Sermon #57 (3rd April 2022 at Essex Church / Kensington Unitarians)
So, as I mentioned earlier, between January and March of this year we had held a six-part course on ‘How to be a Unitarian’. We had far more people sign-up than I’d ever anticipated, loads from this congregation, but because it was online we had people joining us from up and down the land, including ministers from other congregations, and the chief officer of the General Assembly, our national Unitarian organisation, Liz Slade. So it turned into a big deal!
This was a course that I’d first developed and run in 2018, with help from Sarah Tinker, so a few of you might have experienced an earlier incarnation, either the full six-parter or the very condensed one-day version. In an ideal world I think we ought to be running something like this at least annually because there are always new people coming along to our churches and it’s not that easy to explain – in a nutshell – what it is that newcomers are getting into! It’s complicated. So this is sort-of an orientation course. But, in truth, there might be some of us who have been attending for years without necessarily having been required to think about it all that hard. For good reason we don’t spend too much time on Sunday mornings navel-gazing about our tradition. But it’s important to make time for some serious self-reflection once in a while.
Each week of the course had its own theme and focus – starting with an invitation for each of us to reflect on our experience of Unitarianism, then on to issues of theology, history, and values, looking at the wider national organisation, and how our independent congregations work, how our Unitarian involvement meshes with our own personal spiritual journey, and how our shared values might play out in terms of social justice and changing the world – but that barely begins to cover all the stuff we covered in those twelve hours and all the great conversations we had. However, I’m not just telling you this to make you kick yourself and say ‘I wish I had signed up’! It seems important to bring a little of what we covered on the course to a Sunday morning audience, for the benefit of those whose lives didn’t really allow them to sign up for a big commitment, so that we can all join in with this important conversation with a few shared reference points.
So, in less than ten minutes now, I’m going to give you the digest version of what we covered. At the end of each session I picked out three ‘take aways’ – key points to remember – and I’m going to take you through them now, at relatively high speed, to give you a bit of context for the reflections offered by course participants this week and next. Bear in mind that some of these bullet points are distilling incredibly nuanced discussions into relatively few words so if any of it makes you raise your eyebrows slightly that’s surely an invitation for you to hang around after the service this week or next and have a chat about what it all means. I’ll put the text of these ‘take aways’ up on screen but if anyone wants a slightly expanded version of this to reflect on at your leisure please send me an email or put your details in the chat box later.
• Unitarianism is a Religion… we gather in community for a sacred purpose.
• Unitarians are Free to Believe… what their own life-experience tells them is true, and what the promptings of their conscience tells them is right, based on deep reflection and reasoning (it’s not just ‘anything goes’).
• Unitarianism is Full of Contradictions… as individuals and as a denomination we can be both rational and intuitive, humanistic and theistic, scientific and mystical (we find it healthy to hold these in balance).
• Unitarians are Open to Insights and Wisdom from a Wide Range of Sources… including direct experience, the collected wisdom of the world’s religious traditions, reason and science; we often say that ‘revelation is not sealed’.
• Unitarians Take Responsibility for Working Out their Own Personal Theology… with freedom comes responsibility; we must do our own ‘work’.
• Unitarians Share some Core Shared Principles and Values… which play an important part in holding us together in community given the diversity of personal theologies (freedom, reason, compassion, equality, justice, etc.)
• Unitarian Congregations are Independent… so local expressions will vary hugely in terms of theological leanings, worship style, and resources.
• Unitarians are Strengthened When We Work Together… the GA (General Assembly) is our national umbrella organisation which acts on our behalf and coordinates projects and services which are of benefit to us all.
• Unitarians are part of a Continuous Tradition characterised by an ongoing Search for Truth, Goodness & Meaning… process rather than dogma unites us; we build on the insights of those that have come before.
• Our Congregation at Essex Church is Descended from the first Avowedly Unitarian Congregation in Britain… and our current transition is the latest in a long line of changes since our founder first left the Anglicans in 1774.
• Unitarian Communities Only Survive and Thrive Because of the Efforts of Committed People (Like You)… community depends on commitment and the church is only here for as long as people show up for it in various ways. The ongoing existence of our congregation depends on people ‘mucking in’.
• Congregational Life is Challenging (and not just for Unitarians) but Worthwhile… community life is inevitably messy and frustrating yet the connections we form with others on the spiritual journey are essential.
• Unitarians Take Responsibility for doing their own Spiritual Work… we can each deepen our spiritual life by working on our own religious literacy, building our own theology, and tackling any ‘baggage’ that holds us back.
• Going to Church supports our Personal/Spiritual Transformation… being part of a religious community helps to keep you honest, supports you in ‘sticking at it’ when the going gets tough, and exposes you to new ideas, challenge, and encouragement; the spiritual life is about transformation.
• Belonging to (and Regularly Participating In) a Unitarian Community is Counter-Cultural… church is where we strengthen the things that matter against the prevailing influence of neoliberalism and consumer culture.
• The Pursuit of Social Justice is a Core Part of the Unitarian Way… one phrase beloved of Unitarians is ‘deeds not creeds’; living a life of kindness, compassion, peace, and justice is more important than what you believe.
• Unitarians ‘Own’ their Faith and Speak Freely About It – It is Possible to be a Unitarian ‘Evangelist’ without Proselytizing… if we Unitarians are shy about our faith commitments and never speak about it to our friends then we concede the public space to more religiously conservative voices. We need to let it be known that we exist – then people can take it or leave it.
• Unitarians are Perfectly Imperfect… the list of ‘take-aways’ might seem a bit daunting but the intention is to give you a wider and deeper view of Unitarianism than you might get simply by coming along on Sundays. There are loads of ways you might enrich your experience of Unitarianism.
And I added a final point: reflecting on ‘How to be a Unitarian’ isn’t primarily about signing up more people to Unitarianism; it’s about changing lives and changing the world. Yes, really.
So that’s a very very abbreviated account of what we covered in the last three months! Later in the service you’ll hear what Charlotte and Patricia made of it, and next week it’s Rachel’s turn, but I wonder what leaps out for you? What challenges you? What intrigues you?
Sermon by Jane Blackall
An audio recording of this sermon is available:
A video recording of this sermon is available: