Manchester College Oxford Chapel Society

Calendar

Until the end of August, Sunday services will take place in the Charles Wellbeloved Room of the College, while the chapel organ is being repaired. Please note that the front door of the college will be locked at 11.05.

Sunday 6 July: Preacher: Revd Martin Whitell, Associate Minister at the John Pounds Memorial Church, Portsmouth. After the service: a sandwich lunch (please bring your own) and a talk by Dr Jacqueline Woodman entitled “The Impact of Cultural and Religious Practices on Women’s Health and Well-Being”. All welcome; the meeting will end at about 2.30 pm.

Sunday 13 July: Preacher: Patrick Timperley, Unitarian lay preacher.

Sunday 20 July: Preacher: Alan Ruston, President of the Unitarian Historical Society and Chair of the Watford Unitarian Fellowship. Activities for children aged 5–10 during the service.

Sunday 27 July: Preacher: Revd Peter Hewis, Chaplain Emeritus, Harris Manchester College.

Sunday 3 August: Preacher: Revd Frank Walker, retired minister of the Cambridge Unitarian church. After the service: a picnic at the Oxford University Arboretum in Nuneham Courtenay (to be confirmed).

Sunday 10 August: Preacher: Dr Martin Pulbrook,Unitarian lay preacher based in the Republic of Ireland.

Sunday 17 August: Preacher: Professor John Toye, Chair of the Manchester College Chapel Society. Activities for children (aged 5–10). Special collection for the funds of the Manchester Academy Trust. If you are away but would like to contribute to the special collection, please send a cheque, in a Gift Aid envelope if appropriate, made payable to ‘MCO Chapel Society’, with ’MAT Appeal’ written on the reverse, to Catherine Robinson at 12 Hayfield Road, Oxford, OX2 6TT. Chapel Committee meets at 1.15 pm.

Sunday 24 August: Preacher: Dorothy Haughton, lay preacher, Shrewsbury Unitarian Church.

Sunday 31 August: Preacher: Jim Corrigall, Chair of the Golders Green Unitarian congregation.

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Each morning we must hold out the chalice of our being to receive, to carry, and to give back. (Dag Hammarskjold, UN Secretary General, 1953–1961

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MANCHESTER COLLEGE OXFORD CHAPEL SOCIETY

Registered charity no. 298701

Committee:

Chair: John Toye

Secretary: Catherine Robinson (01865 511307)

Treasurer: Vacant

Committee Members:

Julie Adams

Bob Redpath

Jaqueline Woodman

Revd. Peter Hewis

Revd. Dr Ralph Waller

Revd. Dr Arthur Stewart

www.oxford-unitarians.org.uk

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NEWS

Three of our five preachers in August are new to our pulpit.

Dr Martin Pulbrook (10 August) comes from a mixed Quaker and Catholic background. A former academic (classical studies) and journalist, he now makes a living from freelance writing and lecturing. He became a member of the Dublin Unitarian congregation in 1989 and re-established the Cork congregation in 1998. He is a Lay Preacher who leads services in Ireland, England, and the Isle of Man. He lives with his family and his collection of antique clocks in Enniscoffey.

Dorothy Haughton (24 August) is a life-long Unitarian who belongs to the Shrewsbury congregation. She was a middle-school teacher for many years, but more recently became a care worker. She describes herself as an enthusiastic if untrained singer, mainly in folk clubs but now with a community choir in Shrewsbury. She is also a long-time Morris dancer. She is married to a journalist and she helps her husband with research for his articles.

Jim Corrigall (31 August) joined the Unitarians five years ago and is Chair of the congregation at Golders Green. He took early retirement last year after 17 years as a journalist at BBC World Service, and subsequently worked for a period as communications consultant to our General Assembly. Jim was a long-time campaigner against apartheid; having been born and educated in South Africa, he came to Britain in 1974. An active trade unionist for many years, Jim served as President of the National Union of Journalists in 2004/5.

