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Today's sermon is what I feel Unitarianism is to me. It's a subject close to my heart and as such I feel it carries a lot of weight. I've written a number of sermons for the church and this has been far the most difficult; opening yourself up in public is never the easiest thing in the world; hopefully I've succeeded in explaining myself properly! The impetus to write and give this sermon came from a service given by Dr. Martin Pulbrook some weeks ago.
Martin's sermon was on the subject of the Reverend William Robertson. In the seventeen hundreds William Robertson left the Anglican church because he could no longer reconcile himself to a creed and to the idea of the Trinity. In essence the refusal to abide by any creed and the insistence of the Oneness of God is the historical foundation of the Unitarian church. It is through the courage of people like William Robertson that this church was founded and survived. Robertson had hoped that the theological position of the Oneness of God, the historical Uni in Unitarian, would become the norm and that sooner or later the Unitarian church would become the established church.
Martin, I should point out for those who don't know is a long time member of this church. He is I think, of the belief that Unitarians and the Unitarian church ought to stick to its historical theological stance. Martin is an erudite and learned man and is an impassioned speaker on the matter of the Oneness of God. Martin is a man I also greatly admire and I want to make it clear that I'm not here to 'bury Ceasar' so to speak. I admire Martin not just for his learning but because of his determination and commitment to a cause. Many a Unitarian has suffered for her or his beliefs, some having been burnt at the stake. I've no doubt that were Martin in danger of being burnt rather than renege on what he really believes to be true he'd pay that price. My wife, Joanna, has just finished a four night run of Arthur Millers' 'The Crucible,' playing Elizabeth Proctor and Elizabeth's husband John is put to death for exactly that reason, Martin is our very own John Proctor, an analogy that I hope he is not entirely displeased with!
Though I'm a Unitarian too, I come from a different spiritual perspective. I have a leaning towards the mystical vision of God, a poetic view of the Truth. I would perhaps view the mystery and poetry of faith in the same way that many of the Catholic mystics did, and presumably still do. However I learnt during the summer that while I have a great respect for the Catholic tradition I cannot find my way to being a faithful Roman Catholic, there's just too much of the free thinking spirit in me; though I hope that's not another way of saying that I'm a bit of a bolshie. It's one thing to decide for yourself how to celebrate a spiritual life, an entirely different thing to be told how; even if you arrive at the same point, or nearly. For me the theology I aspire to is best described in the Billy Collins poem 'Introduction to Poetry'. I don't know much about Billy Collins other than he was once America's Poet Laureate, but I like what he has to say; here is his poem: I ask them to take a poem and hold it to the light like a colour slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the authors name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means. ----------------------------------- But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.
Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal Pouring redemption for me, that I do The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal, Grow with nature as before I grew. The bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third Party to a couple kissing on an old seat, And a bird gathering materials for the nest for the Word Eloquently new and abandoned to its delirious beat. O unworn world enrapture me, encapture me in a web Of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech, Feed the gaping need of my senses, give me ad lib To pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech For this soul need to be honoured with a new dress woven From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven. ----------------------------------------------- The vision of openness that Collins and Kavanagh have seen is not in opposition to having deeply held beliefs and being committed to them. It requires courage and commitment to have a completely open mind and heart and be able to accept others as they are. This church has, as far as I've known it (which is the guts of ten years now) been good at allowing spiritual enquiry in an open and human way. A large part of the credit for this must go to our Minister Bill Darlison for his strong yet gentle leadership and guidance, we owe him a great debt. Credit must also go to the present members who have protected and encouraged the spirit of free thinking. Thinking, and sometimes more importantly, feeling your way through to your own view of what God is or isn't for you can be a difficult journey and a daunting task. Those who went before us, such as William Robertson, paid dearly for their free thinking. Jobs have been lost, people have been pilloried by society and of course some have even lost their lives through their strong religious convictions. It is important that we do not forget them and whenever possible celebrate their lives, without them we would not be able to sit here with the freedom that we now have. We have much to learn from people like William Robertson. I believe that the main lesson I have learnt is not that they arrived at the conclusion that God is One but there is great reward in having the courage and commitment to finding your own spiritual truth, be that the realisation that you accept the oneness of God or the Trinity; that you accept that there is a higher power or you accept that there is none. Whether you find solace in Christianity or not or in theism or not, is less important than finding courage and commitment within yourself and sticking to it. Over the past ten years or so I've had a fair few people ask me what Unitarianism is and what Unitarians believe in. Most are asking out of a genuine willingness and desire to understand, some out of mild curiosity and an eagerness to be polite and a few out of downright hostility; which I take to come from fear of the unknown. When I tell people that we have no creed and take our inspiration from all religions and none I sometimes hear the dreaded words 'a la carte.' 'A la carte' is is an expression I'm fast beginning to despise in a religious context. It's mostly used by people who are smug in what they've been told to believe. They are the ones that know the truth, and as your truth is different, you don't actually know the truth at all. When I tell people that we take our inspiration from all religions and none sometimes a la carte is accompanied by a comment like, 'well, that's not really a religion at all is it?', which isn't so much a question as a statement. Either way there's a general implication that they know better than you and you are a creature to be pitied. Worst of all for me is the suggestion that being a Unitarian, being open to the spirit of life and the eternal no matter where or how it comes, lacks any kind of conviction or commitment; certainly for this Unitarian the opposite is true. I agonise over the bigger questions in life, perhaps too much at times. I have for years now been committed to a deeply spiritual existence, whatever form that may take. Given the spirit here it's clear there are many more members who are as equally committed, and given the numbers joining there are plenty of others committed to seeking the truth for themselves. Being a Unitarian for me is not about lacking in commitment, in fact the opposite is true. There is no compunction to come to this church other than the desire of the individual for spiritual enquiry. No Minister or member is going to berate anyone for not attending church on a Sunday, or has the right to. The devil will not take your soul if you don't have faith in a particular God or creed or if you don't believe in God at all. But a word of warning here too. Many in other churches, and I suppose I'm largely talking about the Catholic church, given that it's had such a profound influence over the country we live in, who do believe in a particular creed have arrived at that belief by working things through for themselves. Let us not get too smug in our own way. For me religion is not about right and wrong, and that is the difficulty I have with Martin's perspective, because if you state that a particular theology is right you are automatically saying that those who disagree with your view are wrong. The trouble with a frame of mind like that, is that by dint you exclude. Being involved in the Unitarian Church and its history of religious inquiry is something I'm proud of. I'm also proud of the fact that we welcome people of other faiths into this church. This was brought home to me as recently as last weekend when Joanna and I went to Belfast to witness the ordination of Chris Hudson at All Souls church on Elmwood Avenue. By far the most moving part of the ceremony for me was the laying on of hands as Chris knelt at the front of the church. There were, as you would expect, a number of Non Subscribing Presbyterian Ministers there and our own Bill Darlison, but there was also a Catholic Nun and Priest. It's this sort of openness, and indeed oneness, that I yearn for and to think that I'm part of this does my soul good. To finish, I would like to come back to William Robertson in as much to say that he was a man of courage who thought and felt his own way to spiritual freedom. He was a spiritual pioneer who set an example to those of us who would seek our own roads and it was him and people like him who have shown the way, it is right that we should honour him as a community and as individuals. I believe that the best way I can do that, is not to be led blindly by his vision but to open my eyes to my own vision. This church has warmly and wholeheatredly encouraged me to do exactly that; may it continue to do that for many more to come.
Keith Troughton
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