This week I'm heading out to the States. Next Sunday (6th July) I'll be preaching at First Church Boston if I have any Boston-area readers that want to come and say hi. The weekend after I'll be in New York City, and was wondering where to worship. Any recommendations from anyone about good churches, UU or otherwise?
OK, well this might be controversial, but I feel the need to say it. Is humanist tolerant? Please note I'm not asking about humanism within society. Clearly humanism certainly believes in tolerance within society and I'm forever glad they are often the only people in the media calling for a separation of church and state. No, what I'm talking about is descriptions of Unitarianism like this and adverts like this , discussed at Peacebang here , which say that humanism is one option, Christianity is another, God is one option among many. The trouble is, humanism, by definition is theologically opposed to theism. This is very different from the relationship between Christianity and Buddhism. These two traditions may be vastly different, but Buddhism, by definition , is not opposed to Christianity, and Christianity, by definition , is not opposed to Buddhism. But humanism is consciously defined in opposition to Christianity and theism. So to say that humanism and theism can bot...
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All Souls, is the city’s largest congregation and has the highest public profile. This is the Church served so long by the great Forrest Church, who is still listed as “Public Minister” and continues to write and speak while gracefully facing terminal cancer. Of course neither Forrest nor new Senior Minister Galen Guengerich will be preaching the Sunday morning you will be in the city. According to their web site http://www.allsoulsnyc.org/ David Robb, Minsiter of Adult Education, will be in the pulpit.
On the more intimate level is Fourth Universalist Church, now led by another remarkable minister, Rosemary Bray McNatt. The congregation is about a tenth the size of All Souls. It still retains a distinctly Universalist tone within a Unitarian Universalist context. July 13 Associate Minister Beth Putnam will be preaching according to their web site http://www.4thu.net/