OTHER NEWS

Chapel member Jacqueline Woodman, an obstetrician and gynaecologist in her working life, will give a talk on Sunday 6 July entitled The Impact of Cultural and Religious Practices on Women’s Health and Well-Being. She will talk about harmful practices such as early marriage; cultural and religious norms that permit and encourage such practices (patriarchal systems, notions of property and ownership, rigid notions of the roles of men and women); and current strategies to oppose harmful cultural practices (keeping girls in school longer, recruiting African midwives to oppose female circumcision, promoting access to contraception, etc.). Please bring sandwiches if you would like to hear Jacky’s talk and join in the discussion after it.

Daniel John Rothera Armstrong, the son of Hazel and Philip and the brother of Toby, was blessed by Revd Peter Hewis at a naming ceremony on 8 June. All the family and friends present promised to love and support Daniel as he grows up. Three of his treasured objects were placed next to the chalice during the service, and Toby spoke about his baby brother. It was a truly joyous event.

Alison Butler and Leo Bowder are taking a Foundation Course in Worship Studies for aspiring lay preachers. Organised by the Midland Union, it leads to a certificate recognised by the Unitarian General Assembly.

Mphala Mogudi sends greetings to the congregation. Sadly we won’t see much of her for the next few months, while she is working as a locum psychiatrist in north Devon. Love from us all, Mphala.

Revd Peter Hewis has kindly agreed to be co-opted to serve on the Chapel Society Committee.

Howard Oliver was our guest preacher in May at the final Sunday service in the college chapel before it was closed for the organ restoration. Howard is a meteorologist and geographer with a strong interest in the history of his subject; the theme of his sermon, which was contemporary responses to the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, proved ironically appropriate in the aftermath of the terrible earthquake in China. Our guest organist, Richard Moller, played a thunderous improvisation on the organ which drew gasps of awe from the congregation. Howard brought greetings from the Revd David Ayton and the Unitarian congregation in Bournemouth, near where Howard and his wife Sylvia now live. Visitors are more than welcome at their weekly 11 am service.

Contributions to the ‘Send a Child To Hucklow Fund’ in memory of the late Hilda Chart finally totalled £395. Our recent collection for Sightsavers International, this year’s project of the Unitarian Women’s League, raised £280. Many thanks to all who contributed to these appeals.

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The Editor writes: On a recent visit to Highgate Cemetery with my infant grandson (to pay our respects to Karl Marx and George Eliot), I happened upon the grave of James Martineau, the great nineteenth-century Unitarian and Fellow of Manchester College. He is buried with his wife and daughters in an obscure spot in the cemetery. The headstone of the grave is overgrown with ivy and seems on the point of collapse. It seems a pity that the grave is so neglected. Could the Martineau Society perhaps take on responsibility for its upkeep?

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A MEETING WITH THE DALAI LAMA

Leo Bowder was invited to attend a colloquium on Christian and Buddhist contemplative prayer and meditation when the Dalai Lama visited Oxford in May. Here is his report.

Buddhists can learn much from serious Christian practitioners, according to the Dalai Lama, speaking to a small invited audience in Blackfriars Dominican Friary on May 29th. His Holiness entered the book-lined lecture theatre with his retinue of red-robed monks, pausing to speak quietly to an elderly woman in a wheelchair, who was moved to happy tears by the encounter. Very Revd Dr Richard Finn quoted from Nostra Aetate (the Second Vatican Council, 1965) in praise of Buddhism’s recognition of the ‘radical insufficiency of this changeable world’. There followed presentations by the Dominican Revd Paul Murray and, after a tea break (during which I had the honour of greeting the Dalai Lama, shaking his hand and giving him a modest gift of a small soapstone Buddha statue), by the Carmelite Revd Eugene McCaffery, on the nature of Christian spiritual contemplation, and the teachings of Meister Eckhart and St John of the Cross, among others.

