Reignite

I moved to Cardiff to become a pioneer minister because I wanted to face the coming culture head-on. If we're moving to a post-religious culture in western Europe I want to face it head-on. If the future is empty church buildings being turned into restaurants and climbing wall centres, then I want to face it head-on. If we're heading into the least religious culture planet Earth has ever seen, then I want to be fully immersed in that culture. If the future of the church is 5 people meeting in a living room, then I want to start doing that now. I don't want to spend the next 40 years serving a conventional church and seeing it slowly decline. I don't want to spend my career managing decline. If the future of religion is being a tiny tiny minority in a non-religious indifferent post-Christendom culture then I want to start working out how to do that now. I don't want to try to outrun the coming tide of non-religious culture. I don't want to spend m...

This is an anecdote I heard recently. It wasn't from a Unitarian, but from a progressive Christian: "I was talking to my neighbour who's an atheist. And she said to me, 'I'm not religious, but you know what? If I was going to go to a church, I would go to your church.'" This is the kind of thing that is said by Unitarians, and other religious progressives as a satisfying kind of story that enables us to say to ourselves, "see, we are on the right path, lot's of rational people really agree with us!" I've probably said something like that myself in the past. The problem is that pesky "if". That "if" has become louder and louder in my mind. Because if we really hear that "if" we would hear what the sentence really says, " If I was going to go to a church, I would go to your church... but I'm not. I never will and it's not something that interests me in the slightest. I vaguely approve of wh...

I keep coming back to the idea that there might be two or more mutually incompatible visions of Unitarianism in Britain. I'm very aware, for example, that there are several different strands of Quakerism in the United States - Liberal Friends, Pastoral Friends, Conservative Friends, and Evangelical Friends. They share the same roots but are today quite radically different from one another in worship, organisation, and theology. I'm wondering if something like that exists, under the surface, in British Unitarianism. If there are, perhaps, two Unitarianisms. Unitarianism A defines Unitarianism as an individualistic, liberal movement that is defined by values but tries to remain neutral in matters of belief. Unitarianism B defines Unitarianism as a basically heretical form of Christianity that has taken on Anabaptist radicalism, Enlightenment liberalism, and Emersonian individualism, but is still basically Christian. It is interesting to note that the General Assembly...

"Dialogues of faith - an Adamsian approach to Unitarian evangelism" a lecture by Stephen Lingwood From the Unitarian Theology Conference 2017 in Leeds

"Deffro, mae'n ddydd" "Awake, it is day" (motto on the coat of arms of Cardiff) 2018 marks a new start in my life as I have moved to a new city, a new country, and a new ministry.  As of 1st January 2018 I am now working as Pioneer Minister in Cardiff. This is the sort of ministry I have always had an interest in and I am unbelievably excited by this new opportunity. But as some people may not completely understand this role I thought it would be a good idea to explain it here.  There is a small Unitarian community without a building in Cardiff, and they have appointed me as their minister. However because the community is small we have agreed that we will view only a minority of my time as dedicated to ministering to that community. The majority of my time is for engaging with the unchurched populations of Cardiff (that's the "pioneer" bit). My job is not trying to attract people to "come to us" but to "go to them"...