Issue 8082

THE

INQUIRER £1 | Issue 8082 | 27 April 2024

Inside this issue…

The Inquirer is now available online How to be a good ancestor Worship beyond words

www.inquirer.org.uk

The voice of British and Irish Unitarians and Free Christians

Geof Levermore is GA president The Rev Jerey Bowes becomes vice president at busy, joyous annual meetings

THE

INQUIRER The Unitarian and Free Christian Paper Established in 1842, The Inquirer is the oldest nonconformist religious newspaper.

“To promote a free and inquiring religion through the worship of God and the celebration of life; the service of humanity and respect for all creation; and the upholding of the liberal Christian tradition.”

From the Object passed at the General Assembly of the Unitarian and Free Christian Churches 2001 The Inquirer is published fortnightly by The Inquirer Publishing Company (2004), Registered Charity 1101039.

Editor: M Colleen Burns MA 46A Newmarket Norwich Editor: M ColleenRoad, BurnsCringleford, MA NR4Newmarket 6UF T: 01603 505281 46A Road, Cringleford, Norwich E: inquirer@btinternet.com NR4 6UF T: 01603 505281 Proofreader: Sarah Reynolds E: inquirer@btinternet.com Cover: Proofreader: Sarah Reynolds Cover: Photo provided by Geo Levermore Articles express the views of their writers.

Submissions are welcome and may be edited for content and length. They should be emailed or typed and should be the writer’s original work or be attributed appropriately. £38 with discounts for Annual subscriptions are £46 bulk orders. Cheques payable to ‘The Inquirer’.

Write to: Steven Bisby 71 Earlesmere Avenue, Balby, Doncaster, DN4 0QD T: 07764 486711 E: admin@inquirer.org.uk Advertise for £6 per column cm, on 3-col page, plus VAT or £7.50 per col cm, on a 2-col page.

A one-page supplement is £200. One column on a 2-col page is £100, on a 3-col page, £75. iers may be inserted for £100 plus VAT. A5 iers Contact the editor for details.

Births, marriages and deaths: 50p a word + VAT. Find out more about Unitarians The General Assembly, Essex Hall 1-6 Essex Street, London WC2R 3HY T: 0207 2402384 E: info@unitarian.org.uk

www.unitarian.org.uk Page 2 | Issue 8082 – 27 April 2024

Inquiring Words…

“Nothing is ever lost as time passes, it merely metamorphoses into something as wonderful or, in some cases, into something even better than before.”

Carole Carlton, writing of Beltane

Final fortnight

Bigger monthly edition debuts in May This edition of The Inquirer marks the end of an era. This will be the last fortnightly edition. Starting in May, The Inquirer will appear on the second Saturday of every month. The Inquirer Board has made the dicult decision to reduce the number of issues published each year, in order to put the publication on better nancial footing.

Each of the 12 issues will be bigger – 16 pages – oering more space to connect Unitarians. Held within those pages will be everything you read The Inquirer for – inspiration, news and stories about Unitarians and what’s important to us.

Please continue to contribute stories and worship material from your fellowships and congregations. Tell everyone what you’re up to! Write letters to the editor and keep your subscription up to date!

MC Burns

Photo credits for pages 8-9:

John Hewerdine photos are framed in blue.

Aaron Scott Richards photos are framed in green.

It’s here!

The Inquirer is now available in a fully online version Read it anywhere – on any of your devices Subscribe here: https://tinyurl.com/InquirerSub Purchase individual copies here: https://tinyurl.com/InquirerCopies Subscribe to the new, monthly print edition here: https://tinyurl.com/InquirerPaper

In his acceptance speech Geo Levermore relates what drives his faith

Geo Levermore begins GA presidency I rst went to Norclie, Styal chapel in about 2002. Previously my late wife, Carolyn, and I had been going to the local C of E church, having come up from London. The Rev Pat Shaw was giving the service at Norclie and her address and the service itself attracted us to Unitarianism. Carolyn soon became the chapel secretary and I helped look after the boiler. As there was not a regular minster at the time I took a few services.

Carolyn, sadly, died in 2011. In in a lighting lab, then as an energy 2019 I married Margaret. We manager, I next started teaching married at Dean Row chapel, not at South Bank Polytechnic. I far from Norclie, but with a hall taught building services students “I believe there is a for the reception and disabled about energy in buildings. I then good message that access for my stepson. We also now moved to Manchester University go to Dean Row services as well with my research extending to Unitarianism has and as Norclie. I also started taking examining how buildings would services at other local chapels and perform in the future with climate I want to do my bit to also regularly at Shrewsbury. I have change. I was lucky enough to be spread it.” twice chaired the chapel committee nominated as a Lead Author for at Norclie and have been, for a the Intergovernmental Panel on number of years, a member of the Climate Change (IPCC) looking Manchester District Association as at the built environment and well as president for a term. technology that could mitigate Taking services at various dierent chapels, and discussing change. I am often asked to talk at various conferences my address after the service, I appreciated that chapel where I emphasise that we will not stay below the Paris 1.5 congregations diered in their beliefs and there were C° rise but that we can still mitigate the rise if we invest in variances in the beliefs between the chapel members renewables, which will not be cheap, up to 4.4% of GNP! themselves. To try and sort out an appropriate approach or For any who still deny climate change being due to human a service at each chapel I devised a questionnaire. Building activity, analysis of air in Antarctic ice cores shows that on Sue Woolley’s book Unitarians: Together in Diversity I fossil fuel carbon emitted by humans is dierent from boldly added a few questions on the respondents’ beliefs. natural carbon emissions. Technically it is based on the Coming from a scientic background, I compare Unitarian carbon 13 isotope absorbed in photosynthesis. beliefs as being a spectrum of light, where three primary From the build-up of ice over thousands of years, fossil colours in various intensities can be used to make the fuel emissions from humans started increasing about majority of visible colours, including white. (If inks are 1750, the start of the industrial revolution. Since then used, then they can produce black.) A triangle containing the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has steadily been the dierent beliefs I think is appropriate for Unitarians, increasing, causing the temperature rise. especially as there are only the three points of absolute What has climate change got to do with Unitarians? Well certainty. I studied physics at university and after working there is inequality in the world. As a fossil fuel-based Continued on page 4 > www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 3