Describing their presentations as “very profound”, the Dalai Lama took to the lectern.

Standing beneath a large wooden crucifix, beside his Tibetan translator (on whom he called only sparingly) and speaking without notes, he suggested that all spiritual traditions hold similar potential and that all seek the deeper meaning of life. He said also that differences – even within the same tradition – are important, and that, for him, the word “God” is best translated as “Truth” or infinite love. He said also that deep, inner spiritual experience is beyond words. Buddhism teaches, he said, that ultimate reality is seen in terms of negation – what it is not – rather than what it is.

The Dalai Lama then outlined the two commitments that he is obliged to keep until his death: the promotion of human value – recognising that we are all social animals and that believers and non-believers alike need love, compassion, and affection – and the promotion of religious harmony. Warming to the theme of the afternoon, His Holiness described meditative contemplation as “recharging your batteries for use in daily life” and stressed implementation – putting the thoughts that arose into action. Upon rising at 3.30 am, he spends hours “in search of God”. He praised the current Pope for his emphasis on faith and reason, and spoke with great affection of his late Christian friends, Bede Griffith and Thomas Merton. He said he had an historical responsibility to Tibet as Dalai Lama – a position that he described as “not entirely voluntary” – and stated that he was semi-retired, but looking forward to full retirement.

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A NEW PUBLICATION

Windows Of Knowledge: The Stained Glass Windows in the Tate Library of Harris Manchester College, Oxford

This newly published 26-page booklet, describing the very fine windows in the college library, is the product of many months of research by chapel member Alan Middleton. It is illustrated by excellent full-colour photographs taken by Ruth McCairns, and it forms a useful companion to Alan’s earlier publication, A Pre-Raphaelite Jewel: The Chapel of Harris Manchester College, Oxford (2006).

Windows Of Knowledge describes the ‘Warrington Window’, which contains portraits of many of the eighteenth-century Dissenters who supported the foundation of the Warrington Academy (forerunner of Manchester College). Alan provides mini-biographies of each of them: Josiah Wedgwood, Anna Letitia Barbauld, Joseph Priestley, and a host of penal reformers, prudent bankers, anti-slavery activists, and pioneering medical men. The ‘Colfox Window’ comprises graceful but fairly conventional personifications of the virtues of Love, Humility, Wisdom, and Truth. The ‘Darbishire Window’ is altogether more original and ambitious. The full scope of this remarkable tableau in stained glass, representing the development of the human apprehension of the divine, is described in a speech delivered at its unveiling in 1898, printed in an appendix to the booklet. The following extract suggests a very un-Victorian vision of “the mystery in which we live and move and have our being”:

We have made some progress towards opening a few of the mysteries of the Universe, but only to learn that they are unfathomable. We can no more conceive of bounds to the atom that we call our system than we can number the Universes that Truth grinds to new matter on her shores for ever. We are surrounded on every side, in birth, and in life, and in death, with what we cannot understand. We talk of living, of dissolution, of resurrection, and a future life; but these without the recognition of the Universal Insoluble are but as motes dancing in rays of everlasting light, the lightest and most ephemeral of questions!

Windows Of Knowledge is available from the College Bursary for £3.00 per copy (plus 46 pence for postage & packing). A Pre-Raphaelite Jewel is still available, price £2 (p&p 46 pence). Copies of both booklets may be borrowed from our chapel library.

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WILL WE STILL BE FRIENDS AFTER I TELL YOU I’M A UNITARIAN? — Bob Redpath

We all know that there are some areas into which it can be dangerous to stray with good friends, and religion is one of them. The following is a cautionary tale.

At least once each year, my friend Robin and I meet up at Joe Allen’s restaurant in London to catch up on news, but usually to rake over old coals. He was an architect with the Greater London Council, and I was a social anthropologist also employed by the GLC. In the early 1970s we collaborated on the Swinbrook redevelopment project, an exciting and innovatory renewal scheme in the heart of Notting Hill, and we usually spend time regretting that we never wrote a book about it. We always conclude that it is too late.

