Chief Officer gives evidence to Parliamentary committee

Derek McAuley, Chief Officer of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, has given evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee on the poor prospects for LGBT people if faith-based charities are allowed to run public services.

Faith charities delivering public services 'could increase discrimination'
By Kaye Wiggins, Third Sector Online, 16 May 2011

Contracts should be awarded only to groups that have demonstrated commitment to equality, Unitarian body warns Public Administration Select Committee

Giving more responsibility for delivering public services to local faith charities as part of the big society agenda could result in increased discrimination against marginalised groups, according to the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.

Derek McAuley, chief officer of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, told Third Sector he was concerned that gay and lesbian public sector staff who were moved to local faith charities under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations might face discrimination by other staff at those charities.

His submission to the PASC says: "Non-religious people and those not seen to confirm to the dominant ethos of a religious body, such as being in an unmarried relationship or divorced and being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, could find themselves subject to discrimination.

"Contracts should therefore only be awarded to faith-based organisations that have a public commitment to, and can demonstrate compliance with, the promotion of equality in line with the commitment of recent governments."

Derek has also written about this issue on his own blog:

The "Big Society", a policy much promoted by the Government, and built around social action, public service reform and community empowerment, needs to be inclusive. You cannot have a "Big Society" and then implicitly or explictly exclude and marginalise some groups. Unitarians have long worked to promote social justice and led many initiatives for social improvement. We have never applied religious tests to our work.

We need joined up policies. One risk is that encouraging faith groups to be more active in delivery of public services could in some cases lead to a conflict with equality and diversity policy.

New president on LGBT radio programme

Ann Peart, as newly installed GA president, did a recorded interview yesterday evening for the LGBT programme of BBC Radio Manchester yesterday evening, and much of it was broadcast later the same evening. The interview starts at 36 minutes and lasts just over 10 minutes.
It is available until next Saturday.

Earth Spirit presentation at GA

The full text of the talk


From Natural Religion to Nature Religion: Pagan and Pantheist tendencies in Unitarianism by Yvonne Aburrow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Jargon busting

I was delighted to see that the Unitarian website now has a jargon-busting page, which explains the jargon and acronyms in use among Unitarians. Perhaps it could form the basis of a quiz!

New President & Vice-President

New President - Neville Kenyon

Friendly and forward-looking Neville Kenyon, a life-long Unitarian who lives in Bury, Lancashire, was installed as the President of the General Assembly for 2010-2011 at the Annual Meetings in Nottingham on 11 April. He is emphasising the openness and flexibility of Unitarianism, and his wish to encourage the quest for spiritual understanding and innovation, by choosing 'Nurture Your Freedom' as his theme.

Both practical and imaginative, Neville has a long history of energetic service to the denomination. He joined the Unitarian Young People's League in the 1950s and was its President in 1961. He has been a member of the General Assembly's Council and served from its inception on the successor body, the Executive Committee, until he was elected Vice-President in 2009. He is passionate about publicising Unitarianism and is a member of the General Assembly's Communications Commission and a Director of the Board of the Inquirer Publishing Company (2004) which produces the Unitarian paper, The Inquirer. He is chairman of the congregation of Bury Unitarian Church. Among his many achievements is the adoption by the General Assembly of a colour-scheme, typography and imagery which gives the Movement a 'consistent identity'. He is a steadfast supporter of any cause he takes up, is unfailingly genial, and, with a flair for selecting silk ties and elegant suits, is very possibly the best-dressed man in the Movement!

Neville recognises that Unitarians are in an ideal position to provide, in the 21st century, a home for those who have a spiritual hunger but are repelled by the creeds and dogmas of more orthodox faith groups. He says "We are in an ideal position, to reflect a growing imperative for a spirituality unfettered by narrow creeds and dogmas." He wants to encourage social networking between the newer members throughout the country. "People come to us from a myriad of backgrounds", he says "but they have all made a journey to find their spiritual home with us. The mutual support provided by networking on the web adds a valuable communication dimension for newcomers stretching beyond their local congregation".

» Read more

New Vice President - Rev Dr Ann Peart

The Reverend Dr Ann Peart, a distinguished Unitarian scholar and leading woman minister was appointed as vice-president of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches at the close of the Denominations Annual Meetings in April 2010 in Nottingham. She is looking forward to visiting Unitarian congregations and other groups both in Britain and overseas. "I am particularly interested" she says, "in exploring what keeps such a diverse collection of groups and individuals together."

» Read more

What are they Twittering on about?

My presentation from the GA Communications Commission session can now be viewed online.

Blogging from the GA

Well, just found my first spare five minutes to catch my breath during the Unitarian annual meetings in Nottingham.

It's been a great few days, and more yet to come - the official social evening (as opposed to the random socialising between sessions, over tea and coffee, during meals and of course in the bar!).

Wonderful to see so many new members of the Unitarian twibe and the tweeting (#GAUK) is high volume.

Two equally interesting and informative, but very different, presentations at the CommComm slot yesterday. One from Julie Dadson about the Upper Chapel, Sheffield project to raise the profile of church - a lot of work is going on to renovate the exterior of the chapel and the garden to invite more people into the garden and hopefully through the doors. Yvonne Aburrow introduced us all to social media - from the afficionados to the totally uninitiated, all seemed to take something from the session.

Also been to the sessions on the future structure of the annual meetings, the name change (is it already happening organically, does it need to be done formally?), a report from the growth group and two congregations who have grown - from Ant Howe about Kingswood & Warwick Unitarians and from Kate McKenna about The Octagon Unitarian Chapel, Norwich.

OK - enough - must go and get ready to socialise ... apparently to sound of The Beatles!

Communications Commission at the General Assembly

Unitarian sanctuary at the cultural heart of Sheffield

Not to be missed at the Nottingham GA meetings, Julie Dadson, a committed and active Unitarian environmentalist will present “A Unitarian Sanctuary at the Cultural Heart of Sheffield” at the Communication Commission slot on Friday 9 April at 3.30 pm.

Work in progress that illustrates that there are many ways to show who and what you are to a wider audience.

Julie describes her and the Upper Chapel congregation’s role in making Upper Chapel Sheffield a welcoming place for the people of Sheffield, increasing the chapel visibility and improving the cityscape environment.

~ Marion Baker

What are they twittering on about?

The rest of the Communication Commission slot will be a talk by Yvonne Aburrow.

Are you dazed and confused with all this talk of Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube and blogs? Want to know what they are, and how you can use them to promote your Unitarian community? This workshop will look at ways of using social networking sites effectively (without excluding the non-technical people), using tags and social bookmarking and RSS feeds. We will look at Unitarians on Twitter, Unitarian photos (and copyright issues) on Flickr, Unitarian groups on Facebook, Unitarian videos on YouTube, and Unitarian blogs.