“A Unitarian may well love or respect their neighbours, especially the poor and excluded, as Jesus did. ”

Continued from page 3 >

Shown above: Geo Levermore, left, at the GA meetings.

GA photo by Aaron Scott Richards

economy creates carbon dioxide emissions, and prosperity is proportional to the energy generated and its emissions, it is therefore no surprise that the poorest emit the least emissions. They will also most probably suer the most from the climate change. The richest 10% in the world emit 90% of the global emissions. So a Unitarian may well love or respect their neighbours, especially the poor and excluded, as Jesus did. One thing I do to try to reduce my carbon emissions is to eat less beef and lamb and use colleague Sarah Bridle’s information on food emissions.

(See her Ted Talk on the subject here: https://tinyurl. com/BridleFood)

Believe in the Mystery of Creation At Norclie we did a climate change service, with poetry and music and readings. There is little in the Bible related to climate change. Indeed, Genesis tells us to ‘be fruitful and multiply and ll the earth and subdue it …’ Hardly useful to us today. But I found the work of theologian Gordon Kaufman. I wrote an article, published in The Inquirer about his theology. To recap, he describes God as the Mystery of Creation. (See: https://tinyurl. com/Inquirer8039) The theology also leads to the conclusion that all religions have their commonality in the inspiration of mankind’s brain, created by the Mystery of Creation. Hence, respect for people to hold dierent faiths is required, although respect for all religions’ ideas and cultures can be subject to God’s (the Mystery of Creation’s) ‘gift’ to mankind of reason.

Importantly, Kaufman’s theology leads to respect for the created world, its creatures and its well-being. A sound basis for climate change and Unitarianism as the book Cherishing the Earth, Nourishing the Spirit shows.

Good religious ideas are based on good ethics and I consider the highest ethic to be to do to those we will never know and never meet as we would have done unto us. These people include those of future generations and Page 4 | Issue 8082 – 27 April 2024

our fellow human beings. I have been inuenced by Karl Popper, the philosopher. He proposed the need for an Open Society as opposed to a closed society. Popper considered the closed society of Hitler’s Germany as a cause of the Second World War. He was equally scathing about Stalin’s closed Russia as well. The closed society is one in which there is little discussion, the powerful considering only they know the truth. And there is little respect for other’s rights to dierent views of the truth and their right to vote, as in a true democracy.

Spreading the word I was willing to be nominated for president (by Dunham Road Chapel, Altrincham) as I believe there is a good message that Unitarianism has and I want to do my bit to spread it. Namely that we have in Unitarianism an Open Religion in an Open Society, open to doubt and open to democracy. Open to doubt as we must be aware that we might be wrong. Also open to respecting our neighbours’ right to have a dierent opinion and to vote on it.

So my presidential aims are to promote Unitarianism as a liberal, Open Religion, in an Open Society: • A religion open to doubt (we might not be right).

• A religion open to democracy (respect our neighbour’s right to have a say and a vote).

• To appoint a university Research Fellow to look at current Unitarianism (including a questionnaire) and future Unitarianism.

• I also want to promote the Unitarian General Assembly in congregations that are sometimes a little dismissive of the GA (and also District Associations). Both are valuable to our movement – although this is not to assume that no reform is necessary.

Geo Levermore is president of the Unitarian General Assembly

Vince McCully shares his year as president of the Unitarian General Assembly

Greatest honour of my life

Shown above: Vince McCully oers his presidential report to the GA. Photo by John Hewerdine

Being voted as your president last year is the greatest honour I have ever received – thank you. Although there have been so many presidents before me and you’d think it was a well-trod path. You’d be wrong. Just as every General Assembly, every service we attend and every congregation is dierent, so too is each presidency. For we do like to be dierent don’t we? And we seem to revel in it. We thrive and exult in our diversity.

This year has been absolutely amazing, and I’ve been so fortunate to visit many dierent congregations and to meet so many of you. Although there are many dierent facets to our faith and the way we practice it, the resounding similarity has been the openness, the kindness, and the hospitality that I have received. It has so gladdened my heart and encouraged me to go on. You know it takes quite a lot to stop me from my duties, something like a heart procedure perhaps or a trip to the ICU for instance. But that’s by the by.

In thanking all the congregations that I have visited, I would also like to thank Liz Slade, Andrew Mason, Audrey Longhurst, Jo James, Simon Bland and all the executive for the help and support they have given me this year. It’s just not possible to do this job without their timely help.