But this time we went beyond our normal range of topics and strayed into the area of our religious beliefs. He, a Christadelphian, had written a fifty-page report on early Christianity which I borrowed and found very interesting—especially his notes about the debate between Arius and Alexander and the origin of the Athanasian Creed. I discovered that Christadelphians are also anti-Trinitarian; encouraged by this possible link with Unitarians, I gave him a copy of my short paper about Transylvanian Unitarianism.

We reconvened at Joe Allen’s the following week and he told me how much he enjoyed reading my report, especially complimenting me on the pictures; but he then said “But my dear Bob, it’s all wrong!” “What, Robin, is wrong?” “Well, we worship Jesus and you lot apparently don’t – and furthermore, what do you have to say about the Resurrection?” I had just finished reading Geza Vermes’ book The Resurrection, which points out that the Gospels said very little about the supposed Resurrection of Jesus, and that it was St Paul who pinned the entire belief system of Christianity on belief in the Resurrection. And that possibly Jesus rose in the hearts of his followers, rather than corporeally.

Conveying this view certainly didn’t help matters. Two days after our meal, I received a letter from Robin which said “I wonder if you will allow me in a spirit of friendly comment to flesh out my side of our discussion on the topic of the nature of Christ” – and proceeded to fill five pages with quotations from the Bible as evidence for his arguments.

In the past I have had very dear friends who, as orthodox Christians, were appalled to the verge of apoplexy by my religious beliefs, and it seemed that my friendship with Robin might become swamped and capsized by too much theology. I sent him ‘The Mysterious Jesus’ by Revd Tom McCready, which Kath Reilly had read in Oat Street Chapel service prior to this year’s Asparagus Luncheon. It concludes: ‘The Jesus whom we meet in the worship space is not calling us to bear witness to his own glory; he is calling us to bear witness to the love of God at work in the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, to the presence of God within us all.’ I also wrote him a poem which expressed my hope of continuing our longstanding friendship and enjoying lunches at Joe Allen’s – but possibly without religion on the menu:

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UNITARIANISM AND INTERFAITH ISSUES – Catherine Robinson

This article was recently commissioned by the Editor of the magazine of St Giles’ Church, Oxford, as part of an issue devoted to the theme of interfaith relations. It begins with a general introduction to Unitarianism, at the request of the Editor.)

Unitarians sometimes describe themselves as “Quakers with hymns”, or “Quakers with attention-deficit disorder”. Although our religious ethos is close to that of the Society of Friends, unlike the Friends we worship in a structured manner: that is to say, with a sequence of prayers, hymns, readings, silent meditation, music, and a sermon. Unlike the mainstream churches, however, we vary the structure of our liturgy from week to week, and our sources of inspiration are not always Christian: they may be the scriptures of Buddhism, Islam, and other world faiths; or poetry or philosophy; or even an editorial in yesterday’s Guardian. Perhaps the key difference between Unitarian congregations and mainstream churches is that we do not recite a creed. To pay lip-service to dimly understood (or privately rejected!) religious formulas is the antithesis of Unitarian faith and practice. Honest doubt is encouraged, not suppressed.

The Unitarian movement dates from the mid-sixteenth century, when it took root in Poland and Hungary, eventually spreading to western Europe in the seventeenth century and north America in the eighteenth. Early Unitarian thinkers such as Faustus Socinus (1539–1604) rejected the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, for which they could find no justification in the Bible. Their emphasis on the unity (or “unipersonality”) of God gave them their name, and led some exponents of Unitarian ideas, including Michael Servetus and Katherine Vogel, to die at the stake, convicted of heresy. They believed – and we still believe – in the absolute humanity of Jesus, while revering him as a great soul and moral guide. They denied – and we deny – the doctrines of original sin and atonement, believing instead in all human beings’ innate worth and potential for holiness, and affirming individual responsibility for one’s own spiritual state. Moreover, the final authority for one’s religious beliefs lies within one’s own conscience; hence we have no formally ordained priesthood: only a loose network of trained ministers and lay preachers to lead services and provide pastoral care.

