January 2017 meeting for reverence speaks about grace #unitarians

Once again we remembered absent friends going through a difficult set of circumstances. 

The service theme was “Making space for grace.”

The president for the day had chosen poetry for the set pieces for the meeting.  Having come across a poet by the name of Leopard at the Spirit Festival last summer, the president's first reading was a poem from Leopard’s publication Leaves for the Trees.

The second reading was a longer poem called Sometimes a Wild God by Tom Hirons.

We carried out our usual silent sharing of four elements, passing them round the circle of those present so that each person had touched and held each element, and connected with the others by doing so.  After that the elements were placed on the table at our centre, next to our Unitarian chalice.
 

The elements today were bread, water, incense and flame (a candle).  The water had been brought deliberately from Glastonbury.

We always include this ritual and it is always slow and silent, which allows each person present to interpret, revere and sanctify the ritual in a private way, aligned with their own current faith and beliefs.

Hard won personal struggles over the years have convinced us that a sure way to divide people from each other is to try to insist that particular rituals and sensations must hold a particular  meaning (with the tacit and sinister sub-text of “or else you don’t belong”).   We have found that, without words, together we can carry out an activity that holds a different meaning for each of us, and those meanings can change over time.  What holds us together is the unified carrying out of the ritual.  Just like going to a wedding or a funeral: everyone at those ceremonies takes away with them something different, but they all know that they were there, at the same event.

So although you may see references to Unitarians as “creedless faith groups”, this is inaccurate.  We each have our own creed.  But emphatically, we do not wish or expect that the person next to us in our worship holds to the same faith or belief as we do.  It is enough that they show up and join in, however that makes sense to them.

This is because we consider life to be more than humdrum.  We have glimpsed different perspectives, perhaps in rare and expanded moments; perspectives that lead us to hunt for the spiritual refreshment we know exists, if only we can find the way to it.  The refreshment that brings calm unearned; or an unexpected detachment, like pearls on silk, during the bruising torrents of uncontrollable life; or which – paradoxically – demands not a “giving up” and asking for help, but a “giving up of self” meaning the need for help diffuses into the abyss, the dance.  The abyss, the dance, the voice that can be heard by everyone, says Gandhi: “Every one who wills can hear the Voice.  It is within every one.  But like everything else, it requires pre­vious and definite preparation.”

Our heritage is the Christian tradition and so we use the Christian label for this spiritual refreshment, that is to say: “grace”.  And so as part of our meeting for reverence we reflected on making opportunities in our lives for grace to break in undeserved and unearned; and also on our unhelpful tendency to behave so as to keep grace out.

December 2016 meeting for reverence joins us together in recognizing the art of grief #unitarians

With the slow cold of winter starting to set in, and the long darkness growing, death and passing are natural reflections at this time.  For some in our little community these are very real experiences right now, so this month we took readings and shared space around the topic of "Grief - there is no 'ought' to feeling."

The service was opened with a prayer titled ‘Hunted’ by our own Lucy Harris from the book Through the Prism.  It was especially poignant lighting the chalice candle, as an act of drawing close as a community, in a month when distance and commitments are keeping us apart.

Our readings were W H Auden's 'Stop all the Clocks', and Don Jon's speech from Act 1 Scene 3 of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’.  Both run the gamut of emotions at a time of loss.  Some gentle and edifying, some wild and raging; but all sincere, all honest, all valid.

 

Between the readings we took a reflection on the ‘Beginning of Winter’ from A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book by Ceisiwr Serith.  It ended with the poignant line 'teach...who has only fought for what I love'.

Our shared reflection was about not always comforting, not always counselling, sometimes just being there and sitting by, while we feel what we need to feel, whatever that is, for now.  It was time well spent and I know I speak for everyone in our little community when I say our thoughts are with those for whom this is a difficult time.

November 2016 meeting for reverence turns into a commentary on a key world event #unitarians

Our service leaders are nothing if not adaptable!

This month our president for the day, for 13th November, had been planning to dwell on an ethics of identity.  So in the light of the announcement on 9th November of the name of the President-Elect, who in January 2017 will become 45th President of the United States of America, our leader adapted our service, whilst holding to the topic “Who do they say I am?”

In the light of the news, in a gathering that focused on who we say others are, and what narratives we allow to be built up around us, which can lead to persecution and hardship for others, we contemplated the documentary references below.  What do we allow to be said about others?  Do we challenge stereotypes and falsehoods?

We were glad to welcome four new faces on Sunday, some of whom we hope to see again at another of our meetings for reverence.

The Bible, Good News Translation

Mark Chapter 8

http://www.biblestudytools.com/gnt/mark/8.html

27  Then Jesus and his disciples went away to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Tell me, who do people say I am?"

28  "Some say that you are John the Baptist," they answered; "others say that you are Elijah, while others say that you are one of the prophets." 

29  "What about you?" he asked them. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Messiah." 

30  Then Jesus ordered them, "Do not tell anyone about me." 

31  Then Jesus began to teach his disciples: "The Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. He will be put to death, but three days later he will rise to life." 

32  He made this very clear to them. So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 

33  But Jesus turned around, looked at his disciples, and rebuked Peter. "Get away from me, Satan," he said. "Your thoughts don't come from God but from human nature!" 

The Apology by Plato (Socrates’ apology to the men of Athens, as recorded by Plato)

<a href="http://worldartsme.com/">WorldArtsMe</a>

http://www.sjsu.edu/people/james.lindahl/courses/Phil70A/s3/apology.pdf

  

“So let us take up from the beginning what the accusation is, from which has arisen the slander against me. ..... What did the slanderers say to slander me? Their sworn statement, just as though they were accusers, must be read: “Socrates does injustice and is meddlesome, by investigating the things under the earth and the heavenly things, and by making the weaker speech the stronger, and by teaching others these same things.” ... ...You yourselves also used to see these things in the comedy of Aristophanes: a certain Socrates was carried around there, claiming that he was treading on air and spouting much other drivel about which I have no expertise, either much or little. And I do not say this to dishonour this sort of knowledge, if anyone is wise in such things; but in fact I, men of Athens, have no share in these things.”