The Executive Committee work so hard and largely unseen and un-thanked. I have been to their meetings and seen them in action, I take this opportunity to applaud all their hard work.

This year I completed the residential part of the Advanced Worship Leader’s course. It is intense, and really concentrates both your mind and your spirit, still learning so much, after 24 years of leading worship. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Helen Mason, Ant Howe and Winnie Gordon and other sta of Unitarian College, whose sustained and wholly seless commitment is exemplary, inspiring and a huge boon to our faith. I can’t recommend the worship studies courses highly enough.

I have to thank my home Chapel of Rivington and Alison Whitaker their chair for putting up with my absences. I’m happy that they have managed so well this year without me. Thanks, too, to Park Lane and Chowbent Chapels where my duties have impacted their pulpit supply rotas.

Also a big thank-you to Natasha Stanley, Manchester District administrator, who has always been on hand to help when called on and specically helping to get monies into the resilience fund and most recently getting our DBS and safeguarding procedures up to snu.

One of the highlights of my year was representing our faith at the Cenotaph in Whitehall for the National Memorial Celebration. It’s an odd word to use, celebration.

But when you’re there you’ll understand. There are thousands of men, women and some children too who parade.

But there’s no jingoism here. Their presence signies the deep gratitude we have for the sacrices others have made – and are making – for our common good. In common with other presidents I will never forget the profound silence at the Cenotaph – indeed you could hear a leaf fall.

I got to chat with most of the other 21 faith representatives while I was there, and I saw that there was free and open dialogue among all present. The rst to approach me was the Humanitarian representative. Others I spoke with were the Spiritualist head, the Zoroastrian, The Salvationist, one of the Jewish heads (the other was in deep conversation with the Muslim representative), the Baptist Continued on page 7 > www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 5

Stephanie Bisby covers the GA Keynote/John Relly Beard address

Being good ancestors This year’s keynote speaker, Roman Krznaric, certainly knows how to capture an audience’s attention with a title, and his opening slide was also intriguing. The apparent typo in the date 4 April 02024 was soon explained as a pointer to his overall theme: seeing our moment of time in the context of what is increasingly being referred to as ‘The Long Now.’ The leading zero reminds us that, all being well, our time measuring system needs to stretch well beyond our own millennium.

Since one of the speech’s themes was locating ourselves in time, it’s appropriate that the talk was preceded by an introduction to both the speaker and the historic context of the keynote speech, given by Ant Howe and Helen Mason of Unitarian College. As current president of the Ministerial Fellowship, Ant gave an overview of the historic context of the John Relly Beard lecture, and then turned the details of the introduction over to Helen, whose illustrious ancestor, the Unitarian Minister and pioneer in the world of education John Relly Beard, gave the lecture its name. Helen also introduced the speaker, and explained how, in one of those extraordinary small-world moments that happen so often in our movement, it turned out that one of Roman’s wife’s ancestors was in the Hucklow Players with Laurence du Garde Peach (after whom the Peach Hall at the Nightingale Centre is named).

Roman continued the theme of connections in the talk as he linked the ideas for which he is well known to Joseph Priestley’s ‘ever expanding breadth of time,’ acknowledging the excellent talk given earlier that day by Lizzie Kingston Harrison (See the story on page 11). He contrasted Priestley’s expanded sense of time with the present ‘Age of the Tyranny of the Now’ where companies’ horizons are often limited to the next quarterly report and politicians’ to the next election, not to mention that our phones continually urge us to act in the moment by scrolling and clicking – especially the ‘buy now’ button.

A powerful graphic demonstrated how small the pool of people currently living is compared to the number of people who have lived and died up to this moment, and how these two pools are in turn dwarfed by the potential

inhabitants of the future, leading to a need to consider the people of the future more in our decision making. The question for which Roman is most known – ‘How can we become good ancestors?’ – is inspired by a quotation from Jonas Salk, the creator of the polio vaccine.

Roman went on to list, and explain more about, several projects which aim to expand our time horizons, including the Svalbard Seed Vault, the Future Library in Oslo and the Future Design Project in Japan. The Svalbard Seed Vault, located on a remote Nordic island, stores samples of seeds from all over the world, especially of plants used for food, to ensure genetic diversity in the food we eat. The Future Library is a 100-year project created by Scottish Artist Katie Paterson, which sees a notable author chosen each year to deposit a book, all of which will then be printed at the end of 100 years on paper from the trees planted around the library. As a book lover, I’m naturally attracted to this project, but the one which intrigued me most was the Future Design Project in Japan, which oers an innitely transferable model for avoiding short-termism in decision making. Future Design Councils, inuenced by the model of seventh-generation decision-making, divide the people involved in any decision into two groups. One group are asked to adopt the perspective of present-day residents, and the other (marked out by a dierent form of dress, which Roman demonstrated for us by adding a stylish orange-and-white jacket over his everyday clothes) is asked to take the perspective of residents in 2060. Studies have shown that the inclusion of a future-resident perspective results in signicantly more transformative plans.

Continued on page 7 >

Page 6 | Issue 8082 – 27 April 2024

Good ancestors Continued from page 6 >

These projects and others aim to turn us from ‘Marshmallow Brain’ (so named for the famous psychology experiment in which children were more likely to choose one marshmallow now than two later) to ‘Acorn Brain’ (in which we accept that what we plant may not bear fruit until the distant future). This is similar to Cathedral Thinking – the mindset of builders of vast architectural projects such as the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the pyramids in Egypt, the Toledo Synagogue and even the London sewer network!

