Showing posts with label Unitarians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unitarians. Show all posts

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

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.


Derek McAuley

Monday, 11 July 2011

Darling Buds

Darling Buds is the blog of Nelly Hench, from Octagon Unitarian Chapel in Norwich. She blogs about life, spirituality, home education, church services and much more. She is also a fan of Julian of Norwich, it seems.

Monday, 4 July 2011

LGBTQI Unitarians

Rainbow, the group for LGBTQI Unitarians, now has a website. It explains why there is a need for such a group, lists forthcoming events, and has a resources page with links to similar groups.

It's great to see this group, though I hope it will soon become a national organisation, as there are LGBTQI people in other regions than London and the South-East. However, they do welcome people from other districts.

Of course, there's nothing to stop LGBTQI people in other districts starting their own groups.

Friday, 1 July 2011

The Gospel and the Zodiac

Oldham Unitarian Chapel

Saturday 9th July, 10.30 a.m. till 3.15 p.m.

Speaker and author: Rev. Bill Darlison, will talk about his book, The Gospel and the Zodiac.

In The Gospel and the Zodiac, Unitarian minister Bill Darlison demonstrates that the Gospel of Mark - considered the primary document of Christianity - is deliberately structured around the signs of the zodiac. Darlison argues that the Gospel was originally an esoteric rather than a historical text, and that its stories were never intended to be interpreted in a literal sense. Rather, they are dramatic representations of stages in spiritual development, and repositories of arcane wisdom.

Light lunch and refreshments available.

All are welcome!

Ring to reserve your place: 0161 339 6740 (preferred) or just turn up.

Location: King Street / Connaught Street, Oldham, OL8 1EB

Details:

10 am arrive for coffee / tea

10.30 am presentation The Gospel and the Zodiac

12.30 pm lunch

Afternoon Session

1.30 pm The Gospel and the Zodiac

2.45 pm questions and discussion

3.15 pm coffee / tea

Close.

If you could bring a copy of the Bible for reference to Mark's gospel it would be helpful to you.

Register for this event

Wednesday, 29 June 2011

Lesbian and Gay Foundation Faithbook

The Lesbian and Gay Foundation have produced a booklet on faith and LGBT, wittily entitled Faithbook.

I was disappointed to see that it does not have a section on Unitarians, just a brief mention on page 43 in the listings section - and we are listed under Christian, which is not entirely accurate. This is a bit sad when we have been LGBT-welcoming since 1970.

Nor is there a section on the Metropolitan Community Church - which is weird when they are a major LGBT church.

I was glad to see it included Wicca (but why no other Pagan traditions?).

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

A questioning blog

Rev Gill from Rochdale has started a blog called Living in the Question. The name comes from a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke:
'I want to beg you, as much as I can . . . to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves. . . . Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.' -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

I always enjoy reading her pieces in the Rochdale church newsletter, so I am sure that her blog will be equally full of gems!

The title also reminds me of the character George in Room with a View by E M Forster, who paints a question mark on the door of his room. And of the quip about Unitarianism being the religion where all your answers are questioned!

Thursday, 9 June 2011

Monday, 6 June 2011

The complexity of marriage law

The subject of marriage and what is legal and what is not is getting increasingly more confusing, especially since a Liberal Jewish synagogue was in the news recently for performing a same-sex marriage (which is recognised by Liberal Judaism but not by the state). Apparently Scotland is just about to begin a process of consultation about same-sex marriage. So here's a list of what is and is not currently legal:

Legal (permitted by law and recognised by the state):
  • Opposite-sex church weddings (couple legally married and registered)
  • Same-sex civil partnerships in a register office / registered premises for weddings
  • Opposite-sex marriages in a register office / registered premises for weddings
The law allows, but there's no mechanism for implementing:
  • Religious civil partnerships (civil partnership ceremonies in a religious building)
Not forbidden by law, but not recognised by the state
  • same-sex blessings in a church / synagogue
  • same-sex marriages in a church / synagogue where the marriage is recognised by the church / synagogue  but not by the state
  • Pagan handfastings (weddings) in England & Wales - both same and opposite sex
  • Pagan same-sex handfastings in Scotland
  • Blessings of polyamorous relationships
Illegal (not permitted by law):
  • Same-sex church weddings (couple legally married and registered)
  • Opposite-sex civil partnerships in a register office / registered premises for weddings
  • Same-sex marriages in a register office / registered premises for weddings
  • Marrying more than one person
Another difficulty is that if a transsexual married to a person of the opposite sex to their original sex wants to change their birth certificate to reflect their new sex, they would have to divorce their partner (whereas if same sex marriage were legal, they could stay married).

Legal (permitted by law and recognised by the state) in Scotland only:
  • Pagan opposite-sex handfastings where the celebrant says the required form of words (the same as for all other legal weddings)
Have I missed anything?

