In his book "The End of Theology - and the Task of Thinking About God." George Pattison, an Oxford theologian and canon at Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford, suggests that in our, increasingly complex, multi-racial and multi-religious world, the only way to continue the difficult tasking of trying to talk about God is to do so in the form of dialogue; in dialogue with sceptics and secularists and in dialogue with other religions.
Most importantly, this dialogue must be undertaken, not simply as a political gesture, aimed at getting agreement for a position already decided upon; the dialogue is integral to the emerging nature of the truth. Never being able to give a single, simple answer to a question should not be considered a failure, it should be recognised that, this is just as it should be.
My late aunt was an active member of a Hindu ashram in London for many years, I never talked to her in great depth about the particular beliefs of the ashram, but I know that, having distanced herself from the institutions of this community, she continued for many years to use the spiritual practices of prayer and meditation which she had learned there.
I was very struck by the fact that, in times of uncertainty or petition, she made offerings of flowers and incense to the Goddess. I’m not sure to which Goddess in the Indian pantheon, but that’s not important. What is important is the experience, that as a woman, and as a mother, she could come to the Goddess, and relate to the Goddess about the deepest things in her life, which she probably could not do in the same way to a male image God. This was an experiential and not an intellectual act.
I want to share with you some of her own words about her experience the Goddess – she wrote:
“I really believe nothing
Except that belief is not required.
Only experience counts.

So after the incense
And the little gift of flowers
Somehow I notice, I experience,
Deep, far away, like a glimmer within,
A tiny sense of having come home.
I do experience this.
Fortunately, I have no need to account for it.”

Maud Robinson Dublin Unitarian Church