant discourses are so loud that they deafen us to the reality of the individuality and complexity of the truth, the true experiences of people who are sometimes portrayed as one dimensional cliches.

I am a fan of Queer Eye, a Netflix show that connects people in need of a life re-boot, with a group of four queer men and one non-binary queen – known as the fab five.

Episodes are often incredibly touching with participants supported to have difficult conversations with family members or friends, to feel better about themselves, to be able to look to the future and make much needed changes in their lives.

In series seven, one participant – Steph from New Orleans – was living with her partner Rachel. But, following a homophobic incident and a continuous stream of negativity, she felt ashamed and covered herself up with a uniform of sports-supporter gear, to make other people more comfortable.

Steph faced a constant stream of looks so she internalised that homophobia and limited her own lifestyle. She made herself invisible.

And there is more forced invisibility. The Australian government very deliberately keeps asylum seekers arriving by sea offshore indefinitely, as those on Christmas Island are.

But there are many others who are invisible, ignored, misunderstood, marginalised, vilified – much, much, closer to home. Think of those in your community, in your location, in your interest group who are invisible right now. What about those who would be in your interest group, your workplace, your church, but are excluded?

It can be easier for us to care about those detained on Easter Island and criticise the Australian government than to look at our own communities, acknowledge those who are invisible, and own our part in excluding them.

The pandemic highlighted some of this invisible multitude – the elderly and people with disabilities in care homes, the elderly living alone and those with mental health difficulties. We also realised that there is an invisible army of Page 8 | Issue 8071 – 11 November 2023

low-paid workers, who are essential in keeping the country running.

As a foster carer, I am becoming aware of another invisible group – those who have suffered from childhood trauma, or adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

Adversity makes people hide When I had a spare bedroom I was regularly sent information about young people who needed a placement.

Reading the profiles was enormously saddening – young people with adoption breakdowns, young people whose parents had been sent to prison for abusing them, young people who had suffered multiple moves, neglect. These young people eat dry ramen to remember when they were 6. They drink and get into fights because they don’t know another way of dealing with difficult feelings. As they grow into adults their childhood experiences will still affect them – and they are completely invisible. Most people with mental health problems are invisible, as are those with invisible disabilities and chronic health issues. Addiction, gambling, alcoholism and domestic violence are also invisible and often hidden in shame.

Poverty can also be invisible. Those of us who are comfortably off should not fall into the trap of thinking that someone ‘like us’ can’t be struggling financially. Homelessness, especially sofa surfing, may well be hidden from us.

So what can we do? We need to be open, aware, read those stories of invisible lives. We need to open our minds to how the world is for some people, and challenge some of our own preconceptions.

In Canada, at the beginning of an event there is an ac-

Invisible stories knowledgement of the original owners of the land. The Land Acknowledgment for Ottawa is: ‘We [I] would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg people.’

This practice makes visible the people of the indigenous First Nations. It is a start towards recognising their existence, which was denied by colonisers’ appropriation of land, forced assimilation and erasure of memories.

As well as our LGB siblings, our trans siblings are having such a difficult time right now, with campaigns which appear to be trying to protect children. But, actually, they are stirring up fear and hatred towards trans women and men. The result is that trans teens suffer worse mental health and victimisation. That’s not protecting children.

Daniel Radcliffe cut to the heart of it when he said adults need to, ‘trust kids to tell them who they are’.

Trust people’s lived experience It goes further. Trust people of colour to tell you what’s happening. Don’t deny their experiences of racism and oppression. Trust people with invisible disabilities to tell you what life’s like for them. Don’t Google their disorder then ask if they’ve tried this or that. Trust those in poverty when they tell you how hard life is. Don’t give them recipes for porridge and lentil soup. Trust people who have suffered trauma to tell you how it’s affected their lives.

Don’t offer up solutions as if they haven’t already tried to help themselves.

Trust people who are neurodiverse to tell you what is difficult and what is helpful. Don’t act as though they’re just not trying hard enough or assume they need the exact same adjustment as your autistic nephew.

Both Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad made a point of including those who were not traditionally included. Jesus constantly looked around him as he travelled about and truly saw many people who were invisible – tax collectors, lepers, blind people, sick people, poor widows, children, sinful women, foreigners. From my youngest son I have learned a lot about Islam, which is also built on a base of equality – beginning with Bilal, a freed slave from Ethiopia believed to be the first to give the public call to prayer.

Whether visible or invisible, those who are different from the standard white male archetype are often stereotyped with thin, often prejudicial stories.

The residents of Grenfell Tower – ironically a high rise building that’s far from invisible – were treated as less than, as unimportant. There was more concern for appearances than for safety of the people who lived there. Many of the residents were people of colour, low-paid, migrants, refugees. More importantly, they were perceived as ‘different’.

So we try to notice and interrogate the dominant narrative. This is the reason why certain groups are margin-

alised, why they are vilified. This narrative is thin, it puts people into boxes, it limits them and it stops our minds being open to the authentic stories of each person as an individual and not a stereotype. The dominant narrative overshadows individual stories and makes the individual invisible, hidden underneath.

