Are we really here for this? - to seek paradise? Ringwood #Unitarians sit and listen in Feb 2023

At our February gathering for reverence we were privileged to welcome the District Minister for the London District, Rev Jim Corrigall, as our president for the day.  At a prayerful and heartfelt gathering we noticed, not for the first time, that as we gather in the Meeting House at the centre of the town, it can feel as though we are at the quiet centre of an ever turning world.  We sing, we read, we turn to prayer and we sit in quiet contemplation or meditation, all while the sounds carry on around us of chatting people moving past the Meeting House, shopping trolleys being collected, buses stopping and starting, and the bells from the parish church nearby.  Another sense of privilege: it can feel like we are anchoring the town in silence, for the benefit of all.

The Bible reading for the day came from the Book of Luke, chapter 17, and it reminded us that Jesus said that many would search here and there to find the kingdom of God, whereas the kingdom of God is to be found within us, among us.

Our president drew our attention to several readings from the book Seeking Paradise - A Unitarian Mission for Our Times, by Stephen Lingwood.  This is a book that several of us have read, and which is now on the list of ‘must reads’ for others of us.

It was a delight to hear Rev Jim read from and comment on Stephen Lingwood’s book — such a relevant theme for a small fellowship as we gathered on our ninth anniversary.  What are we here for?

My own take home messages from the book were slightly different from Rev Jim’s, and the rest of this blogpost reflect my own take on the book.

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This book is one which, by looking at the history of our tradition, particularly with regard to its mission in times past, suggests that our tradition needs to be clearer about what its mission, its purpose, might be today.  Lingwood is quite clear that he is putting forward a proposition, and welcomes other contrasting propositions, so that the tradition can hold a debate, and move understanding along a little.  

The basic question Lingwood is trying to address is: what does it matter if our church exists or not, or whether our church grows or not, if truth and salvation do not depend on it?  He says, “I believe it is only by answering the question of our purpose that we can begin to answer the question of our growth.”

In a book that covers a wide span, Stephen Lingwood arrives at his answer, which is that the Unitarian mission is both to discover and create 'paradise'.  He explores what this spirituality of paradise might mean, and how it might provide a sense of vision and mission. 

The word paradise is a word that almost everyone is familiar with, and uses in their own way.  It’s a word that instantly conveys a sense of well-being, peace, opportunity, richness, colour, beauty, laughter, contentment, happiness.  The symbol of paradise has a very long history.  It appears first in the Christian Bible in the image of Adam and Eve walking in the garden of Eden with God, in innocence, plenty, and peace.

Lingwood draws on other writers from our tradition, notably Rebecca Ann Parker, who have argued that in the church there is a persistent and rich symbol of paradise for salvation.  He reports their findings that “Paradise is the biblical image of a state of joy and abundance.  It is the garden of delights where there is no war, no disconnection, no suffering.....Paradise does not just mean a mythical time in the past when all was well.....a Christian spirituality that sees paradise as existing here and now, within us and all around us...both in the world and in the worshipping community...”

“The good news of paradise is that the world is beautiful, good, and overflowing with the love and grace of God.  But we have to open our eyes to paradise in order to make its full presence realised in the world.”

Moreover, says Lingwood, “Paradise points to a deep sense of beauty and love in this world, but this is not the same thing as saying, ‘The world is just lovely and fine as it is.’... I have seen evidence from people resisting extreme evil ....[and] I am provisionally hopeful that faith in paradise is not destroyed by the reality of suffering.”

Perhaps the punchline from the book, although it does not come at the end of the book, is this:

“What is our message? Our good news? That you live in paradise, and that the powers of Empire have lied to you.  In some circumstances, if we are bold enough, perhaps the message could even be that God loves you; that the fundamental reality of the world is relationship, and not isolation — but we each have to discover this for ourselves.”