Reignite

So on the bus coming home on Sunday I look out of the window and see all this going on. The road is down to one lane and there are hundreds of people walking around, with banners and a big group of topless men in the middle chanting and vigorously slapping their chests in rhythm. I recognise this as the big Shia festival with ritual mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn. I later found out it was at the Battle of Karbala in Iraq. I remebering see them doing this on the news in Iraq after decades of being banned from doing it during the time of Saddam Hussain. But they also do it in Manchester. So I decided to get off and take some pictures. I have a new digital camera so it was a good opportunity to play with it. Some pictures didn't come out that well in the fading light of the winter late afternoon, but I still thought these pictures were worth sharing.

It ocurred to me as I was watching the news last week that the most important story was not the racism row on Big Brother or the storms (which certainly disrupted my day) but the corruption probe into an arms deal with Saudi Arabia . First thing's first, why the hell are we selling arms to Saudi Arabia? I despair that we don't seem to learn from history. Saudi Arabia is a regime with terrible human right violations . In all likelihood we'll be at war them in 20 years, just like we're at war with Iraq 20 years after selling them weapons. Why do we do this? But not only that but the government closes down an investigation of corruption in the arms deal between BAE and Saudi Arabia because of "security reasons." And to hear Blair defend this decision saying, "our relationship with Saudi Arabia is vitally important for our country...that strategic interest comes first." Which is basically saying that Saudi Arabia can do what the hell it likes and we w...

The Church Times has reported (Jan 5 2007, page 5) that the Romanian Parliament has rushed through a law on religion that restricts religious freedom. Religions have to be registered in Romania, which creates problems for minority religions (of which Unitarianism is of course one). To be registered as a religion with the most rights requires more than 23,000 adult members. This (I think) would enable Unitarianism to be registered in this category, one of 18 officially recognised religions. But smaller groups will have much reduced rights. One would hope that a condition of belonging to the EU would be religious freedom, in practice as well as in theory. But hey, we still have a blasphemy law and one state religion in this country. I wonder if laws like this effect Unitarians in other countries around the world where their numbers would only be in the 10s or 100s.

1. Get a girlfriend or boyfriend. 2. Get a spiritual director. 3. Learn to drive. 4. Oh yeah, and pass all the courses and stuff that I'm doing.

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...