One of my local Unitarian chapels has a visitor pack on the table at the entrance. Anyone who comes along for the first time is given one of these to take home and peruse - (perhaps they read through it during the sermon). The pack contains some recent Chapel calendars which contain the phone numbers of key people in the congregation and it also contains a number of Unitarian leaflets which are distributed by the Unitarian headquarter at Essex Hall in London. There are pamphlets about Unitarian weddings and Christenings, Unitarian views about Jesus and a comprehensive one called ‘Introducing the Unitarians’
I read this last one with interest. It is comprehensive - and because I am already a Unitarian I was able to see that it tries to cover every base. It says that we come out of the Christian tradition but that not everyone claims to be a Christian - that there are many spiritual paths amongst us. It also says that the heart of Unitarianism is worship which usually takes place on a Sunday. They meet to worship the Divine - or a greater reality than themselves.
What unites the Unitarians are their shared values - respect and reverence for the earth, a sense of goodwill towards the world, a belief in peace, compassion, justice and democracy.
The Bible, it says, is seen as a record of human achievement and challenge. Jesus is a revered teacher in the rabbinic and prophetic tradition - but not a person to be worshipped.
I always think that once you are inside a Unitarian community and feel established there, all this makes sense - but otherwise to someone reading those leaflets for the first time, they must think that perhaps there is something missing. They may sit through a traditional Unitarian Sunday service with hymns and prayers and readings followed by a sermon - but then the word God is never used at all.
It has become a bit of an embarrassing word for Unitarians - because most people associate it with the God of the Old Testament and the Christian tradition - punishing and rewarding in a haphazard way - deeply involved in peoples personal lives but also allowing them to suffer and experience terrible hardships. Many Christians also believe that Jesus was doing the same - changing traffic lights to green for the believers who were running late and generally favouring all who proclaimed him to be their saviour. Damnation for those who didn’t.
This was the risen Jesus of the Trinity - and the Unitarians disavowed this many years ago. There is only one God, they said. We do not use Jesus as an intermediary for our prayers.
If you went to a Unitarian church a hundred years ago - that would be the main difference. Prayers were directed to God alone and the sermon would be a discussion on a biblical text - trying to tease out a meaning for the people of their own time - rather than simply proclaiming it as the word of God and therefore the rule of God.
And of course one of the big separation points was about how faith should show itself - the Unitarians looked to the Epistle of James and said that faith was justified through works. It was what you did, how you cared for your fellow beings that showed your faith and justified you before God. In contrast to the Reformation belief when Martin Luther quoted Paul’s letter to the Romans - and said that faith was justified through Grace. Once you were a believer, God accepted you - you received the Grace of God. That was all there was to it.
But Unitarians now stick to values. It is the values that unite us into a Movement. Because of our values we find ourselves amongst like minded people when we come to worship and therefore we are in a comfort zone.
The pamphlet talks about Religious Education. How people are happy to examine and develop their faith through programmes and meetings. They accept that they are on a spiritual journey and they are pleased to explore meanings and situations that will help them to develop and deepen their own faith.
Many others though, perhaps most, aren’t bothered about Religious Education at all. Many people come to church with just a vague idea about what they actually believe. They don’t want it challenged. They just want to enjoy the familiarity and comfort of the community they belong to. Once I responded to one of the Unitarian ‘on line’ chat forums and asked a question about our worship - worship who, worship what? I asked. There was no reply.
I always say that I am not a card carrying Christian - especially to my Christian clergy friends in Bolton. I like to think that I am aware of the goodness and the greatness in all the major faiths.
My Hindu friends don’t need to boast about their faith - because you see it in them - by their attitudes, their helpfulness and their courtesy. They have something within them that shines out - and it is their faith. They don’t need to boast about it. It is the same with Buddhists that I know - and it is also the same with some Muslims that I know - but not all. Sometimes I think culture and community are dominating the truth of their faith. Time will tell - as it told for the Christians.
Although I am not a card carrying Christian, I have always been fascinated by Christianity. Particularly how it developed as a faith - and how bits were added and also how vital bits seemed to have fallen off it over the years.
The teachings of Jesus - especially those in the Sermon on the Mount are as good if not better than of any other world religion. We learn how to live properly through reading the parables and I have always been impressed that everyone in the healing accounts was treated without prejudice - the Roman Centurions, the tax collector, the poor woman, the prostitute are all treated equally. It was their needs that were attended to irrespective of who they were. If we are looking for values and role model, they can be found in the stories about Jesus.
But the life of Jesus is set in a time of conflict - within a country occupied by a foreign army, within a religion that was inflexible and rule bound, within a time of agitation and change.
He had followers, disciples, and it says that his powers of healing and preaching were passed on to his them - but they were unable to continue to his high standard. They disagreed about the purpose of their new religion - was it just for the Jews or did it include the Gentiles. There was an expectation that if a Gentile converted they would convert to become a Jew - a reformed Jew following the teaching of Jesus.
Thus there was the conflict with Paul. You go away and convert the Gentiles, they said to him, but don’t bring them back here.
Paul added something to this new Christianity that the Jewish group did not have, even though they called Jesus the Messiah and said that he had been raised up to Heaven as Elijah had been.
Paul added a different dimension to Christianity and we first note it as he makes his defence before the Governor after the Jewish priests have called for his execution.
It added transcendence. A sense of purpose that is above values.
Paul has bypassed the inflexible rule dominated faith of Judaism and proclaimed a new faith. In his letters you rarely find mention of what Jesus taught or about his life because he has been transferred to the Heavens and become the celestial Christ.
It feels as if he is talking about a new God and a new Spirit.
In Paul’s speech to the Governor Festus, two words stand out - the first is ‘light’ and the second is ‘power’.
He says that his belief in the risen Christ has filled him with light - and it has filled him with power.
This is what he preached wherever he went. The forgiveness of sins was a wiping away of the past and starting again.
He preaches that everyone can be connected to this celestial faith - it is open to all - it required no oaths, it was classless - it was open to slaves and the wealthy, it was open to women equally with men. He called it the new covenant for the world.
It is sad that Christianity, as the new religion was called did itself fall back into a rule dominated, male dominated, hierarchy dominated belief system - that we see crumbling around us today.
But then I think to myself, what do people really want in the world today - in our world. What are they searching for?
They want to feel filled with light. They want to feel they have power in their lives. Not power over others but power over themselves.
Sometimes, we can know all about values and try to live by them, and we can try to do good works. We can read inspirational books by modern authors, we can study ancient religions - but what is really going to make us whole is feeling totally filled with that blinding spiritual light that comes from - well where, heaven, God, Christ,
- and being able to put behind us everything in our lives that haunts us and holds us back. We want to feel we can start again - and feeling our lives empowered by that celestial and loving spirit that comes from - well where?
The spiritual journey is about reaching for that light and reaching for that power. To make ourselves feel whole.
Should we dare to say that in our leaflets about values and Sundays?
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