The dominant narrative that we need to always be positive – ‘look on the bright side’ – is another reason that people make themselves invisible. When there is a pressure to be positive, to be OK, to see the silver lining in every cloud we may keep hidden our authentic experiences. When things are going badly, a cursory ‘how are you?’ doesn’t feel like the moment for anything more than a ‘fine, thanks’.

Undervalued stories are marginalised Sometimes the dominant narrative is not that we or our stories are unacceptable, but that they are trivial, banal or boring. When my first child was a baby I booked myself on a philosophy study day in London (I live in Surrey). It was the first time I had been away from her for a substantial period of time. Sitting on the tube, I was desperate to tell the strangers around me ‘I have a baby, you know!’ At the seminar we explored the work of Luce Irigaray. The tutor said something like ‘Irigaray wanted to bring the stories of women into the narrative, domestic chores and household tasks are worth writing about’. A young man interrupted and said, ‘but that’s just boring isn’t it?’. That, of course, proved her point and showed exactly how some stories are dismissed. It also diminished my life as a stay-at-home mum.

All stories, from all people are important. If a story is being told about a certain group, take a minute to question that story, and look beneath or beyond it for the authentic stories of each individual.

Rebecca Solnit says: ‘A free person tells her own story.’ and ‘A valued person lives in a society in which her story has a place’. May we be able to listen to all the stories and may we work towards making a society in which every story is valued.

Louise Baumberg Louise Baumberg is a member of Godalming Unitarians. Excerpts from Louise’s Hucklow Summer School talks, will conclude in the next issue of The Inquirer. Find videos and audio recordings here: www.hucklowsummerschool.co.uk/ talks/ www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 9

Letters to the Editor Funds available for ‘Warm Spaces’

Wendy Holton Chairman Wood Green Trust

To the Editor › Is your church able to offer a ‘Warm Space’ to your community ? To provide a warm place for people to meet with others who may be cold or isolated in their own homes.

Last winter three Unitarian congregations set up a ‘Warm Space’ with the help of a grant from the Wood Green Trust – which works to increase knowledge about Unitarians

and Unitarianism, and currently is The Wood Green Trust is offering funding the Unitarian Transformers. grants of up to £ 500 to help conThese congregations have expressed gregations offer a Warm Space. thanks for the opportunity to help Suggested ways of using it include local people as well as making their heating or hospitality, purchase building and worshipping groups bet- equipment, help with providing a ter known. Two have continued to more welcoming space, perhaps even open regularly. decorating a room to freshen it up.

Heating bills this winter are not goTo apply contact the Grants Secing to be any smaller. So the Wood retary at : grants@wgt.org.uk. for Green Trust has decided to repeat an application form. Initial enquiries their offer of a grant to congregashould include a short description tions willing to open their building of what and how you intend to set to create such a ‘Warm Space’. We up the scheme, as well as how you hope by creating a ‘Warm Space’ intend to use the grant. All applicathis will raise awareness of the buildtions will be processed as they are ing in the community, a form of out- received. Closing date is 15 January reach. It will also give an opportunity 2024. for members to talk about who they If there is a need for a larger amount are and when they meet. You might to provide a Warm Space, this consider including a discussion sesshould be applied for separately and sion or questions and answers, perwill be looked at sympathetically. haps a craft and chat session during Shown left: Pixabay photo by part of the ‘Warm Space’ time. fotografierende

Faith in Words All voices welcome

Share expressions of faith.

Contribute to The Inquirer’s Christmas/Solstice edition of creative and worship material.

• Prayers • Addresses • Visual art • Meditations

For more information or to submit material, email: Inquirer@btinternet.com Or, send typed contributions to the editor’s postal address on page 2.

Material is due by 19 November

THE

INQUIRER

An Inquirer adventure Stephen Page Hastings

To the Editor › As a recently returned reader of The Inquirer, I would like to say how much I am enjoying many of the articles.

However, I do find it bewildering that to reach the end of so many features it is necessary to turn to other pages – often much further in. And, even sometimes, having to go backwards, negotiating each issue like a ‘Make your own adventure’ paperback.

Macmillan Coffee took Portsmouth Unitarians back in time

By Sandie O’Neil In conjunction with the Old Portsmouth Women’s Institute, John Pounds Unitarian Church in held a coffee morning in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

We had a number of local people visit along with members of our congregation. Beautiful cakes donated by the WI, and our members were consumed in large quantities.

For an additional small donation we asked our visitors to ‘Guess the weight of the cake’, (a lovely 8-inch cake made by a church member) and ‘Guess the number of sweets in a Jar’ also ‘Guess how many Colin the Caterpillars’ there were on a poster supplied by Macmillan. Everyone enjoyed a trip down memory lane with a quiz which another of our members created where they had to remember either a jingle from a television commercial from years gone by – or know the names of popular products that had been photographed but had their brand names hidden. This really had everyone engaged and chatting about all sorts of things from the ‘good old days’. To mention just one of the jingles do any of you know the answer to this one ‘You wonder where the yellow went when you clean your teeth with…’ (Go on, you know you are singing it.)

