Liberation for all in a time of enforced confinement - a Seder meal online and why we celebrate this Jewish festival #Unitarians

In 2012 I heard a talk by Dan Mark Cohn-Sherbok, a rabbi of Reform Judaism and Jewish theologian, who once had a congregation to tend, but who is now Professor Emeritus of Judaism at the University of Wales.  On the occasion I heard him, he was speaking about his book, The Palestinian State: A Jewish Justification, publ. Impress Books. ISBN 978-1-907-60529-1.

What follows owes a very great deal to Professor Cohn-Sherbok, and what he said that day.

(Associated link:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/non-religious-virtual-seder-new-unity-passover-tickets-101876290728   )

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There is a narrative for this period of the year that informs both Jewish and Christian thought processes, and it is recorded in the Christian Bible, in the book of Exodus, coming to a climax in chapter 12.

The enslaved Jewish people, the children of Israel, known then as the Hebrews, were rescued from their oppressors of Egypt, by God.

It happened like this.  The Hebrews were to slaughter a lamb for their evening meal and mark the doorposts of their houses with the blood of the lamb.  All of the lamb was to be eaten, and eaten quickly, with all leftovers to be burned in the fire.  They were to eat “fast food” with the lamb: unleavened bread, not waiting for the sourdough to rise; bitter herbs for flavour, but otherwise nothing fancy to be cooked.  For they were on the eve of travelling, of making their escape.  They were in haste, and were to be in their travelling clothes as they ate.

During the night, God punished the oppressors by killing the first born offspring of all their families and all their cattle — only families where the doorposts had been marked were spared.  God passed over those doors; this was God’s Passover.

And during the night, while the Egyptians were in the midst of the chaos and grief of what had happened, they ejected the Hebrews, who got out of Egypt quickly before the Egyptians could change their minds.

This is the story of the Passover, and the meal associated with it is known as the Seder. And the command was given and received, that this feast of the Passover shall be celebrated every year and by all generations of Jews, ever more.

And the journey undertaken to escape is known as the Exodus.

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The Jewish theology of liberation is that the message of God is that there is to be relief of oppression for all.  It is a statement of hope, too: a steadfast belief that there will be God’s justice for all.

This is the meaning of the Passover celebration.

So Jewish thought, and those who inherit their thinking from Jewish thinking, must be sensitive to oppression wherever it occurs.

And linked to the Exodus is God’s Kingdom, the realm of God, which cannot be installed without justice and elimination of social misery.  This is a human responsibility and is not a metaphor; this is not a command to fulfil a personal, tranquil, internal state, but rather a responsibility to satisfy the outward, practical conditions of freedom and justice for all humans alive.

Moreover, the Passover is not an isolated event in the narrative of the Jews.  Many Jewish prophets called the Jews to treat all people as equal, Jews and non-Jews alike.  The God of the Jews, the one God, has a track record of requiring the freedom of all, and of justice for all.

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It was to celebrate the feast of the Passover that Jesus left Galilee for Jerusalem, around the year we call 33 CE.  On the first day of the week (Sunday), he arrived in Jerusalem, for the seven day period of contemplation, and the daily eating of unleavened bread, as described in Exodus Chp 12 vv 14-20.  No work was to be done.  A quiet time was to be had by all.  And then the feast of the Passover would be celebrated and the Seder meal eaten, on the seventh day, the Saturday, the Sabbath.

The arrival of Jesus is described in the Christian Bible and celebrated by Christians as Palm Sunday.  Jesus is said to have arrived in Jerusalem astride a donkey.  He will then have embarked on a period of domestic quiet in the company of his family and followers.

But somehow in that quiet week spent with his followers, it became apparent to Jesus that not all his followers were true to him and his cause; to his teachings about the way to instal God’s Kingdom on Earth; and the need for justice by way of love of, and service to, those oppressed.  Judas, it was, who had become disillusioned and who had sold Jesus out to the Jewish authorities, perhaps as a heretic.  On the Thursday of that week Jesus shared his last evening meal of unleavened bread and wine with his followers, including Judas.  In his mystical, esoteric way, Jesus endowed great meaning to the elements of the meal, and we can argue to this day about the meaning of the words attributed to Jesus, as they ate.  One thing is sure: according to the reports of the meal recorded later, Jesus was being completely congruent with the idea that the Seder meal is inextricably linked with liberation, justice, love, humanity as one, and one with God in the realm of God.

Sadly, Jesus did not get to enjoy the Saturday feast of the Passover that year.  He had already been executed by the Romans, on the Friday, as a sop to the excitable Jewish crowd, who probably knew little, actually, about Jesus; on the weak pretext that Jesus was an agitator and subversive, threatening Roman rule.

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Unitarians are beginning to make a point of celebrating the ideas of oneness with God and the whole created cosmos with a Seder meal.  And at present much of the world is in an enforced quiet, contemplative time, responding to the COVID19 virus pandemic.  Not so very different from the traditional preparation for the Passover.

If you are interested in reflecting in a new way on these Judaeo-Christian narratives, and the significance of the Seder meal in relation to liberation, justice, and relieving the burdens of people marginalised by mainstream society, perhaps you might like to participate in an online Seder service, next Saturday, 11 April 2020, 5:15 pm BST, organised and provided by New Unity Unitarian congregation in London.