It is probably true to say that each generation of Unitarians interprets the significance of the name slightly differently. Nowadays we tend to avoid theological disputes about the doctrine of the Trinity, preferring instead to affirm our belief in divine unity – the oneness of God – and the essential unity of humankind and of creation. But certain values are enduring, and they include a commitment to civil liberty and social justice: our forebears include Thomas Jefferson, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Albert Schweitzer. A characteristic desire to overcome divisions and bring people together is symbolised by the inventions of Unitarians Samuel Morse (the Morse code) and Alexander Graham Bell (the telephone), and more recently Tim Berners-Lee (pioneer of the World Wide Web, who refused to patent his invention and thereby derive personal profit from it).

For more than 200 years, Unitarians’ openness to new ideas and the desire for dialogue has led them to seek contact with other faiths, beginning with Sir William Jones (1746–1794), a judge in the Supreme Court of Bengal, who produced the first European journal devoted to Oriental studies. A Welsh Unitarian, Jenkin Lloyd Jones (1843–1918), was one of the organisers of the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, the first formal event that sought to bring the different religions together. This inspired the founding, also by Unitarians, of the International Association for Religious Freedom (1900) and the World Congress of Faiths (1936). Joseph Estlin Carpenter (1844–1927) introduced the study of world religions into the curriculum of Manchester College, Oxford. Unitarian minister Will Hayes (1890–1959) championed the cause of universalism or “panreligionism”, the idea that all religions are different aspects of the same truth. His ideas find favour with many present-day Unitarians, and our ministers express this conviction in their willingness to conduct interfaith weddings and funerals.

The Unitarian congregation in Oxford currently includes members who identify themselves as Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, and Sufi. In recent years we have held joint services of worship and colloquia with representatives of the Baha’i, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Sufi, and Zoroastrian faiths. We have a particularly close relationship with the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (MECO, www.meco.org.uk), a liberal Islamic community who invite members of other faiths to attend their Friday prayers in Summertown; several members of our congregation are studying the Qu’ran with Dr Taj Hargey, the founder of MECO. We have belonged to the Oxford Round Table of Religions for many years, and we support the newly formed Oxford Council of Faiths.

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A recent book, The Larger View: Unitarians and World Religions, by Vernon Marshall, traces the long history of Unitarian links with other faiths. It also addresses the difficult question of whether the Unitarian movement is a liberal Christian denomination or a separate religion in its own right – a question to which there is (and can be) no officially sanctioned answer.

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PROFILE: LEO BOWDER – by Bob Redpath

Last year, when the Chapel Committee was looking for someone to represent our congregation on the newly formed Oxford Council of Faiths (which comprises the six major religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism – plus minority faiths from Ahmadi to Zoroastrian), Leo Bowder, with his Master’s degree in inter-religious relations from Birmingham University, seemed an isomorphic fit. Happily he agreed to represent us; in fact, he has since been voted on to the Steering Committee of the Council. He also represents us on the Oxford Round Table of Religions. If you have read Leo’s reviews and articles in this Newsletter (1) you will already know that he has explored a wide variety of faiths, possibly all of the minority religions represented on the Council, so we are fortunate to have him represent us.

However, Leo’s journey in life began in an archetypal Christian setting: he was born on Christmas Day (1974) in Liverpool, and pictures of him and all the other Christmas babies, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in baskets under a huge Christmas tree, appeared in the local press. His early upbringing was in the Church of England and the Church of Ireland. His father is an Anglican clergyman of liberal leanings, who at one point served as Chaplain to the University of Kent. Notwithstanding his multi-faith interests, Leo feels comfortable with the Unitarian services in the Manchester College chapel, with their recognisable structure so typical of traditional Christian services: prayers, readings, sermons, and, of course, hymns – albeit hymns whose tunes are familiar but whose words have changed from those that he learned in childhood.