Roman kept the audience engaged throughout the talk “It was a powerful way of shifting from an abstract sense of the future to one that is far more personal and relevant.” with anecdotes and visuals. He also had us stand up and take a series of small steps forward to help us move into an imagined future. We were asked to think of a young person of our acquaintance, and our rst step forward took us to their 30th birthday party. The next took us to their 90th birthday party, at which they would speak of the inuence we had on their lives. It was a powerful way of shifting from an abstract sense of the future to one that is far more personal and relevant, and its impact became clear when it was referenced in the extended question and answer session with which Roman closed his talk.

In his answers, Roman elaborated on his interest in science ction, talked about replacing the House of Lords with a randomly selected ‘House of Good Ancestors,’ and stressed the importance of intergenerational connections. Recommended reading if you’d like to follow up the theme of good ancestry includes Roman’s own book, The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World as well as the science ction novel The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Roman also points to Octavia Butler and Ursula le Guin as writers who explore relevant themes.

Roman has spoken and written extensively on subjects as varied as empathy, economics, and the ‘rst beautiful game,’ real tennis. His seemingly eclectic range of interests, tied together by an overarching desire to safeguard the best of our society for the future, seem to me to provide a valuable model for congregational conversation at this time of consolidating change in our movement.

His book would be an excellent resource for congregational book clubs, and you can view his signature 7-minute TED talk at https://tinyurl.com/Good-Ancestor, and an expanded version given as part of google talks at https://tinyurl.com/GoogleAncestor.

Shown above: Vince McCully conducts a plenary as Chief Ocer Liz Slade speaks.

Photo by John Hewerdine

Vince McCully Continued from page 5 >

and the head of the Church of Scotland.

Towards the end of my presidency I was thinking how can I possibly describe it in a mere eight minutes? I mean, it would take you way longer than that to look at even a few of the pictures I’ve taken and then put on Facebook.

Then I thought, if I were asked by the mythical visitor from Mars to describe our faith, I would say that we’re very much like an art gallery. With all of our autonomous congregations being individual works of art, with some sharing a wall or maybe not quite a wall, but a oor perhaps, with some congregations being like a painting, a mural, or a sculpture. But for all our dierences we are one building which is Tolerance, we have one roof which is Freedom and a rm foundation which is Reason. The words emblazoned on my badge. I’d better stop here before I get lost in the analogy.

Another overwhelming message that I found wherever I went, also nding it in our recent publications, is our desire, our need to share what our faith gives us. By this I mean the freedom of thought that we have, this tolerance we have for another’s point of view and being assured ourselves of genuine acceptance of our own individuality, of our own and therefore of other people’s faith journeys.

Yes, wherever I went I found this deep seated urge to share what we have – and to do what it takes to make our places of worship tick.

If only for this reason alone then I feel great optimism for the future prosperity of our faith, a faith that clearly is a faith for all.

Stephanie Bisby is minister with Bradford Unitarians. www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 7

Page 8 | Issue 8082 – 27 April 2024

www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 9

Celia Midgley writes of a new international collaboration

A community of abundance

Shown above: The Rev Alicia Ford

The Background Story: There was once an International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU), the seeds of which were sown in a resolution from the Unitarian General Assembly Annual Meetings in 1987. There was also a Partner Church Council (PCC), a Unitarian Universalist organisation based in the United States. In their time, both bodies did good work, nurturing contact, support and understanding across the globe.

While the PCC focused particularly on arranging visits between congregations in North America and Transylvania, the ICUU brought together Unitarians, Unitarian Universalists and other liberal religious groups from all over the world, sharing experience, worship, theology and understanding. These in-person gatherings were enriching for all. A particular focus that took shape was the fostering of leadership, especially in emerging liberal religious communities where there was no theological college or school. It is to ICUU’s credit that this began to happen – on site, working with new groups until they found their feet.

In due course, both ICUU and the PCC took the decision to close. The reasons were complex, involving funding and power and the growing acceptance that the imbalance between north and south, rich and poor needed to be redressed. Yet it was important that the essence of the good work done by both of these bodies should not be lost. In the background, too, was a greater understanding of the climate crisis. The desire, even the need to meet in person, sometimes in large numbers, was being challenged.

A new way forward In the ‘International Collaboration’ GA session, the Rev Alicia Forde, director of the International Oce of the UUA and the Rev Zsolt Elekes, the Hungarian Unitarian church’s ocer for International Relations, between them told us what happened next. They were joined by Kristyna Ledererova from Prague and our own Helen Mason, director of Unitarian College. Juban Lamar from the Khasi Hills and Esther Manjitu from Kenya spoke by video, sharing two important points: Together we create a community of abundance’. And: ‘It is OK to be dierent.’