Have a look at the wonderfully full description of the event, which will be accessed via Eventbrite, at the link below.  The link will also allow you to register for the event.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/non-religious-virtual-seder-new-unity-passover-tickets-101876290728

The #Unitarian Offer

(These words were recently delivered at a Unitarian service, by Daniel Costley, Unitarian Minister to congregations in Kent, and published on his blog BENGE, a link to which is at the bottom of our own blog.)

"Robbie Walsh caught my eye with the phrase:  ‘if you can prove it, then it’s not God; it’s something less than God’

This is a position I’ve taken personally for many years.  I too get frustrated that others wish to tell me what I can or can’t feel, what my emotions and intuition tell me exist.  I too get annoyed when, even fellow Ministers, try to explain my personal experiences.

For me, that defeats the whole purpose of my spiritual exploration.  It attempts to negate that glorious freedom I have been given to explore my own response to the world – seen and unseen – and to reflect on how this shapes or troubles me.  What I might change and what I might accept.

For Robbie Walsh, the beauty of God, or, as he puts it, the beauty of connection to the great creating, sustaining, transforming mystery – which you may or may not choose to call God – it is the beauty of the personal connection that provides the proof of something, if proof is needed.

And more importantly, the experience neither confirms nor refutes the ideas and experiences of others.

It just is.

Like all explorers, there is a personal experience that fulfils – the experience of others is interesting, but it does not connect.  We need to find our own link, our own experience, our own fulfilment.

As Unitarians it is our intention to be a beacon of light in the community, to be a community ourselves, ready to embrace new members and fellow travellers on this journey through life. 

We are a community, ready to embrace new members and fellow travellers on this journey through life.

And it is true.  We are here to preserve, maintain, and continue the possibility of sanctuary, safe space, and freedom to explore, to anyone that recognises the importance of personal experience and commitment.  

And that is a big offer.  From a spiritual seeker’s perspective, the provision of space in this way is almost unique.  We have no creed, no expectation of belief, no central spiritual doctrine around which we congregate.  We gather around a flame of freedom, not words of certainty.

Really?  Yes. Really.  And that is the advantage."

Remembering #Unitarians in Ringwood on Armistice Day 11th Nov 2018

We gathered under the Unitarian banner on Sunday 11th November for coffee shop church, and after we had had our contemplative time we fitted in a short business meeting and a social.

One of the freedoms of being a Unitarian group is that we can hallow all that we do, without having to feature a fixed structure or fixed elements into our gatherings, rites and rituals.  So today we included poetry and wordlessness, despite what was a rather noisy environment.  We started, though,  with a short poem by Mark Nepo  http://www.marknepo.com  that we had picked up from the blog of Danny Crosby, the Unitarian Minister serving Altrincham & Urmston in Cheshire   http://danny-crosby.blogspot.com/  And then we sat in wordless togetherness for some minutes, absorbing what the poem had meant to us.

I keep looking for one more teacher, only to find that fish learn from water and birds learn from sky.

If you want to learn about the sea, it helps to be at sea.

If you want to learn about compassion, it helps to be in love.

If you want to learn about healing, it helps to know of suffering.

The strong live in the storm without worshipping the storm.

Mark Nepo

On this special day that marked one hundred years since the ceasefire on Armistice Day, 1918, we also read out and remembered the names of the six Ringwood Unitarians who had died in the First World War.  Their names are painted onto the board still carefully looked after by the Ringwood Meeting House Association, which can be seen in the public exhibition at the Meeting House for the season of remembrance.  The first Unitarian congregation in Ringwood sold the Meeting House in 1976 but we are the second congregation and their natural successors, so it is very fitting that we should remember their fallen.

It seems that one name on the Meeting House board does not currently appear on the town War Memorial and there is research afoot with the relatives to understand why.  If a missing name has now been uncovered then it would be good to rectify that.  How sad that one hundred years has passed since the start of that war yet still we are finding people who had partially been forgotten.

It was moving, too, to be able to observe the two minutes’ silence together, and with everyone else in the coffee shop, the people in the arcade outside, and in the supermarket opposite.  We feel that it is not enough to remember the people who sacrificed everything for us.  We also need to spot any early danger signs of a new slide into world conflict, and to do our part by calling them out and challenging people and nations to live in peace together.

We are now looking forward to our regular gathering in December on 9th December at our new time of 10 a.m. in the Ringwood Meeting House.  After that we will next meet for a social after the Blue Christmas service we will be leading.

The Blue Christmas service will be a quiet contemplative service to make a safe space for those who do not find Christmas an easy time, for whatever reason.  It is open to all, on Sunday 16th December at 4 p.m., also in the Meeting House.

Are you a Ringwood Unitarian without knowing it?

There are Unitarians in Ringwood.  It's just that they don't yet call themselves Unitarians because they don't know the name "Unitarian".  Are you one of these?

Are you a person who likes to explore belief and how it affects how you live in the world, but who feels lonely and misses a community to be part of?

We are on your doorstep and we would like you to be with us, without telling you what you should believe.  Come and share your journey with us in 2015.

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 described as "nurturing faith, embracing life, celebrating difference".

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.  We set great store by any wisdom framework that points towards that oneness, without worrying about where that wisdom comes from.

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.