Leo is the eldest of three boys born to an English father and a half-Irish mother. Indeed, he has spent about half of his life in Ireland. He boarded at St Columba’s School in Dublin from 1983 to 1990, returning to England when his father took the Chaplaincy post in Canterbury. He attended the King’s School and then read for a degree in English and Drama at St Mary’s College in Twickenham.

Graduating from St Mary’s in 1997, Leo returned to Dublin, where he trained as a mural painter on a programme for the public arts sponsored by the Irish government. He obtained a City and Guilds art qualification in Dublin, earned money by painting and decorating, and led projects creating murals in the Phoenix Park Zoo and local schools, and teaching paint effects, sponging, and other art techniques. He was responsible for about 25 young people with emotional difficulties, including drugs problems; he enjoyed being a calming influence on the young people, and it was perhaps from this point on that he began to see his future as a teacher.

While at university, Leo had stopped attending church services regularly and thought of himself as an agnostic. However, the events on the 11th day of September 2001 proved to be a spiritual watershed for him. He realised that he needed to know more about Islam and other world religions. So, in his words, he became a seeker, attending a mosque in Dublin and reading extensively about Buddhism, the Baha’i faith, and Rastafari. Eventually Leo knew that he wanted to be a teacher of world religions. He returned to England in 2004 and was accepted on a course leading to a Master’s Degree in Inter-religious Relations at Birmingham University. There he felt like a sponge, absorbing as much as he could about all religions. He comments, ‘Perhaps I stretched myself too thin – refusing to specialise in any one religion, unlike some of the other students’. However, he did narrow down his interests sufficiently to write his dissertation, which was a critical analysis of the Baha’i perspective on inter-faith relations. It was in Birmingham that Leo met Revd Simon Ramsay, whom he credits with introducing him to Unitarianism.

Graduating in 2005, Leo came to Oxford and began attending services in the HMC Chapel. He has spent the past two years working in the Religion and Art departments of a local secondary school as a teacher’s assistant, which has given him excellent work experience. He has been accepted for the Post-graduate Certificate in Education programme at Oxford Brookes University, starting in September. He also wishes to train eventually as a lay preacher and is attending a three-session beginners’ course organised by the Midland Union of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.

Leo feels at home in our chapel. He favours the grassroots, ‘build your own theology’ approach to religion, whereby each individual develops his or her own ideas and values, rather than the traditional approach of the established church, which inculcates belief from the top downwards. However, he wonders if his ‘multifarian’ approach would be too diverse even for our Chapel Society. I, for one, am stimulated by the diversity of his views and impressed by his spirit of seeking, and I suspect he will continue to define his own religious beliefs.

As for outside interests, Leo plays bass guitar with the aspirant Oxford-based combo, The Deputees – ‘a pop/rock band with a West Coast sound – an “indie band”.’ ‘Is that Indian music?’ I asked him. No, he laughed, an indie band is independent and not associated with major record labels.

Leo writes occasional reviews and features for The Church Times, including an account of the recent visit of the Dalai Lama to Oxford. We are indeed fortunate to have someone in our congregation who is so attuned to the very diverse spiritual world beyond our own chapel walls.

(1) A review of The Larger View: Unitarians and World Religions, July/Aug 2007; ‘The Happy Saddhu’, Sept/Oct 2007; ‘The “SACRED” Exhibition at the British Library’, Nov/Dec 2007; and a review of Young, British and Muslim, May/June 2008.

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MANCHESTER ACADEMY TRUST

Our annual appeal in support of the Manchester Academy Trust will be held on Sunday 17 August. The Trust was established when Manchester College became a full member of Oxford University, with the objective of helping to maintain the Unitarian traditions of the college, in particular by supporting the following:

• the salary, expenses and accommodation of the Chaplain and Tutor in Ministerial Training;

• the upkeep of the chapel;

• the maintenance and development of the old library – a major resource of the history of Dissent;

• the training of ministers for the Unitarian General Assembly, including in-service training;

• the provision of research scholarships and lectureships in Unitarian and Dissenting Studies.

