Neither Belief nor Ritual but Spirit and Love

I hold this most sacred duty – the gathering together of a number of people who shall so agree to live by the best they know, that they shall be free to live by the best they know. – DH Lawrence

Lawrence finishes his reading by saying that the “religion … must be practised.” For many people religion is based around a set of beliefs, or perhaps ritual. This chapel and movement...
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Building towards, building on, building with Peace

“Peace is not the absence of war; it is virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.”’ – Baruch Spinoza

The suggestion that peace is about presence rather than merely an absence is found in many forms: a presence of justice, of Christ, of God, creativity. Perhaps the most well-known is Martin Luther King Jr’s “True peace is not merely the...
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Drawing from Our Well

‘What need is there for profundity; everything I need is here.’ – Kenneth Collier, Garden Zen

I spent last week in Derbyshire attending Hucklow Summer School. This is a retreat and programme for Unitarians (and others). The days begin with a talk and lead on to engagement groups, singing, walking, writing, dancing, eating, chatting, communing. Anything for which we are inspired,...
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Job Opportunity! – Chapel Administrator

Might you be just the person we are looking for?

We wish to recruit a CHAPEL ADMINISTRATOR

for Cross Street Unitarian Chapel

in the centre of Manchester

This is non-residential, 16 hrs a week contract

Working variable hours across any

4...
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Seeing Through the Darkness

Because we are imperfect and love so Deeply we will never have enough days, We need the gift of starting over, beginning Again: just this constant good, this Saving hope. – Nancy Shaffer, “Because We spill not only milk”

Forrest Church, an eminent Unitarian minister, spoke of Nancy Shaffer as embodying a world “riddled with epiphanies, her...
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Expressing a moment of the eternal

“Art is like beginning a sentence before you know its ending. The risks are obvious: you may never get to the end … or having gotten there, you may not have said anything. This is probably not a good idea in public speaking, but it’s an excellent idea in making art.” – David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art and Fear

Bayles and Orland are writing about art, but I...
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