So, there we all were, holding hands under the enthusiastic direction of Rev. Cal Courtney, singing lustily about a hotel somewhere down there in New Orleans.
The occasion was, of course, the launch of Bill Darlison’s new book ‘The Gospel and the Zodiac. The Secret Truth about Jesus.’ The pile of books had diminished, and those who hadn’t rushed off to read it were celebrating. The gathered talent was impressive: we had David and Josh on the keyboards, and Joe sang thoughtfully to his guitar, Beta gave us a lovely haunting song in her native Czech, and Denis Conway had us in tears over the Cremation Sam McGee. But in the end, when everyone who had a song in them had sung it, we all agreed that the performance of the evening was Charlie McCaw’s full-action recitation of Jimmy O’Dea’s skit on Cinderella.
As I looked around our ever widening circle I began to wonder what it was that held us all together. If the Irish Times were to align any two of us ‘Head 2 Head’ in its opinion feature on a Monday, our differences would be exposed in a moment. I think it was Groucho Marks who said that he would never belong to a club that would have him as a member. Good heavens, I might be holding hands with an atheist like me, or with a spiritualist, or dare I say it, an astrologer. The trouble with any head-to-head debate is that it exposes our differences rather than our similarities. See it all in the body language: head-to-head like rams doing battle, or face-to-face like an arguing couple. It makes for good journalism but it does nothing to hold people together.
So, how is it that we as Unitarians appear to be able to hold together despite having such huge differences in our beliefs? I think the answer is that, instead of meeting Head 2 Head, we prefer to explore our differences Back 2 Back. Think again of the body language. If I stand back-to-back with you, it means that I trust you, I am letting you into my space, but I’m not intruding into yours. It is also a position of defence. I may be unable to follow you into the extremes of your beliefs, but I am prepared to defend your right to express them. As Unitarians we have no creed, but as Bill pointed out at our Membership Service recently, we do have certain core values. These give us a point of security from which we can then explore each other’s views. I think of our meeting of minds as series of widening circles: first is the sharing of common experience; then comes an exploration of our common beliefs, which may well then diverge as we find our credulity being stretched. We may even reach the point at which we conclude that person we are talking to is (as a member of our family once memorably put it) ‘clearly nuts.’ But wait... all is not lost, because it is at this moment, when we are liberated from any obligation to believe the unbelievable, that we can make a quantum leap, stop asking ‘Is it true?’ and start asking ‘What does it all mean?’
Perhaps the publication of Bill’s book is a case in point. Whether we believe in astrology or not, Bill has revealed the possibility that Mark’s Gospel is modelled on the Zodiac, which in itself is a metaphor for all the traits and vagaries of mankind. Forget the stars; this is a story of all humanity.
So, with these thoughts in mind, how do we see each other, singing our hearts out in the Damer Hall? I’m afraid there can be only one answer and that is: ‘Clearly nuts,’ but, you see, that can be a good beginning.
Aubrey Flegg.