It is both an
advantage and a disadvantage of being a small group that sometimes, with few participants
turning up, the meetings can be quite intimate.
This allows for lots of close listening, and the freedom to spend more
time developing ideas and voicing them out loud – perhaps for the first
time. But we never forget that a very
small group could feel quite daunting to a first time visitor to our meetings. Normally, though, we have enough participants
to allow anyone who wishes to stay quiet to do just that. And in any case, the various leaders of the
meeting are able to adapt their prepared material to suit the people who come.
Few of us
were able to be at our meeting on 8 November and that allowed close inspection
and discussion of the chosen texts. And
what an eclectic mix they were: Epicurus, Tolkien, and Pratchett, all
on the theme of death. The reflection was around not fearing it, whatever our
ideas of what may be after it. For once
we didn't stop for coffee as people had to get off to other commitments.
We enjoy the
flexibility that we build into our practice.
We are aware that in 21st century Britain the fixed and predictable
format associated with more traditional faith-based gatherings may not
appeal to the interior search many people are embarked upon. We are all on a search; and in Ringwood, we Unitarians
welcome insight from many sources, as we cross many boundaries and move in
interlocking circles. We expect people
to have many irons in the fire, even – or perhaps, especially – when it comes
to their interior explorations. We have
chosen the timing of our monthly meeting so that there is time to do something
else before Sunday lunch, and would never be surprised or disappointed to hear
that participants were going on to other places of worship, in other traditions,
after having been with us. Instead, what
we would hope is that when people come to practise reverence with us, they
contribute to our meeting by bringing the insights they have gathered from
their other sources. In a Unitarian internet
forum, some years ago, it was said that some had brought to their Unitarian congregational
practice a lot of insight gained from their “Twelve Steps” programme, run by Alcoholics
Anonymous. The models adopted by organised religions are different from each other, but bundled together they remain only
one way of articulating the human experience.
Whatever your
experience, whatever your path, if your model of how it all works, and the way
you live, bring you to us in openness to other views and respect for personal lives linked in community, you
will find us doing our best to welcome you.
Lewis picked a theme around authenticity and the yearning
for real meaning in life. He took a
reading from J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in
the Rye and spoke aloud his insights centred on that novel. In his homily Lewis said, 
