Talking on Tolerance.
Sometimes, when the notices for the week are announced, you will hear that there is to be a meeting of the justice and peace desk. What is the justice and peace desk, you may wonder. Who attends these meetings, and what happens at them?
The justice and peace desk exists partly to raise the awareness of the congregation about social issues, either local, national or international, that the members feel should or could be addressed, and partly to create an opportunity for the members of the congregation who so wish to take action of some kind in order to ‘make a difference’.
As part of its awareness-raising activity the desk recently organized a series of lunchtime talks on the theme of tolerance. These were held in the church on the first Tuesday of March, April, May and June and were attended by an average of 50 people or so, about half of whom were congregation members. A series of excellent speakers presented their views, and representing as they did a wide variety of cultures and life experiences, the points they made were always interesting and often challenging. You will have read a synopsis of these ‘conversations’ in the subsequent issues of Oscailt, and also in a recent issue of The Inquirer, which published a full-page article about them written by Shari McDaid.
At the last meeting of the justice and peace desk we were reviewing the success of these conversations and it was felt that members of the congregation might like to continue the discussion in the pages of Oscailt. The topic is a critically important one, and becoming more so by the day. Tolerance, the great buzz-word of Unitarianism demands your attention more than ever.
Ideas and opinions have been presented to us – now, after a period of reflection on what was said, this is your chance to make your own contribution. Whether you attended the talks or not doesn’t matter. Your ideas may have changed or been modified, or perhaps your viewpoint was not aired. So this is an invitation from the justice and peace desk to carry on the conversation.
Jennifer Flegg
For the justice and peace desk.