Please support the appeal as generously as you can. If you are away on the 17th, please send a cheque to our Secretary.

 

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This is what you should do:

Love the earth and sun and animals,

despise riches, give alms to those who ask,

stand up for the stupid and crazy,

devote your income and labour to others,

hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,

have patience and indulgence towards people,

re-examine all that you have been told in school or church or any book,

dismiss what insults your very soul,

and your flesh shall become a great poem.

(From Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (1855), read by Alan Ruston during a recent Sunday service in our chapel)

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THREE ADDITIONS TO THE CHAPEL LIBRARY, reviewed by Heddwen Hewis

1. The Shortest Distance by Bill Darlison

This book acquired its title from a saying by Anthony de Mello: “The shortest distance between a human being and the truth is a story.” It contains 101 stories collected, retold, and annotated by Bill Darlison (the Minister to the Unitarian congregation in Dublin). He says that finding a suitable story to tell children during Sunday worship is one of the hardest tasks of any worship leader, and he firmly believes that story-time is one of the most rewarding elements of the service, enjoyed by adults and children alike. All of us, he says, both young and old, respond with delight to the wonderful words “Once upon a time …”, and it is quite likely that the children’s story is remembered long after the sermon has been forgotten.

The anthology has been compiled as a resource for the busy worship leader, the Sunday School teacher, and the school teacher who presides over non-denominational assemblies. The stories have been taken from all the major spiritual and religious traditions, and together they provide a non-didactic introduction to ecumenical and inter-faith understanding that is so crucially needed in these days, when fundamentalism is on the increase.

The stories contain timeless truths about the human condition and provide valuable material for services. Bill Darlison himself feels that his own preaching has been enriched by them. This is a real treasure, one that can be enjoyed by young and old alike!

2. The Home We Share

This book, kindly donated by Bob Redpath, records the proceedings of the second Theological Symposium of the International Council of Unitarian and Universalists, held in Kolozsvar, Romania, in July 2006, which Bob himself attended, along with 70 other Unitarians from 14 different countries. As with the first symposium, held in Oxford in 2001, it was felt that what was said and done in Kolozsvar was too valuable to be recorded solely in the notes and memories of those who attended.

The event was designed to strengthen the connection between members of a diverse global religious movement by creating a better understanding of each other’s particular theological perspectives, practices, and foundations. More specifically it was designed to help us to see what we have in common as we face common realities on the Earth we share, especially the effects of globalisation, post-modernity, and global warming.

3. The Journal of John Wesley

John Wesley began writing his journal on 14 October 1735, and the last entry is dated Sunday 24 October 1790. Between those two Octobers there lies the most amazing record of human exertion. His complete journal, to which he added daily, encompasses 26 volumes, describing his experiences and deep inner spiritual life and growth. This edition, donated by Dr Howard Oliver, consists of selections from the complete journal and offers an understanding of the man, his ministry, and the God he served.

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To Daniel by Hazel Rothera

When you are grown, I hope I will remember …

The expression on Toby’s face when he came home from nursery to meet you for the first time.

The way you dance round in circles when there’s music on the kitchen radio.

How delighted you were the first time you wriggled your toes into the sand at the seaside.

The gleeful expression on your face when you stop just short of my arm’s length and run away before I can undress you for bath time.

The first time you pointed at your Daddy and said “Da!”

The milky smell at the top of your baby head.

The sound of you and Toby shrieking with laughter as you throw the rubber ducks out of the bath.

The way you nestle into my shoulder when I carry you back to bed after finally getting you off to sleep.

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“Forgiveness is giving up the idea that the past could have been different.” (Bishop Desmond Tutu)

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