The Macmillan event was a great opportunity to engage with our local community and is the second time in

recent months we have held an event in our church hall.

We continue our outreach programme and hopefully we will see more of our local community during our Sunday services.

Sandie O’Neil is secretary at John Pounds Church Shown above: Portsmouth Unitarians enjoyed a lively Macmillan Coffee Morning

Afresh!

Continued from page 12 >

we need to be freed from their alluring spell. We welcome, encourage, support loving communities everywhere: they are the Beloved Community we long for. Always we stand in awe of the power and the glory that surround, uphold and enthral us.

Harry Lismer Short, former principal of Harris Manchester College, Oxford, once said the recitation of the prayer of Jesus is like the unfurling of the flag of the Christian revolution in this harsh, horrorful, cruel world. In his churches it was sung, set to Tudor music. What a good idea: why not sing it as a song of protest against this world’s relentless evil?

After silently saying the prayer in the traditional words that come so spontaneously, I pray for healing and health for everyone, then for the peace of the world. I remember my children and grandchildren and their needs. I call to mind all I know who are in distress of body, mind or spirit, praying for their comforting, relief, renewal.

Finally I fall silent, listening to the immemorial murmur of

the trees: ‘live afresh, afresh, afresh!’

I know all this is but one infinitesimally tiny part of our deep desire for peace and healing. It is not magic, simply human. Are such prayer and meditation useless? If purely self-regarding, can they become pointless fantasy? A helpful answer to these questions was given two and a half thousand years ago in the opening words of the Buddhist text, The Dhammapada (The True Path of Life): ‘What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.’ These words may take us back to the original teaching of the historical Buddha. Good thoughts are seeds that may grow into good actions. Jesus’ prayer reflects humanity’s universal longing for peace, healing, justice. Without this longing, humanity would be inexpressibly impoverished and unrecognisable.

The Rev Frank Walker is a Unitarian writer and minister emeritus with Cambridge Unitarians. www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 11

Frank Walker shares his morning meditation under the trees

Afresh!

Afresh! Afresh!

Most days I take a circular walk round the village. I pause at the church yard, sit on a bench and practise my morning meditation. Before me are rows of graves, many beautifully tended. I scan names and dates, soon aware that I have lived longer than most of these lovingly remembered villagers: a sobering thought. I have also been present when friends have been laid to rest here in this same good earth.

There is great sadness sometimes recorded on the gravestones, children and youths who died much too young. There are also a few centenarians. This is serious earth, but ultimately its mood is not melancholy.

The presence of scores of trees hundreds of years old makes this a place of life. They have lived through many wars, pandemics, disasters, revolutions, economic failures and depressions. They have asserted their own vitality, outlasting so many human generations. Harming no one, unhesitatingly they carry on their great work of freshening and purifying the air we all breathe. Every springtime they burst out in fresh green and then blaze with their beautiful flowers and later their glorious autumn colouring. Apparently, so scientists now tell us, trees can communicate with one another through their intricate root systems. Left alone, they will renew themselves.

Truly they will never desert their post and every spring will cheer us with their ever-reliable resurrection: they ‘come afresh, afresh, afresh!’ Simply to sit among these trees is a blessing, a moment of joy in life.

Trees as a religious symbol Trees constitute one of the greatest and most lasting religious symbols, not confined to any one religion, and still inspiring to those who say they have no religion.

Whatever you believe or don’t believe, they shout, ‘Life!

Life! More life!’ and we are all the better for them.

My meditation is very basic, simple, straightforward.

I begin with the prayer attributed to Jesus, the Lord’s Prayer. I learned it a long lifetime ago and it instinctively speaks itself. It is ancient, brief, springing directly from the human heart. It has been uttered by billions through

the centuries and still by billions today. It joins me to a vast assembly who cry out in their deepest human need.

Because it can do that, I welcome it. I do not find it sectarian or out of date. We shall always need our daily bread and deliverance from evil.

Criticising ‘Our Father’ All the same, I can understand why some are critical of some aspects of this prayer. Isn’t it sexist in picturing ‘God’ as a male parent in an imaginary supernatural setting? (But remember, even Pope John Paul II, most conservative Catholic that he was, nevertheless surprisingly said, ‘Heaven is not a place!’) We need not take the words so literally. Jesus seems to have offered these words as a model, not intending the wording to be frozen exactly the same for ever. In any case our English version is a translation and every translation is an interpretation: few today follow his original Aramaic.

More than one version is possible. I have attempted an interpretation free from traditional religious phraseology.

I do not pretend it is exactly the same as the historic prayer of the New Testament. It is just one attempt. It may well seem too wordy and I could wish for a fresher, more poetic version than mine. It is offered simply for consideration; Here it is: We are alive, alongside countless others with whom we share the gift of existence. We respect the universal flow of life of which we are a part. It forms and supports us. We account it the highest value, for without it we could not be: daily it bears us along. We all make mistakes and need to put ourselves right and be accepted, just as we accept others who like us have missed the mark. Destructive ways often attract us and Continued on page 11 > www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 12