Reignite

At the start is the Word, and the Word is with God, and the Word is God. She is at the start with God. All things come into being through her, and without her not one thing comes into being. What comes into being in her is life, and the life is the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it... The true light, which enlightens everyone, is coming into the world. She is in the world, and the world comes into being through her; yet the world does not know her. She comes to what is her own, and her own people do not accept her. But to all who received her, who believe in her name, she gives power to become children of God, who are born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of humans, but of God. And the Word becomes flesh and lives among us, and we can see her glory.

Sitting on the bus today I looked across to a billboard that said something like: "Looking good isn't important It's everything." Which is a horrible message. What I loved was that someone had graffitied it so that it read: "Looking good isn't important Love is everything." Which I must say I thoroughly approved of. I'm trying to work out if this makes me an anarchist or a romantic. Possibly it makes me a Christian.

I've always had some envy of Quakers who have a strong sense of who their founder was - George Fox - and all Quakers know that and still talk about Fox. Unitarians have less of a sense of a founder, and this gives us less of a sense of identity. Recently though I've started to read more about Michael Servetus . And I've started to really warm to the idea that he is our founder, and should be viewed as such. True, he didn't start a community, but then, neither did Jesus. True he wasn't perfect, but then, neither was Jesus. I've recently gained more insights into Servetus that I didn't appreciate before. He was an ethnic minority as a dark-skinned Spanniad in France. He was a healer as he worked as a doctor. He read the Qur'an, and possibly read Arabic, and had a very positive approach to Jews and Muslims. He suffered a death for what he believed in, much like Jesus and Al Hallaj . But mostly I love his mysticism, his sense of God within, that I'm begi...

The Quakers have been nominated for the most gay friendly organisation in Britain . Good for them. I just pray that one day us Unitarians might be considered in the same category.

British Unitarianism came from many different sources. The source of much Unitarianism was the old Presbyterian churches dating back to the Great Ejection in 1662 , over the years these churches became increasinly liberal until they became Unitarian. Although Presbyterianism was the dominant strand, other movements did come into the Unitarian community. Unitarians came from Anglicanism ( Lindsey ), Methodist Unitarianism and the General Baptists. But these remained a minority that were absorbed into the majority. Well what's that all got to do with anything? Well it means that the style (but not the polity) of Unitarianism is dominantly Presbyterian. And what can we say about Presbyterianism in the last few decades in the West? It's in decline. It's in a nose dive. The United Reform Church has halved it's membership since 1972. The Presbyterian Church USA is losing 50,000 members a year . Liberal-moderate Protestantism is dying. I think this is largely about worship. I...

Message sent out on the general GA mailing list: The GA Executive Committee is pleased to announce that the Reverend Steve Dick has been appointed as Chief Executive. Steve will commence work for the General Assembly on 1 March 2007 for an induction programme. Steve will take on the full responsibilites of Chief Executive from the present General Secretary, Jeff Teagle, at a hand-over ceremony on the last morning of the Annual Meetings in Hatfield on 13 April 2007. My thoughts: Steve Dick is London District Minister, an American, a member of the Executive Committee and that's about all I know about him. Presumably he's going to resign from the EC. The Chief Executive can't also be a member of the EC, surely? Some people have said to me (not in relation to Steve Dick specifically) that it's a waste of a minister's talents to have this kind of job, which is essentially a senior administrative position. I'm still not entirely sure about the significance of the chan...

I was talking to some United Reform Church ministers this morning. One of them predicted the death of his denomination within a decade. He wasn't mourning either. He thought something good would rise out of the ashes. The URC is bigger than the Unitarian church. When will be become extinct? I think it's quite possible we could be dead before the centenary of the General Assembly in 2028. Some things will definitely die. What will be left?