Bill Darlison on Walt Whitman

Bolton Unitarians have a video of Rev Bill Darlison talking about Walt Whitman - excellent. They also have videos of Stephen Lingwood's sermons, which are always excellent (he posts them on his blog Reignite too).

Walt Whitman (whilst not a Unitarian) was a key figure in the Transcendentalist movement, which emerged from 19th century Unitarianism.

He was a complex person, believing in the abolition of slavery but disliking the abolitionist movement for its extreme methods, and not believing that African Americans should have the vote.

He is chiefly remembered for his rhythmic poetry, which influenced later poets like Allen Ginsberg, and for his free and celebratory attitude to sexuality, both gay and straight.

By watching the video, you can also find out the connection between Walt Whitman and Bolton.

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.

Unitarianism - because you matter

I just watched two excellent videos by Stephen Lingwood on "What is Unitarianism?" — they are very inspiring, and explain Unitarian views and values very succinctly.

Rev Bob on video

The National Unitarian Fellowship (NUF) have videoed the President Rev Bob Wightman as he approaches the end of his term in office.

(from GA Uni-News)

Accessible video

So you have produced a shiny new video for your website - but is it accessible?

Deaf viewers require captioning; blind users require audio descriptions, and mobility-impaired users require keyboard shortcuts for video controls.

The best free tool for making videos accessible is Media Access Generator (MAGpie) from NCAM.

Another option is to provide a transcript of your video content.

24 ways

24 ways is the advent calendar for web geeks. Each day throughout December they publish a daily dose of web design and development goodness to bring you a little Christmas cheer.

Now all they need to do is find a way of sending chocolate through the internet...

There are two interesting Unitarian and UU blogposts about Advent:

• Advent – A Humanist Adventure (1984) from The Sermons and Musings of Carl J. Westman, DD.
• Celebrating Advent without misrepresentation, sentimentalism or parody (and a couple of recommended books) by Andrew Brown

And Stephen Lingwood has posted a video: Advent: How long shall we keep God waiting? It's very good.

Unitarian videos

The National Unitarian Fellowship are hosting an excellent series of videos about Unitarianism, introducing it, explaining Unitarian values, the Unitarian relationship with the Christian tradition, what a Unitarian service is like, Unitarian social responsibility, and how Unitarianism is organised.

There are also personal views of Unitarianism from Tony McNeile, Jane Barraclough, Hazel Clarke, Stephen Lingwood and Jef Jones.

If you want to write about these in your local newsletter, here are shortened versions of the web addresses: http://tinyurl.com/unitarianvideos and http://tinyurl.com/unitarianviews

There is also a UK Unitarian channel on YouTube.