Revisiting an old but constantly renewing form of worship gathering – Unitarians in Ringwood experiment with Iona liturgy

We were delighted to welcome Angelica from the Chapel in the Garden (the Unitarian Church in Bridport https://thechapelinthegarden.com/services/  ) as our president for the day.

Angelica chose to structure the event around the liturgy for Morning Prayer used worldwide by those connected with the Iona Community.  The full words are available for purchase here Iona Books  and an example of how it can be participated in by people world wide is available here (a daily YouTube broadcast) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NCiw2S6fss

(  What is the Iona Community?  )

A regional Unitarian Minister remarked recently that accessing the beating heart of any community of faith – and in fact any attempt at spiritual progress –  must begin with contrition.  And so it was interesting that we found ourselves invited,

“Trusting in God’s forgiveness, 

Let us in silence confess our failings

And acknowledge our part in the pain of the world…..”

Further, this acknowledgement involved turning, not inwards, not to a priest, not to an altar, but to one another, to confess our failings in turning away from God, our wounding of our own lives, and our wounding of the lives of others, and the world.

We were invited to see God’s goodness at the heart of humanity planted more deeply than all that is wrong.

There were three Bible readings, set out in the Revised Common Lectionary for the fourth Sunday of Easter (21 April 2024)

– Acts 4:5-12


– 1 John 3:16-24

– John 10:11-18

Two readings were dealing with the ever whirling question about who Jesus was – who he said he was, who his disciples said he was.  And the third dealt with what a suitable response to Jesus is.  You will not be surprised to hear that we are advised to love one another and to abide in the instructions that he gave.

We were also adventurous enough to sing along with some worship songs new to us, and there was space and time for us to light candles and name what was in our hearts and minds that day.

Everyone felt able to participate in this service, which was refreshingly short by our standards, allowing plenty of time after the formal proceedings to talk further about what we had experienced, and to get to know each other a little better. 

Ethics or inspiration – which facet of Christianity most matters to you? #Unitarians in Ringwood online on St Patrick's Day 2024

On the day traditionally associated with St Patrick of Ireland, we met online.  We had several hymns from a variety of sources, a music video from the musical Godspell, and a pop song from the band Eurythmics.  And instead of seven minutes of silence, which we carry out when meeting face to face, we were led into meditational prayer using a prayer poem by John McQuiston.

Our president for the day had chosen to focus on the style of Christianity associated with Patrick, contrasting it with the style of Christianity associated with St Benedict.  Patrick’s mission was to import the wholly new faith into a Celtic culture rich in Paganism and imaginative nature-based styles and habits.  On the other hand, Benedict was in an already Roman Christian setting and was attempting to get back to basics, so as to live like the first disciples of Jesus.  Benedict’s mission was influenced by hermits and their aim of stripping away anything getting in the way between humans and their creator.  Two remarkably different contexts.

And so we had a reading from the Rule for monastic living written by Benedict; and a contemporary piece from John O’Donohue in Anam Cara, showing the Celtic imaginative associations between breath and spirit.  We also prayed part of a traditional Irish prayer attributed to Patrick, known both as Saint Patrick's Breastplate and The Deer’s Cry.

~~~~~~

As our president suggested, Benedict introduced a detailed, rules-based way of living a simple Christian life in a tight knit community already familiar with Christian scripture and doctrine.  Surely, we heard, Patrick had to imagine a wilder, free-flowing way of being Christian, in order to have any influence in Irish society.

No conclusion was drawn in respect of the comparison, and the question – left for us to ponder afterwards – was whether personally we gravitate to a more rules-based way of living our lives of faith, or whether we tend towards a more mystical sense of spirit.

Just to muddy the waters still further, our president also read a short piece from a spiritual teacher from Zen Buddhism who has also made a long study of the narratives of the life of Jesus.  This teacher suggests that the stories of Jesus can be read as a metaphor for the spiritual journey of every soul, and has drawn his own conclusions about Jesus’ message:

“Jesus, brought up and living as a Jew, had, I think, a profound understanding that — if you weren’t really careful — that the religion itself, instead of connecting one to the radiance of being, connecting one to that spiritual mystery, actually becomes a barrier to it. 

As soon as we get too hung up with the rites and the rituals, and the norms and the ‘Thou shalts’ and the ‘Thou shalt nots’, then all of those things keep us on the surface level of consciousness.

They may have a usefulness.  Mostly the usefulness of the exterior parts of religion is to modulate ego human behaviour, to have a good moral sense.  To move in the world, in time in space, from a healthy sense of ethics  is a very positive thing.  It helps to control the deeper and more dark elements of the ego.  So they do provide a very important function.

But religion’s roots are in eternity.  As soon as religion forgets about its roots — forgets that its primary function and role is to convey to awaken within you the experience of the sublime — when religion forgets that, when it forgets that it’s not primarily about its ethical function, it ceases to be reverence and becomes a power structure.

The first function of religion is to connect you with the mystery of life, with the mystery of existence.  That’s why Jesus was so critical of the religion of his time — because he saw that not only was it not connecting people to the mystery, but it was actually an active participant in veiling the mystery of existence; in covering over the kingdom of heaven.”

Resurrecting Jesus by Adyashanti

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Resurrecting_Jesus.html?id=MToKnwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

On 18 February 2024 #Unitarians in Ringwood made God laugh

On 18th February 2024 we say "Happy 10th Anniversary!" to Didymus.........

........And what an anniversary it turned out to be.

Early in the week beforehand it seemed that there would not be enough of us available to make a gathering worthwhile, and certainly not a gathering led by a guest preacher who would need to make a three hour return trip by car to be with us.

And so there was no gathering in Ringwood today.

For some of us, that was not a surprise.  For others, it was absolutely a surprise.

And as for those who made alternative plans, involving meeting together elsewhere – well, they found that despite best intentions, that didn’t work out happen either.

And so, what’s the spiritual learning we harvest from today?

It’s best summed up in this old joke: