John Donne (adapted)
No one is an
island, entire of itself; everyone is a piece of the continent, a part of
the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as
if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own
were;
From Roman’s 12:
we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others..
Story – Problems on the Ark - Pedro Pablo
Sacristán
Reading 1:
1 Corinthians 12: 12
– 26 Common English Bible
Reading 2:
Quarrelling Quail (The Shortest Distance – Bill Darlison)
Address:
When I am preparing a service I tend to
give it a name, a title that conveys something about the nature of the service
so that when I look back through my archives on the computer I have something
to inform me about what I have covered.
Today’s service could have had a choice of title; maybe that was why
there were three different opening sentences.
The first by John Donne, would have given
me “No one is an island”, suggesting that we need each other and each other’s
talents to make a success of what we do.
That if we are alone then we cannot achieve as much as if we work
together. And indeed, the two stories
reflected this idea. The animals on the ark
could not have mended the hole if they had not all worked together and that
included the least of the creatures and even those who were not on the ark
itself. And the quail could not have
lifted the nets that were capturing them if they hadn’t all pulled together. Life in church is a bit like that – it needs
all of us doing whatever it is we do, to keep the church going. No matter if all one does is attend on a
Sunday, because if people didn’t attend on the Sunday then where would we be?
But however good a title this was it was not quite right.
The second opening sentence was a quotation
from Romans and it set the scene for the first reading from Paul’s letter to
the Corinthians. That title would have
been “one body, many parts”. Here is
another apt description for a church, or a community. We all know, I hope, that each person in our
Community is important and that we need each other if the community is going to
survive or flourish. It echoes the no
one is an island thought and yet once again this title did not really seem
right.
Maybe it is because at the moment, although
I see the evidence of a loving community here in Rochdale in our own
congregation where we value each other, I don’t see it echoed within the wider
movement in the same way. I suppose a
lot of this stems from the recent General Assembly meetings and some of the
things that were said there. In her very
inspirational Anniversary Sermon, Rev Celia Cartwright said:
For a denomination not based on
required doctrine, we do a lot of bickering about the rights and wrongs of the
spiritual beliefs of others in our midst. Without a common enemy to overcome,
we have devolved to internal bickering and lost sight of our original purpose -
to be free to worship as our own conscience
dictates, with a tolerant understanding that this freedom belongs to all. I
sometimes wonder what's happened to our much-vaunted 'tolerance' when we, don't
all acknowledge the equal rights of the entire spectrum of Unitarian and Free
Christian faith.
And
I think this begins to sum up some of my disquiet and is why I chose my third
opening phrase by Maya Angelou, who speaks of a tapestry of diversity and yet
each thread of the tapestry being needed.
Celia’s remark about internal bickering highlights the fact that there
are some people in our movement who are not prepared to recognise the value of
our diversity. This was not only made
evident by things said at the GA but also it has crept onto that popular social
networking site ‘facebook’. Only a few
weeks ago it was a pleasant forum where I could engage with friends and
relatives in a relaxed and informal way, but recently one or two groups have
been created, there is the ‘Unitarian group’ the ‘UK Unitarian group’, the
‘2020 vision’ group, ‘British Unitarian & Free Christian’ group, etc – and
there are some quite disturbing arguments or discussions that appear on
them. I am beginning to think, along
with Celia that we are becoming less and less tolerant of each other. I think this is dangerous for the Unitarian
movement and its future. It is a bit
like those quails in the second reading.
When they worked together they managed to raise the nets and escape, but
once they started bickering, arguing amongst themselves they found they were
trapped once more.
So
here is the title I came up with for today’s address, “UNITED WE STAND. . .” – I didn’t complete
the phrase, because I am sure we all know how it continues – “. . . DIVIDED WE
FALL.”
The phrase
is illustrated in one of Aesop’s fables:
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A LION used
to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried
to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one
another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of
one of them. At last, however, they fell a-quarrelling among themselves, and
each went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field. Then the
Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all
four.
United they
stood – divided they fell!
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The phrase
also appears in the New Testament, albeit in slightly different language. Mark
3:25, "A house divided against itself cannot stand"
Returning
to Celia’s sermon, she says:
My congregation in Kendal includes,
Unitarian Christians, Pagans, Agnostics, a couple of Atheists, a Unitarian
Sikh, a couple of lapsed Catholics, a humanist or two and a fair number of
people who simply relish the idea of the spiritual journey that does not
require them to wear specific label. I have my own theological understanding
yet I need to speak to all these people, where they are, in order to fulfil my role as their minister. This
does not compromise my beliefs.
It allows me to explore my faith in the light of others' faith, and in the
light of new wisdom. It is not in agreeing with each other that we become strong,
but rather in the agreeing to be different, while remaining interested in each
other's spiritual and religious journey.
For a recent service at Kendal Chapel,
John Pickering wrote a reflection on the idea of 'Individual Spiritual
Journeys' in which he concludes, 'Doctrine
and dogma have divided people throughout history - but when our focus is on shared values:
compassion and understanding, we do not need to fear other beliefs for they are
all part of the rich diversity of humanity's spiritual journey. Once we
understand this, we are free to be who we are; free to build bridges between
people instead of walls. '
Wise words, these words from Celia and John,
but for me the question is when.
When will we begin to recognise, once
again, that we are a diverse group made up of many parts? That we are
one body? Surely this was what
Unitarianism was all about, recognising the worth of the individual and yet
embracing it within the fold.
In one of the groups on face-book,
I would love to think that Unitarians,
Universalists, Unitarian Universalists, Unitarian Christians and Unitarian
Anythings are aware our unity comes from seeing our different personal faith
and beliefs as being different responses to the same innate spirituality which
is a part of being human.
The challenge is to help others comprehend that
this lies at the heart of a much-needed and more uniting way of enabling
spiritual growth than the divisiveness inherent in seeking spiritual growth
only with others whose response to their spirituality involves faith-based
belief in one set of speculative answers to the big spiritual questions.
I see Unitarianism as having moved beyond being a
small part of one religion, and even beyond being a separate religion, to being
a broader and far more uniting approach to being human.
It is an approach which seeks to enable spiritual
growth - becoming less selfish, more caring human beings - by allowing every
human being to respond to our spirituality in their own way through the holding
of personal faith and beliefs which drive them, but in the company of others
who are responding in different ways and so learning how to avoid division and
to find unity in the Good which is within and around us.
At the
moment this general malaise has not found its way into our church, but there
are churches within the denomination where internal bickering is beginning to
be evident and this trend deeply disturbs me.
I came into Unitarianism to celebrate difference, not to question it and
certainly not to alienate through it.
Returning
to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, where he was speaking to a group of people
who were undergoing their own period of disagreement and intolerance, the
essence of his letter says that:
As in the
natural body of a person, the members should be closely united by the strongest
bonds of love; the good of the whole should be the object of all. All, in our
case, Unitarians are dependent one upon another; each is to expect and receive
help and respect from the rest.
I do not
want to define people with different titles such as, Unitarian Christians,
Unitarian Pagans, Unitarian Atheists, Unitarian Humanists or Unitarian Universalists. I do not want Unitarian Anythings, I want
just Unitarian – recognising that we are all different and that it doesn’t
matter that we are, in fact that it enriches us because we are.
So let us
then have more of the spirit of union within our religion once again. For
surely, no matter how diverse we are, “No one is an island” –we, whoever we
are, are part of one body, and as Aesop said:
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“UNITED WE
STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL.”
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And I don’t want us to fall, do you?
