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Since leaving Trinity College Dublin (where I studied Zoology) in 1989, I have been a teacher, an actor, and a PR executive, as well as a waitress, a chamber maid, a nanny, a tomato picker, a life-drawing model, and a petrol-pump attendant. What, in a harmonious universe, could all of these diverse occupations be leading to? My true calling is obviously to be a minister of religion! I grew up in Galway. My mother was Catholic and my father Anglican, which was quite a big deal in the 1970s. As a child I attended Catholic and Anglican churches alternately, which gave me a healthy disrespect for any idea of denominational differences. In my late teens I drifted away from church-going, but at the age of about 23 my deep need to explore the spiritual dimension of life led me to try out various religious communities, including an Evangelical Christian community, Quakers, Anglicans, and Unitarians, as well as dipping a toe into Raja Yoga meditation, Transcendental Meditation and Tibetan Buddhism, until I finally realised that my spiritual home was with the Unitarians. The Unitarian church in Dublin offered me a liberal approach to religion which I was able to embrace without making creedal statements. Although the Bible remains a significant spiritual resource for me, I’m not sure whether I can actually call myself a Christian. I’m still pondering that one. I feel strongly called to what I have come to understand as a ‘ministry of uncertainty’. I see around me many people who, like me, want to open up their lives to God (however that term is understood), but who cannot accept the creeds of the Christian church or other faith traditions. My road to Unitarian ministry has taken many twists and turns. Unsure what to do with my degree in Zoology, I took a FAS course in fashion design and sewing, which led to work experience in the costume department of the Olympia. This in turn led me to spend a year performing with a children’s theatre company called ‘The Best Medicine’, taking weekly interactive shows around Dublin’s children’s hospitals. This was followed by a year and a half at a drama school based in the Inchicore VEC, but I realised that I would never be tough enough to survive the life of an actor. At a loss for what to do next, I responded to an advertisement for English teachers in Japan. After two enjoyable years spent teaching adults and children in a very rural area there, I decided that if I could teach in Japan I could surely do it at home, so I returned to Dublin and did a HDipEd – which turned out to be a big mistake. There were no teaching jobs in Dublin, so I went over to London to do some supply teaching, followed by a term at a very tough comprehensive school in Essex. This experience left me with a deep respect for those gifted teachers who can make a difference to children’s lives in very challenging environments but, it nearly cost me my sanity, and I returned to Dublin with my self-confidence in tatters. I then took an administrative job with the Irish College of General Practitioners, which over the following five years I developed into the position of Communications Officer, responsible for all aspects of media relations and publications for the college. It was during that time that I became more committed to the Unitarian church in Dublin, doing a course in lay-preaching before – encouraged by Rev.Bill Darlison – deciding to train for professional ministry. At Harris Manchester College, Oxford, I completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Theology followed by an MTh in Applied Theology. During this time I spend a year as student minister to the Northampton Unitarians, a small but strong and inspirational fellowship, resolutely keeping our chalice flame alight in the Midlands of England. The subject of my Masters dissertation was Unitarian liturgy; I asked whether aesthetics or ethics has been the main driving force in the creation of Unitarian liturgy in the past and now. Responses to a survey sent to all serving Unitarian ministers in Britain encouraged me that there is a very health balance between the desire to create beautiful celebrations of spirituality with the desire to motivate action for change in our world. Personally, I acknowledge the role of social and political issues in public worship, but believe that they should grow out of the spiritual experience that is at the core of the service, rather than forming the central theme. My prime aim is to help to create what Quakers call ‘the gathered community’, whose members feel a deep sense of connection to each other, to the divine and to the web of humanity and all life. Concerning the future of Unitarianism in Ireland and in Britain, although numerical growth is important, what is more important is the creation and nurturing of communities of people – large or small – who are exploring the life of the spirit together, at a deep level. After leaving Harris Manchester College I spent nine-months as part-time assistant minister with First Parish, Bedford, Massachusetts, a large and lively Unitarian Universalist congregation near Boston; combining this work with part-time study at Harvard Divinity School. This was a wonderful opportunity to explore the working of our sister organisation across the pond. The main impression that I came away with, was of an organisation which, in general has moved further towards humanism than is the general rule in Britain and Ireland. I think that this is largely a reaction against the very obvious dominance of more fundamentalist churches in the USA; they seem to have sent many thinking people running in retreat from all forms of spirituality. At my first service in Bedford my stated intention of exploring concepts like God and prayer was met with quite a frosty response. However at the end of my year in Bedford I received many expressions of thanks for opening up a new world of possibilities for spiritual exploration. I took up the position of minister with the Unitarians in Edinburgh at the beginning of October 2008, and was officially welcomed at our Service of Mutual Commitment to Ministry on 21st February this year. It has been a good start and I have high hopes for a fruitful association with this, the most recent of the beloved communities with whom I have been privileged to walk with, on part of their journeys. For three weeks in July I am very excited about returning to Dublin as visiting minister. I hope that during that short time we can exchange ideas, share experiences and enrich each other, as well as having fun together. In particular I’m looking forward to joining again in your very healthy practice of going for a good pint of Guinness in the Stephen’s Green Hotel after the service; I hope that lot’s of you will be able to join me there.
Rev.Maud Robinson |