Unitarians and other faith groups

Sometimes people come to the Unitarian movement from other faith communities and carry unhappy baggage with them.  That can make them want to find something called "Unitarianism" as The Answer, and for it to be quite different from other faith communities.  They can be desperate to find somewhere that will deliver what was missing for them elsewhere, and they may imagine that they have found a new community that will give them the security of the answers they want.

They will be disappointed. 

To start with, I have heard it said and seen it written on several occasions that there is no such thing as "Unitarianism", only Unitarians; that is to say, a movement of people each calling themself a Unitarian.  After all, if each Unitarian speaks the truth from where they stand, and each stands in a different spot, it is logical that in any meeting of Unitarians, a lot of what is said will not sound quite right to those listening.  If I go to a Unitarian meeting I am lucky if I can agree with 60% of what is said.  But I know the people are speaking as authentically as they can, and I know that when it is my turn to speak, what I say will be given a proper listening to.  I won't be told I am wrong.

The other thing is that often we carry our problems with us.  I am indebted to Rowan Williams for this summing up of the issue: if we move on too quickly from one faith community to another it may be a sign that we are looking for the solutions outside ourselves, rather than doing the hard work of examining ourselves and allowing the necessary change to occur inside.

Unitarians do not see themselves as having all the answers, nor as infallible.  They are open to spiritual insights from beyond their own borders.  Typically, long-term Unitarians do not want to isolate themselves from other faith communities.  To start with, newcomer Unitarians may find they want the sanctuary of being away from where they came from; they make need space and time to sort themselves out.  But what tends to happen is that when a person has grown into their new home among Unitarians, when they feel at ease, they find their self-confidence increases, so they are more able to encounter their past community without feeling the discomfort that made them leave.  I have heard a Quaker say the same: she needed to leave the Church of England, but once established within the Quaker movement, she was able to treat cross-boundary working with the CofE in a new light, almost as an interfaith encounter.

Unitarians work inclusively and are prepared to accept difference, especially when honestly expressed.  We may not be accepted as a formal body by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, but we are Christian Aid founder members and we work with other churches there.  And individually and congregationally many people cross boundaries.  Relatively recently there have been strong links with the Quakers and Reformed Judaism (in the campaign for equal marriage in UK).

So in thinking about Unitarians in Ringwood, please expect an attitude of reaching out to find a point of amicability and joint action with other churches and faith groups.  We also seek links with other groups such as the Humanist Society, Friends of the Earth, Amnesty International UK, community associations, charity fund raising groups etc.  This is not a matter of converting each other to each other's point of view, nor even of cold toleration.  It is a kindly recognition that each member of a healthy, diverse society has a part to play.  Each separate church is a calling for some if not for others, and many points of view lead to successful and robust solutions to problems.

Again using and developing the thoughts of Rowan Williams: there must be no competitiveness between churches.  We must act in all humility if we are to act in love.  How depressing it would be, he suggests, if all that people of faith could offer the world were new and different ways of competing, of making winners and losers, of judging some over others, of excluding some by letting them fall outside the love coming from us which has its source in the love coming from God.  Teachers of all sorts have taught us to reach out to the untouchables.  The only questions we each have to ask are, who are my untouchables, and who is it I must work with so as to reach out to those untouchables? - because, for sure, I cannot do it on my own.