Recommended reading

• ‎The Unitarian Life: Voices from the Past and Present by Stephen Lingwood - a collection of pieces written by various Unitarians through the centuries; gives a good overview of Unitarian thought on many different topics. 
• The Larger View by Vernon Marshall - the history of how Unitarianism became open to other faiths.    
• Unitarian - What's That? by Cliff Reed - another overview, in the form of a Q & A 
• The Unitarians: A Short History by Leonard Smith - gives history of development of Unitarianism (but omits the Earth Spirit strand and most of Transcendentalism)
• Being Together: Unitarians Celebrate Congregational Life - edited by Matthew F. Smith 
• Unitarian Perspectives on Contemporary Social Issues - edited by George Chryssides 
• Unitarian Perspective on Contemporary Religious Thought - edited by George Chryssides
• Elements of Unitarianism by George Chryssides - overview plus potted history. 
• A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism by John A Buehrens and Forrest Church. 
• Love and Death: My Journey through The Valley of the Shadow by Forrest Church 
• The Cathedral of the World: A Universalist Theology by Forrest Church 

You can buy some of these from the UK Unitarian website.

Unitarian Engagement Groups and Small Group Ministry 

Unitarian Engagement Groups - How to start and facilitate groups

Unitarian Christianity 

• David Doel, The Man they called the Christ 
• David Doel, That Glorious Liberty 

Unitarian Earth Spirit 

• Unitarianism and Druidry by Alastair Bate
• Pagan and pantheist tendencies in Unitarianism by Yvonne Aburrow

Press coverage of same-sex marriage campaign

Scottish Unitarians participated in a press conference at the offices of the Scottish Youth Parliament in Edinburgh. The Scottish Youth Parliament has been campaigning alongside the Equality Network, LGBT Youth and NUS LGBT Campaign for marriage equality. Leaders and representatives from the Quakers, Liberal Judaism, Unitarians, Metropolitan Community Church and Pagan Federation want the law changed to allow them to preside over same-sex marriages. A 14-week consultation asks if marriage in Scotland should be allowed for homosexual people through a civil or religious ceremony.

• Coverage in The Scotsman   
• There was a good photograph of Rev Maud Robinson and Rabbi Mark Solomon of Liberal Judaism at the press conference 
• A Press Association article released before the event was carried on several websites  
• And from BBC Scotland   
• Derek McAuley's response

Derek McAuley

Sound systems for churches

I recently spotted this article, Sound Systems for Better Sunday Worship in UU World and notice that Oldham Unitarians have just installed a video screen.

I thought it would be a good idea to improve sound systems in our chapels and churches, so I asked if there was a fund to support this.

Apparently the Millennium Fund is still in existence and could be a source of funding support. It does cover “fittings, furniture and equipment following developmental work eg audio loop systems” Any congregation interested in making an application should contact Derek McAuley.

UUCF on Facebook

The Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship now has a Facebook page.

It's a great idea to have a Facebook page or group for your affinity group or society - that way, members can link together; you can raise awareness of your group and the issues you care about.

I'm a member of the CUUPs group (Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans) on Facebook, and it has some quite active discussion topics.

Because people see things in the Facebook feed, having a Facebook page boosts the numbers who are interested in your group - but only if you post things (comments and articles) regularly on your wall.

Find out more about Unitarian societies and UU societies.

Welsh Unitarian Chapels open for European Heritage Days

Hen Dŷ Cwrdd, Alma Street, Trecynon, Aberdare
10 Sep 10am talk and walk around three sites in Trecynon

Hen Dŷ Cwrdd Unitarian Chapel, Cefn Coed y Cymer
10 Sep, 2pm-4.30pm; 11 Sep, 2.30pm-7pm (service, 6pm)

Yr Hen Gapel, Llwynrhydowen, Llandysul, Ceredigion
18 Sep 3pm-6pm (talks and choir; refreshments at Alltyrodyn Arms)

More details and photos of the Welsh churches

Introduction to social media

Report by Sue Woolley

Lifespan Religious Education Conference 2011
Star Island, New Hampshire, 16 – 23 July 2011
Report on Social Media Workshop by Sue Woolley

Thanks to the generosity of the Manchester Academy Trust and the Hibbert Trust, I was able to attend this conference. The basic structure of our own Hucklow Summer School is based on this Unitarian Universalist conference, so many elements were familiar to me: the morning devotions, the daily theme talk, the compulsory morning workshops, optional afternoon activities, and lantern-lit procession to evening worship.

The morning workshop that I attended was led by the dynamic Peter Bowden, who is a “church growth consultant and Unitarian Universalist change agent” (to quote himself) who has dedicated his life to helping UU congregations to understand social media and to use them effectively. His blog (which is well worth looking at) is UU growth. I am writing the workshop up without much comment, as the things he was telling us are just as relevant to Unitarian congregations in the UK as to UU congregations in the US, if not more so.

Read the rest of the report →

Reasonable contrast on web pages

For accessibility reasons, it's best to have high contrast text on a non-patterned background.

However, if you must have a fancy background, or you need a widget to turn off the styling of other people's sites, here's a neat bookmarklet that you can drag to your browser toolbar.

B on W

(via 456 Berea Street)

There are also browser add-ons for accessibility that you can get to help you test the contrast of a page.