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.

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.

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.

Tomorrow's ministry

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

Tomorrow's Ministry

View more webinars from Mixtape Communications

How to promote your blog

1. Comment on other bloggers' posts - if your comment is interesting and polite, they might drop by to read your blog
2. Add other blogs to your blogroll - they may return the favour (but never ask to be added to someone's blogroll, it's really tacky)
3. Follow other bloggers and add them to your Google Reader
4. Get yourself added to Unitarian Universalist and Unitarian blog aggregators
5. Have a Twitter account, link it to HootSuite and have HootSuite update your Twitter and Facebook accounts automatically whenever you publish a new blog-post

Unitarian publicity: promoting an event

Communication – Communication – Communication

Is your congregation/society holding a special event in 2011 or do you need to promote your organisation better? Would you like help in learning how to market this occasion or organisation, give a radio interview, write a press release and put together posters and leaflets for print and your website? If so the Unitarian Communication Coordinators’ Network (UCCN) can offer you hands on help from experts in their field.

Join us on the next UCCN Workshop Weekend 25th-27th February 2011 and learn about promoting your event or group on the radio, in the press and by using posters and leaflets.

More information on the UCCN conference website or on the event page on Facebook.

The Network has no membership or committee but has always been well supported by volunteers and those enthusiasts, from throughout the movement, who are keen to develop skills and extend networks both internally and to others on the fringes of and beyond our own movement.

Hope to see you there!

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)

How to create a blog

Here's a video from Blogger about how to set up a blog.

How to use a URL shortener

Web addresses (URLs) can be very long, and if you are pasting them into an email, Twitter, or printing them in your newsletter, it's better to use a URL shortener. This creates a much shorter version of the web address, which redirects to the long version. This saves space in Twitter, prevents the problem of URLs breaking when they are wrapped round to the next line in emails, and saves your newsletter readers from typing out the long version.

Two new blogs

Louise, who is secretary of Newcastle-under-Lyme Meeting House, has started two new blogs, Developing Spiritual Community and Governance for Unitarians.

On Developing Spiritual Community, she writes:

This blog has started from my desire to see the development of Unitarian communities in the UK. Many of the approaches that have been suggested recently take a marketing approach where Unitarianism is a product and if we only marketed it differently we would 'sell' more of it. The model adopted in this blog is one which sees local Unitarian communities as just that - communities - which most community members are committed to developing.

On Governance for Unitarians, she writes:

This blog is born out of a desire to make a positive contribution to UK Unitarians' continued discussions (or not) about how good governance works and to offer some hints and wrinkles about how to make it work for Unitarian communities wherever they are, however big or small.

Growth scheme

Andy Pakula's Growth Scheme is now endorsed by the GA and available on the Unitarian web site. Check it out and see what you could do to remove barriers to growth.

Probably the least obvious barrier is the desire to grow without knowing why you want to grow. If it's just to get "bums on pews" that's not enough. It has to be because you want to include others in your beloved community and share the freedom you have found. You have to put your own house in order and deepen the spiritual life of your community before you can get others to join it. You have to care about an issue that's unrelated to growth, and inspire others to join you in your quest for social and environmental justice. And you have to communicate your enthusiasm to others, using all the media available to you (both online and print).

Get your congregation Noticed

Marion Baker writes:

Unitarian chapels in the UK can get a grant of up to £250 to replace or renovate their notice board. I have been responsible for administering the current scheme on behalf of the Communication Commission since its inception and a good number of congregations have benefited. At present, be aware that you can only have one bite at the cherry because funds are limited.

If your notice board needs some TLC, why not suggest that your congregation applies for a grant. The guidelines and application form can be found on the Unitarian web site on the Congregational Support page. The process is very simple. If you are unsure about what you need to do Mary Jean Hennis of the GA staff will put you in touch with me.

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.

Andy Pakula has a blog

Andy Pakula, minister of New Unity (Newington Green and Islington Unitarians) has started a blog, called Throw yourself like seed. The title is from a poem by Miguel De Unamuno translated by Robert Bly.

Also, three of my blogs (dance of the elements, Stroppy Rabbit and the Bluestocking are on his blogroll - I feel honoured.

He started it in February, so we still have time to catch up with all the posts.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Andy!

Unitarian Knols

A "Knol" is apparently a unit of knowledge, and Google has a site where people can post articles and tag them by topic. There are several of these articles that might be of interest to Unitarians:

An introduction to Unitarian Universalism, by Brian Crisan
Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion that espouses no official creed.

The relationship between the Unitarians and the Brahmo Samaj, by Yvonne Aburrow
During the 1820s, Rammohun Roy made contact with Unitarians in Britain and America. He was a founding member of the Bengal Renaissance, a campaigner for women's rights and the abolition of sati, and founder of the Brahmo Samaj (a monotheistic reform movement in Hinduism). Since the 1820s, contact has been maintained between the Unitarians and the Brahmo Samaj.

Servetus & Calvin, by Standford Rives
Was It Murder by Calvin?
The trial of Servetus for alleged verbal crimes ended in October 1553 with a verdict of death. Servetus was burned alive the very next day. The question whether Calvin murdered Servetus as a judicial witness and prosecutor has dogged Calvin ever since.

Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau, Henry David (12 July 1817-6 May 1862), author and naturalist

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (25 May 1803-27 Apr. 1882), lecturer and author

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865)
Unitarian author

Join our Twibe

• UK Unitarians Twibe
• Unitarian Universalist Twibe

Twibes is an application that allows people to group together on Twitter, the microblogging site, and tag posts with a particular tag or word so that they appear in the feed on the Twibe's page. The tags for the ukunitarians group are unitarian, unitarians, ukunitarians, uu, universalist (with or without #). We can have up to seven, so if you want extra ones, post a comment here.

CUUPS Podcast

The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans now has a podcast.

The first episode of the CUUPS Podcast features basic info about CUUPS and an interview with British academic Michael York recorded at the Dec. 2009 Parliament of World Religions provided to us courtesy of the Pagan Newswire Collective.

The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans promotes networking among Pagan-identified Unitarian Universalists, and provides for the outreach of Unitarian Universalism to the broader Pagan community.

Michael York has written a book on Pagan Theology.

A podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and downloaded through web syndication.

UK Spirituality

UKSpirituality is the most diverse and inclusive listing of high quality spirituality programmes and events currently happening across the entire United Kingdom. They vet each contribution to ensure it is non-dogmatic and participative and open to everyone regardless of age, race, ethnicity, ability or sexual orientation. Spirituality without conformity for people of all perspectives!

UKspirituality is an interfaith not-for-profit association dedicated to helping people live more enlightened, compassionate, mindful and joyful lives.

The network was founded by Unitarians, who take an eclectic and open-minded and inclusive approach to religion and spirituality. Because of this Unitarian inclusiveness, they are now an interfaith network comprising leaders, programmes, and events associated with many different religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions.

Wordle tag cloud tool

A tag cloud is a collection of keywords from your website or blog, or about a topic.

There are many tag cloud gadgets, but Wordle will create a tag cloud with both vertical and horizontal words, and offers customisation including changing the colours and the font.

Here is the tag cloud for the Unitarian Communications blog:


Wordle also lets you create a cloud of words that you have entered into a box, so you could create one with Unitarian values, or famous Unitarians, or whatever.