Prove it to me

Unitarians are, by nature, people who examine evidence, lines of logic, myths, legends and argument.  They tend to lend greater weight to the evidence of their own lives and experience than to hypotheses handed to them by others.

In the Christian story we notice that the disciple called Thomas was sceptical about the claims of others: the claims that Jesus had been resurrected, and had been seen walking and talking to those who followed him.  "When I can put my finger in the wounds on his hands, feet and side," Thomas is supposed to have said, "then I'll believe."  Doubting Thomas, he became dubbed, and the name has stuck. Well, Unitarians are perhaps the Doubting Thomases of religion.  "Show me how what you are saying matches my experience," Unitarians say.

So it comes as no surprise that the Unitarian congregation of Ringwood, at some point in the 19th century, renamed their Meeting House as "St Thomas' Chapel".  It did revert, and by the time the Unitarians sold it off, it was once again simply the "Meeting House".

Now Unitarians once again use the Meeting House in Ringwood for their worship, and this year to mark the feast day of Thomas on 3 July we presented the Meeting House with a floral arrangement specially commissioned from the Ringwood Floral Decoration Society.  We are grateful to them, and also to Rivendell Designs Photography (also from Ringwood) for the photos on this post.