A new Leadership and Design Team, comprising members Page 10 | Issue 8082 – 27 April 2024

from the Philippines, India, South Africa, Romania, the USA and the UK (GA Chief Ocer Elizabeth Slade) is now at work. The start was slow, inevitably delayed by Covid, but a gathering last year in Prague at which congregational growth was discussed, focused on leadership and aspects of religious community. Four groups explored leadership education, nancial resources, provision for young adults and theology. An important question concerned diversity and what it is that brings us together. Responses to a follow-up questionnaire conrmed the desire for education in the skills of leadership, including the learning of pastoral skills. There was also a wish to learn about one another’s theologies and to explore what it is that binds together this global community of religious seekers. The nal point in this list of responses concerned unequal access to technology, not a side issue when much of the learning may be done online. Two comments from the oor, picking up on this last point, stressed the importance of meeting face to face and the joy of it.

Challenges Meeting all these needs will not be easy. It will take time, patience and, of course, money. And if the focus is to be on leadership education, that cannot all be done online.

The Leadership and Design Team will surely have creative ideas for addressing this topic, acknowledging, as ICUU before it, that one size does not t all. A new facilitator – job to be advertised – will soon be at the helm.

It was a good session, helpful at drawing us in and making us feel part of the new venture. The closing words, reminding us that we are a global community, asked, ‘How can we be more together than we are alone?’ A good question. The whole is always more than the sum of its parts.

Jim Corrigall writes of how Joseph Priestley challenges us still

Priestley’s vision

Shown above: Lizzie Kingston Harrison addresses a plenary. GA photo by Aaron Scott Richards

A fascinating insight into the ideas of the 18th-century philosopher and scientist Joseph Priestley – and how these still challenge us today – was given by Dr Lizzie Kingston Harrison. Her talk, ‘Joseph Priestley: radical roots, new beginnings’, was hosted by the Unitarian Christian Association at the GA and drew a 70-strong audience. The speaker highlighted that this foundational philosopher of British Unitarianism lived in urgent times, where what was being contested was nothing less than truth and knowledge and who should have access to these.

Priestley was ghting against the ‘Confessional State’, where the inter-twined religious and secular power of the Anglican church, government and landed gentry dominated political life while it sought to control all avenues of thought. But, Priestley asserted, truth is for all. ‘Truth is ours not theirs’. He attempted to show that truth was accessible to the human mind through our God-given reason, it was meant for us all, he wrote.

What exactly were the ideas Priestley was challenging?

He spoke of the great pain he felt growing up when Calvinist ideas were dominant – the beliefs in our innate sinfulness as human beings, and how it was only through the sacrice of Jesus that we had been saved, through Jesus as God, as the second ‘person’ of the Trinity.

Priestley was later to say he was able to reject these ideas through reason. It was reason that saved him from the horror of feeling forsaken by God. He went on to speak of how applying reason to scripture led him to conclude that God’s mercy, salvation and grace are all freely given to those who try to do better; this is the Divine love that encompasses all.

Priestley thus came to reject the Trinity and to stress the humanity of Jesus. He maintained that true salvation comes through living as Jesus asks us to live. Through this, he said, we can become compassionate human beings. Yet to reach this point, Priestley maintained, we need to transcend the narrow self and embrace the broader self that is connected to the innite love of God and all creation.

Priestley was a Dissenter; he was seen as a dangerous radical and was called ‘Gunpowder Joe’. But he had the courage to stand by his beliefs, and our modern Unitarian

movement is a product of his trailblazing life and work.

But there was more. Priestley believed strongly in truth, objective and accessible to all. Our speaker pointed to how challenging this was today, when relativism holds sway in an age where people speak of ‘my truth’ and ‘your truth’. This is the age of ‘fake news’. Priestley’s ideas provide a key challenge to this relativism, Dr Kingston Harrison asserted. We can bring Priestley with us to confront relativism, she said, we can integrate his thought into our post-modern world, in ways that emphasise collective meaning-making.

For truth is not inaccessible. We still need to be Dissenters in our modern age, ‘We need to have the courage and the resilience to say we believe in something – not the great modernist project from which Unitarian dissent was born, but something that integrates all the glorious paradoxes we now appreciate, and the plurality of meaning … which is ultimately grounded in a shared belief that the truth is out there and is within us, and is held between us.

It is what unies us and not what fragments us,’ she concluded.

Dr Kingston Harrison, whose PhD was on the work of Priestley, took us deeply into his philosophic ideas, but she urged us to hold these lightly while enjoying the breadth of Priestley’s vision of an all-embracing, ever-loving God. Her talk was interspersed with music and with readings from TS Eliot by the Rev Matthew Smith, providing a meditative quality throughout.

The Rev Jim Corrigall is minister with the London District. www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 11

Winnie Gordon rejoices in a space held for ethnic minorities at the GA

Strengthening our faith We did it! A shout out to all those who have supported the Ethnic Minorities Heritage Spiritual Space for the last three years with your presence, your suggestions, your funding. It would not have happened without you! Thank you. Many people brand any opportunity for minoritised people to gather together, as ‘divisive’. Few understand the need for a space to gather. Hence the shout out of thanks.

The Unitarian General Assembly ethnic minority slot began three years ago as a space for ethnic minority people (as dened by the British government and by Unitarian Universalist experience) to gather and share space, thoughts, experiences, joys, and concerns (all of these or some of these), in a space separate from the gathering of the predominantly white-heritage majority. It has been an interesting three years, where, in a space of General Assembly meetings that is meant to be inclusive of a wide-church-need, I have had to resist the impulse to constantly apologise to those who are oended that there is a group they may not attend at this time, apologising for not opening the space up to the white gaze to observe, or even watch my pain revealed.

The space at General Assembly annual meeting is the only time people who self-identify as being part of an ethnic minority have the opportunity to see each other in person.

In previous years, there has only been the opportunity to nod (not even wave) to another person of colour’s face from across the room, acknowledging to each other, ‘I see you’. Yet this small action has often left out the hidden or invisible ethnic minority members within our midst. Some have felt subsumed into the majority, lacking a place to authentically be all of who they are. They have felt unable to bring their whole self to the table. There are times when speaking of one’s experience to people who may have faced the same thing, who may understand one’s feelings because they or their family, or their ancestors, have experienced something similar, is cathartic and reviving.

It is a way of gaining strength, to allow a person to move forward, once back in a space that aspires to be inclusive, and survive another year of being disappointed in the miniscule moves towards the aspiration or the many steps back from it.

Page 12 | Issue 8082 – 27 April 2024

This year, our ‘revival’ was led by the Rev Alicia Forde, international director for the Unitarian Universalist Association. They led us in reecting on the poetry of George Ella Lyon and Ms Vaca, to dene who we felt we were.

It was an opportunity to move from just the denition of place that we are often stereotyped into and by, and on to denitions of family traditions, childhood memories, religious memberships or experiences, stories that inspired us, plants in nature, and smells and wonders. Alicia facilitated the group as we shared our joys and pains in identifying who we are, and led us in devotions that renewed, re-strengthened, re-knitted our faith in a better tomorrow.

Sometimes, that is all I need to go on, to go forward. A few moments in the company of people who understand because they too have experienced similar things. A few moments in the company of people who do not need me to speak aloud to understand my frustrations and joys.

A few moments in the company of people of similar ancestry/heritage to celebrate our numbers in a space that often feels so white, that I am both invisible and too visible at the same time.

So please, when you see a slot that describes itself as being for people of ethnic minority, please, please reread the descriptor, and then read it again. If you do not self-identify as an ethnic minority or white-passing person, do not be oended when you are told this one hour – out of the 8760 hours of a calendar year – is only for those who do. Please be polite and leave. One day, the space will open for us to speak to each other. But each group needs time to do the work, to reach the place where listening can happen. Please do the work.

The Rev Winnie Gordon is minister with Birmingham Unitarians

Alan Ruston writes of the Historical Society’s presentation on the rst Unitarian congregation in Britain

Lindsey and the dissenters The Unitarian Historical Society is known for a speedy progress through its annual meeting. Derek McAulay, as president, managed it this year in about 16 minutes, not the fastest but it did include an alteration to the constitution. Still, there was sucient time to hear Prof GM Ditcheld’s paper on ‘The Essex Street Chapel in the 18th century: members, adherents and sympathisers’. We heard the Rev Daniel Costley reading it superbly, as Dr Ditcheld couldn’t be with us due to railway disruption.

Essex Street Chapel (on the site now occupied by the GA headquarters) was the rst avowedly Unitarian congregation in Britain when it was opened in 1774 by the Rev Theophilus Lindsey. However, in its early years, it was not a Dissenting meetinghouse, as Lindsey maintained that he was minister of a reformed version of the Church of England.

The story of its opening is well-known, but it had its critics right from the start; a determined Calvinist with the remarkable name of Augustus Montague Toplady, on hearing an early service, described Lindsey ‘as having no popular talents; no pathos, no dignity, no imagination, no elegance, no elocution… He must, unavoidably sink into obscurity.’ This, of course, didn’t happen, as the chapel’s location in the area of the Temple meant it attracted the famous of the day to hear Lindsey, and later – from 1782 – Dr John Disney as well.

The role of women in the new venture was signicant.

Lindsey’s wife, Hannah, was active amongst the poor of the area and was committed to pastoral work. She, also in 1786, received a large legacy from an uncle, prompting her husband to say, ‘it will free us from all anxiety about worldly things, which is no small blessing.’

Many of the leading gures of the day attended the chapel, which included the Duke of Grafton, a former prime minister who adopted Unitarian opinions in later life, and several MPs and their families. The numerous visitors, professional gures and famous names led some to say that it was not really a congregation, but ‘an audience.’

Prof Ditcheld stressed the large number of women who attended, including Mrs Elizabeth Rayner, who gave large sums to the chapel and to the poor; Lindsey estimated, that ‘she gave away not less than £2000 annually.’

Attendance at services uctuated seasonally; it declined in the summer months, when those who could left London to escape the hot weather and the associated city smells.

There were so many lawyers attending that Lindsey often suspended the afternoon service when they were out on circuit. How many people attended? Many supporters were not local and ‘attended the Chapel only during visits to London from dierent parts of the country. Probably the numbers present at morning services varied between 200 and 400 worshippers, depending on the time of the year.’

With the new century and the ministries of Thomas Belsham and Thomas Madge, Essex Street Chapel ‘at that time could legitimately be presented as the premier pulpit of Unitarianism. By then the Chapel had parted with much of its ethos as a reformed version of the Church of England and was increasingly identied as a Dissenting place of worship.’

We can look forward to reading the full text of Dr Ditcheld’s address in the Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society for 2025. For information on joining the society and subscribing to the Transactions, write to the editor, the Rev Dr David Steers: unitarianhistory@ hotmail.co.uk Perhaps the present congregation at Essex Church might wish to hear Dr Ditcheld’s address themselves, looking back to the time when it could claim a couple of Dukes as attenders, the other being the Duke of Sussex, son of King George the Third.

Alan Ruston is a Unitarian writer and member of the Unitarian Historical Society. www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 13

Climate action – right here, right now At the Unitarian General Meetings, Unitarians for Climate Justice (U4CJ) hosted a climate-focused People’s Assembly. More than 50 attendees brought ideas and enthusiasm to a lively, dierentiated session that led to the creation of a Climate Charter for individuals, congregations, and the wider UK Unitarian movement.

Ever had to make a decision, fast? Ever had to do it in a room full of Unitarians? Not easy. But, at this year’s General Meetings, 50 climate-conscious Unitarians made not one but multiple dicult decisions – at pace.

How? A People’s Assembly.

We all agree that we love our natural world and want to curb the climate crisis, but we don’t always know how best to do it. It seems like we’re doing all we can. We recycle, right, so aren’t we doing our bit? And, even if we wanted to do more, where do we start? We’re not sustainability experts. But here’s the thing – when we put our heads together and get realistic about our responsibilities, we can do more than we ever thought possible.

We can turn intent into real action.

What is a People’s Assembly?

In a People’s Assembly, voluntary participants contribute ideas, vote on them, and carry the most popular proposals forward into action. People’s Assemblies dier from Citizen’s Assemblies in that the participants are self-selected (not random), and the decisions inform actions for activists (not policy).

U4CJ’s People’s Assembly aimed to crowdsource proposals for a more climate-active movement. It held a special place of signicance, marking almost exactly one year since U4CJ was set up at the 2023 General Meetings in the very same building.

The Assembly began with a short meditation – attendees were invited to look at a collection of natural objects, sparking feelings of care, protection, and connection.

This also helped to inspire them to be, in the words of this year’s keynote speaker Roman Krznaric, ‘good ancestors’.

Food, buildings, investments – areas of inuence The People’s Assembly focused on three themes – food, buildings, and investment. These are high-level areas that we as Unitarians have the power to inuence and change.

Each theme was explored through the dimensions of individuals, congregations, and the wider UK Unitarian movement. Due to time limitations, attendees were asked to choose one of the three themes to discuss in small groups. They were encouraged to think about specic actions, rather than stating intentions. For example, an intention might be ‘we would like to support local climate groups’. An action, however, would sound more like, ‘we will contact local climate groups to oer our worship space as a free meeting venue’. The key is to get specic while allowing room for exibility.

Is it getting hot in here?

Page 14 | Issue 8082 – 27 April 2024

“Ever had to make a decision, fast? Ever had to do it in a room full of Unitarians?

Not easy.”

Attendees voted on proposals using ‘temperature checks’. This voting mechanism, common in Extinction Rebellion meetings, acts as a kind of silent applause. You wave your hands high to show strong approval, midway to signal ambivalence, and downwards to show disagreement.

Proposals were collected with the help of a brilliant facilitator team, and voted on by the small groups. The most popular proposals were then voted on by the whole group, again using the temperate check technique to show the strength of support.

Proposals that received a majority vote were carried forward, forming a Climate Charter. The Charter will be shared across UK-wide congregations, and presented to the executive committee. It will also inform future motions put forward at the 2025 General Meeting and beyond.

Climate Charter at a glance Proposals for individuals include buying local and seasonally grown produce, conducting climate cafes to provide safe spaces for climate grief, and investing in social enterprises to promote climate justice. For congregations, proposals include restocking tea and coee supplies with fairtrade goods, and using the free energy audit resources provided by Eco Church (https:// ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/). For the wider movement, proposals include prioritising vegetarian/vegan meals at Unitarian General Meetings, for U4CJ and the Executive Committee to convene a green energy steering group, and for U4CJ to create guidance on ecobanking and green investments. The full Climate Charter can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/ClimateCharter.

What’s next?

Unitarians aren’t known for making decisions, but it’s truly amazing what happens when you combine a ipchart, six doggedly determined facilitators, and a time crunch. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved and see it as a blueprint for future decision-making. Could People’s Assemblies oer a much-needed alternative for outmoded chapel committees? Well, that’s a whole different article…

Our hope is that the Climate Charter will be implemented wherever possible, and chart a chain of consequent Assemblies. We hope you’ll be part of it.

To share your sustainable success stories and stay up to date with the latest U4CJ news, join the U4CJ WhatsApp group: https://bit.ly/Unitarians4CJ. Laura Autumn Cox is a member of U4CJ.

‘Bringing our future into being’ Executive Committee workshop at the GA Billed as a chance to ‘get to know your executive committee (EC) members’, this year’s EC workshop attracted more than 65 delegates for informal tablebased discussions with individuals on the committee.

But it was more than that – it was chance to know ourselves as a whole movement, sharing our hopes and fears for an ever-uncertain future. The session centred on three questions about perceiving and receiving change. The anonymous quotes below come from a y-on-the-wall observation of just one of 10 table discussions.

Question 1: What does it feel like within our congregation when we consider change?

There is an ongoing a struggle between honouring the past and changing in order to continue to exist.

‘The feeling is that we don’t want change, and that we want to play out our time.’

‘We’re only a small fellowship – very philosophical and reluctant.’

‘We don’t see the opportunity of change.’

‘COVID helped to bring in changes.’

‘There’s a big fear around change. People don’t want to rock the boat.’

