Reignite

The Annual Report is out. And here's the first number I look for. And it's 2966. The membership of Unitarian churches in Britain is down once again. Down by 129 people.  Here's what the numbers look like over the last few years I've been counting:  2005: 3952  2006: 3754 2007: 3711 2008: 3642 2009: 3658 2010: 3672 2011: 3560 2012: 3468 2013: 3384 2014: 3179 2015: 3095 2016: 2966 No comment for now. I'm just book marking the numbers.

In some ways I am more pessimistic and frightened about the state of the world than ever before. And yet I feel more than ever rooted in a clearer vision of my self and my ministry. And that vision fills me with joy. It is expressed most beautifully by the great Unitarian poet e.e. cummings: i thank You God for most this amazing day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes (i who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay great happening illimitably earth) how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any–lifted from the no of all nothing–human merely being doubt unimaginable You? (now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened) I have been on three protests already this year, and I see the need for resistance more than ever. But that resistance must ...

As part of my American trip during my sabbatical to the 2016 Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Studies I took part in a tour of local Unitarian Universalist congregations. The conference was in the Minneapolis/St Paul area and so we were taken around several UU congregations in the Twin Cities. We visited the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis: If you look at the main external picture here you will see the words "Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one." This might seem to be a surprising thing to find on a Universalist church (though it is of course classically Unitarian). But that's because the building used to belong to a Jewish synagogue. Certain features like that still looked fairly synagoguey including Stars of David at the end of each pew. We were told that the Universalist church bought this building, while simultaneously selling their old building to a different synagogue. We were also shown a Roman Catholic church. This...