Unitarians alive and well in Ringwood in 2013

There are Unitarians in Ringwood.  It's just that they don't yet call themselves Unitarians because they don't know the name "Unitarian".  The thing about being a Unitarian is that there is no rule about what a Unitarian is.  Some say it's about hope, some say it's about
systems of belief, some say it's about how you live.  Some say it's about freedom, reason and tolerance.  Some say it's about how you do a radically 21st century way of faith.  The national support team for Unitarians says it could be called "many beliefs, one faith".  All would agree that being a Unitarian is about exploring fundamental and searching questions and not about preaching answers.  Unitarians also agree that the ultimate authority for anyone has to be their living, challenging, perplexing conscience, no matter what any other person says.  Behind all of this is the traditional Unitarian insistence on the oneness of God or the God idea, from which we get our name.

Unitarians insist on the central call to love and typically care about right relationships such as

• equal rights and the ending of oppression
• being in touch with the Earth and its growing creatures and living lightly on the planet
• being in touch with how we have got to where we are now and what that means for our shared future
• being in balance in our inner life
• being human together and supporting strong communities

and about doing more than thinking about right relationships - Unitarians typically care about getting down and working for it, working for that better world now.

To be a Unitarian is to be sure that one will feel better, and be able to do more of the things that matter, by finding others who are pointing in the same direction - being Unitarian is to want to be part of a community.  And because the Unitarian core is a core of faith, we often cannot precisely explain why these relationships matter to us so very much. 

For some Unitarians, a teacher who has gone before seems to have the best answer on being in right relation with ourselves and others - such as Lao Tzu, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Guru Nanek, Mohandas Gandhi, Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

For other Unitarians, being in right relation may be a question of scientific and evolutionary common sense whilst also being heartfelt, graceful living - and essential if the human species, with all its artistic and expressive needs, is to survive.

For Unitarians focused on ecology, there is an overriding sense of the importance of other living systems and creatures; a sense that it matters that the balance at the moment is wrong as a result of humans disregarding other living systems so often.

And some Unitarians may be very private indeed about what drives their personal curiosity about peace and healing, because it is a deep-down trust in transcendence that can't easily be spoken of.  A trust in an absolute, an other - beyond all that the eye can see, all that the scientist can measure, and everything that all the prophets of the world have ever said.  A trust that they can only experience, not describe convincingly.

People who don't know that they are Unitarians can sometimes be quite lonely, surrounded by a materialistic and sceptical world or else by churches and religions that seem to be lost in clutter about which teacher had it absolutely right, or else internal politics.

If you have read this far and any of this appeals to you, and if you live within reach of Ringwood, Hampshire, you may be one of the as yet undiscovered Ringwood Unitarians.  Well, this is great, because it's time to find out you are not alone and there can be a community for you.  There are others living not far from you.  All we need to do together is to make the space and opportunities for us all to come out of the Forest and the Avon and Stour valleys, and meet up.  Watch this space.