Question 2: What’s nourishing about your community? What has energised and inspired you?

New and ongoing initiatives across the movement are maintaining energy, but community is dicult to build and sustain.

‘Unitarians for Climate Justice has been massive for me personally. It’s amazing what we can do nationally without a committee, without red tape – even without an email address.’

‘We’re a small congregation but we have huge reach. I probably know more people outside of my congregation than within it.’

‘Zoom is a much easier way to connect, and spread the message.’

‘Things like Transformers are great, but they are outliers.’

Question 3: What should we let go of?

Despite a radical history, Unitarians have a fear of change that is not always acknowledged or addressed.

‘Unitarians are not radical – we’re just not.’ ‘(At a GA Plenary) this morning, an amendment to a motion (on Israel/Gaza) watered it down and made it useless.

We have to stop being afraid of rocking the boat.’

‘I asked to take our banner to a Black Lives Matter protest.

The response was, “well we’ll need to take it to the committee next month and then get two other people to agree...”’

‘We can join with other groups like the Quakers, but we also need something at our core.’

‘For someone to lead change, it takes a lot mentally and physically. You need time. But you also need to eat and pay your rent. We expect so much, and give nothing.’

A period of transition The discussions concluded with a feedback session, oering groups the opportunity to share key nuggets from their conversations. This included the need to let go of stuy committees, the age-old concern of low numbers, and questions around the usefulness of our buildings. One especially poignant observation was the need to let go of fear.

Laura Autumn Cox is a Unitarian writer.

Worship beyond words workshop Continued from page 16 >

At Erika’s second session there were even more people.

Maybe a coincidence or maybe not. Could this kind of worship that is more sensory, more interactional and involves our body, mind and spirit be the answer to our declining congregations? Dare we risk breaking away from the classic hymn sandwich and risk doing something different?

I hope that my services in future will continue to involve experiences that will be memorable for people, ones that go beyond words and reach the parts of people that are aching for belonging and connection. I want to reach that person whose heart is breaking.

Shown above: The Rev Erika Hewitt, UUA minister, led the workshop. GA photo by Aaron Scott Richards

Helen Simpson is a member of the Octagon Chapel, Norwich. www.inquirer.org.uk | Page 15

Helen Simpson writes of a workshop that engaged all 5 senses

Worship beyond words

Shown above: Helen decorates her rock in the worship workshop. GA photo by Aaron Scott Richards

As I write I am looking at a stone on my desk with a heart drawn on it. I’ve often left Unitarian services noticing that my brain has been exercised – like I’ve just been to a good Ted talk. Sometimes I feel as though my head actually hurts from the exertion. But often the rest of my body, my heart and my soul and my spirit have been left untouched. So the idea of a session called ‘worship without words’ led by the Rev Erika Hewitt really excited me. In the rst well-attended session, a table was set out with stones and scattered leaves.

She began with a call and response song and immediately I was moved. I felt goose bumps on my arms, tingling on the back of my head. She asked us what we think people want when they come to a Unitarian service. We shouted out answers like Connection. Love. Meaning. Purpose. A moment of the sacred.

‘Do they want to know how to better understand the country’s nancial systems?’ she asked. We chuckled knowingly. Probably not. Erika challenged us to provide a service for our congregation that is an opportunity for meaning-making, that allows people to grieve and lament and the heals, the isolation and mean-spiritedness of our culture.

She went on to describe activities that might provide this, such as ritual hand-washing, communions with water or owers, and inviting people to write down insights from their lives that are then read out. We were invited to take a stone that had been washed in water from a sacred spring, write on it and take it away with us. There was practical advice too on rituals and how they take much longer than we expect.

This reminded me that for years I would not make a space for people to light candles and share their joys and concerns in case it made me run over time. For some reason I felt that nishing exactly on the hour was much more important than allowing the congregation an opportunity to speak. Why, I wondered, do we not always use some kind of activity in our services.

There’s something about being a Unitarian, I’ve noticed, that feels like words are so important. We pride ourselves on being people of reason and logic. We are careful to use words that are inclusive of minority groups. Our services

are well thought-through and researched. But are we giving people an experience that will enrich them and help them feel loved and have a sense of purpose? Erika reminded us that every week there will be somebody in your congregation whose heart is breaking. This thought has stayed with me. There is probably more than one person whose heart is breaking in any given service. Some of the best services I have been to have brought me to tears – as well as giving me a space for hope.

I recently told someone that I loved their last service. I then hesitated because, I couldn’t remember what they had talked about. But I was honest and told them that I know when they step up to the pulpit, I’m going to go away feeling calm and hopeful and I will feel like I want to go out into the world and make something good happen.

If I’m honest, when I go to a service I don’t want to come away knowing more facts. If I want to know information, I have the internet. Since lockdown, our reasons for risking leaving the house have changed. We want something that we can’t get from our phone. We want to be moved.

We want to feel part of something.

I was recently asked to help a local theatre who had noticed that most of its audience were older and middle class. The biggest attracter of under 30’s that year had been an immersive theatre piece called Darkeld, Eulogy.

The story outline was dependent upon the answers given to certain questions. It is part of a growing trend called ‘the experience economy’. You don’t just sit back passively and receive the event. You are involved, You can change what happens. It is memorable and it involves all the senses. Is there a takeaway about involving younger people in this new kind of theatre experience? < Continued on page 15