Monday, 30 May 2011

Unitarian heritage

Unitarian heritage in London

Pulse magazine has a page about a Unitarian heritage trail in London, which could do with postcodes and Google Maps to make it easier to find the places mentioned; but it's a good article. Sadly the photos which seem to have featured in the original article are not included on the web-page.  The trail includes Newington Green Church, Stratford Church, Hampstead, Bethnal Green Church, Richmond Church, Golders Green Church, Islington, Croydon Unitarian Church, Brixton Church, Lewisham, Kensington, Hackney, the Gravel Pit, the Priestley plaque and statue, Bishopsgate Chapel, Lindsey's Essex Street Chapel, Blackfriars, Stamford Street, South Place Chapel, Conway Hall, Stepney College Chapel, Dingley Place Mission, Putney Church, and Bunhill Fields Cemetery (the Dissenters' burying ground).

A Vindication of the Rights of Mary has a series of posts about places associated with Mary Wollstonecraft, mostly around Newington Green, where she attended the Unitarian church where Richard Price was minister. There is also a campaign to get a statue of Mary Wollstonecraft on Newington Green, called Mary on the Green.

Unitarian churches in Wales

There's an excellent Unitarian trail with a tour around the Black Spot (Y Smotyn Du), so called because there was such a concentration of Unitarian churches on the map that they formed a single blob.

Unitarian churches in England

Wikipedia has a list of pages about Unitarian churches in England, including:


Humanism's links with Unitarianism

The Humanist heritage website has a list of some Unitarian landmarks and people (mostly those which were connected with the early history of Humanism).

William Johnson Fox (1786-1864)
William Johnson Fox was a religious and political orator, born near Southwold, Suffolk.
He was trained for the Independent ministry, at Homerton College (then in London). He later seceded to the Unitarians, and in 1817 Fox became minister of a nonconformist congregation which subsequently went on to become the non-religious South Place Ethical Society.

Conway Hall, London
Conway Hall at at 37 Red Lion Square, Bloomsbury, is the home of the South Place Ethical Society and today is a landmark of London’s independent intellectual, political and cultural life.

Leicester Secular Society
By tradition the Leicester Secular Society dates its formation to 1851, although an earlier “Rational Society” branch is mentioned in No.9 of The Movement edited by G. J. Holyoake dated February 10th 1844.

Moncure Daniel Conway
(17 March 1832 – 15 November 1907)
Moncure Daniel Conway was an American abolitionist, Unitarian clergyman, and author.

Ullet Road Unitarian Chapel, Liverpool
The Ullet Road Unitarian Chapel is known as the English ‘cathedral of Unitarianism’. It was built between 1896 and 1898 to a design by the Unitarian architect Thomas Worthington and his son Percy.
Although founded as a non-conformist Christian faith, Unitarianism has historically been characterised by a rationalist and individualist approach to spirituality, which encompasses diverse religious views. In its anti-dogmatism, it has come to include atheist views, particularly under the banner of Unitarian Universalism in the twentieth century.

See also...

Pagans for Archaeology has a list of faith heritage trails

Monday, 2 May 2011

Look-alikes

James Martineau
James Middleton (Kate Middleton's brother)

 

Are they by any chance related? Yes they are. James and Kate Middleton are descendants of the Martineaus, a prominent family of Unitarians.

Friday, 29 April 2011

Feed the trainee minister

Rob MacPherson, Unitarian minister-in-training, has started a blog entitled "Will preach for food". There's a wonderful post about religion and humour, which really needed saying. It's also written in a lively and engaging style.

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

Tomorrow's ministry

A presentation by Zan of Mixtape Communications given to the Unitarian Ministers' Conference.

New blogger dreams of the ocean

Danny Crosby, minister of Queen's Road, Urmston and Dunham Road, Altrincham, has started a blog, I Dream of the Ocean. He writes eloquently and with an accessible style, so I am looking forward to reading his blog.

Monday, 18 April 2011

Tuesday, 5 April 2011

Mary Wollstonecraft talk

On Sunday 22nd May, after morning service at 11 am in the chapel of Harris Manchester College (Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TD), there will be a talk at 1 pm by Lyndall Gordon, the author of Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft, concerning the life and times and Unitarian connections of the 18th-century feminist (wife of William Godwin, mother of Mary Shelley, and “the foremother of much modern thinking about education and human rights, as well as about women's rights, female sexuality and the institution of marriage"). Please bring your own sandwich lunch; for directions to the college, consult the Chapel Society website.

Sunday, 3 April 2011

Khasi Hills Unitarians have a blog

The North East Indian Unitarian Church has a blog, maintained by H Helpme Mohrmen. It has some lovely photos of the scenery around Shillong, especially the living roots bridge, and accounts of the church's activities in the area, including pictures of a new school.

Friday, 4 March 2011

Shiny new website

Congratulations to Bolton Unitarians on their shiny new website, which has a fresh and modern design. It also has images and videos, a forum, and a news feed.

You can check it out and leave a message in their guest book.

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

One blog: doing something

Sue Woolley has set up a new blog, "Still I am one". The title is from a quote by Edward Everett Hale, a 19th century Unitarian minister and writer.
"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do."
It's very exciting to see more UK Unitarian bloggers and twitterers, and I look forward to reading Sue's blog.

Friday, 25 February 2011

Another new blog


Rev Daniel Costley, the minister of Sevenoaks Unitarians, has started a blog, and is also adding MP3 podcasts of his sermons.

So far he has blogged about Ascension Day, Harvest, Living in the Now, and Prayer.

It looks as if this will be a really interesting blog.