UU It Gets Better video

UUA Presents "It Gets Better" Video

The UUA Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries recently released a video in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, encouraging them to seek out UUism as a welcoming faith community that affirms each person's worth, regardless of race, creed, gender, or sexual orientation.

The "It Gets Better" project is a collection of videos produced by people across the globe aimed to offer hope and inspiration for LGBT teens.

Watch the video now.

R Travers Herford

Robert Travers Herford (1860 - 1950) was a great Unitarian scholar. He entered into Jewish life and thought, and often described himself as a "Jewnitarian". He rehabilitated the reputation of the Pharisees from the hammering they get in the Gospels, and also wrote scholarly works interpreting the Torah and Talmud.

I have scanned and uploaded a PDF of the appreciation of Herford's life and work which was produced after his death by H McLachlan.

Some of his books are available to view at Google Books.

• Christianity in Talmud and Midrash
• Memorials of Stand Chapel
• The Prophecies of the Captivity (Isaiah XL - LXVI)
• The Pharisees
• Pirke Aboth: the ethics of the Talmud : sayings of the fathers
• Talmud and Apocrypha: a comparative study of the Jewish ethical teaching in the rabbinical and non-rabbinical sources in the early centuries
• Pharisaism, its aim and its method
  
• What the world owes to the Pharisees
  
• The Effect of the Fall of Jerusalem Upon the Character of the Pharisees
• Judaism in the New Testament Period 
• The truth about the Pharisees 

The Idea of the Kingdom of God (PDF) is available from the Cambridge Unitarians website.

As can be seen from this quote (quoted by Andrew Brown), Herford regarded all faiths as divinely inspired:

"The Kingdom of God, as the rule of God in the heart, the love and service of him, and the consequent love and service of all men as children of the one Father, that is not limited by any doctrinal definitions. No one but a Christian ever did, or ever could, work for the Church. But all can work for the Kingdom of God, not Christians only but all who consciously own God, whether Christian or Jew, Mohammedan [sic] or Brahmin, or any other of those to whom God has revealed himself "by diverse portions and in diverse manners" (The Idea of the Kingdom of God, R. Travers Herford, Lindsey Press 1929 p. 13).

I am also glad to see that the plaque commemorating the fact that Robert Travers Herford lived and worked at Dr William's Library is listed at Open Plaques.

How to create a blog-roll

Once you have created your blog, you might like to add a list of blogs that you read. This is called a blog-roll. Here's eHow's useful step-by-step guide to adding a blogroll.

In order to get to the bit where you can add a gadget, you need to click on Design at the top of your blog.

New blog

Rev Bob Pounder, the new minister of Oldham Unitarians, has started a blog, entitled Faileth Never, and his first post is a beautiful prayer for Advent that he has written, which includes lots of Nature imagery and the idea that the Christ child is waiting to be born everywhere and in every heart (so more like a universal avatar than a particular incarnation). I look forward to reading more.

The title of the blog is presumably a quote from the hymn, The King of Love my Shepherd is, by H W Baker.

Off-putting quirks

Andy of thoughtsON has some excellent points in a blog-post entitled It isn't welcoming if I can't figure out how to get inside.

All of these are excellent pointers for Unitarian congregations who don't want to put off newcomers by our funny quirky little habits.

Additional ones for British Unitarians to think about...

Remember to brief the visiting worship leader about what happens with the collection and the notices and the musical interludes. And bring them a glass of water and tell them where the loo is. (Most people do remember most of these, most of the time.)

If you sing the Lord's Prayer / Prayer of Jesus: not everyone knows the tune, or knows the same tune as you.

Children don't always like being sung out of the sanctuary with the same song. Go Now In Peace can get awfully samey. And don't get me started on that Rumi chant, Ours is no caravan of despair.

Please feel free to add your pet peeves in the comments!

Hoax emails

If you receive an email warning you of a virus, a scam, or telling some incredible story or urban myth, please always search on Google to see if these are a hoax before forwarding them.

Reputable email debunking sites include:

• Hoax-Slayer
• Snopes

If you get an email warning of a virus, check at:

• McAfee virus info
• Virus Hoaxes
• Symantec security response
• Symantec A to Z listing of threats

These are some of the hoax emails that I have received recently, all false (some dangerously so), all forwarded by well-meaning people. Please do a search to check if it's true before forwarding these things.

Completely false:

• "Palestinian child brides" - remember even if there are photos included, there could be an innocent explanation
• "Starbucks refuse free coffee to soldiers"

True once, but five years out of date:
These were true but out of date, as the scams were shut down in 2005:

• Belize postal scam
• PDS phone scam

Mixture of true and false information:
This one sounds plausible but is a mixture of true and false information:

• Plastic water bottles cause cancer
• Plastic water bottles contain toxins

True, but crucial information omitted:
This one was true, but the email missed out some really important steps in the process and both sexes suffer from atypical heart attacks, so both men and women should be alert:

• Heart attack experience in women

What is a Unitarian?

About 15 Unitarians share what Unitarianism means to them and how they came to be one.

Bob Pounder's induction

What is a Unitarian? (1)

What is a Unitarian? (2)