I was pleased to send nearly £80 [collected at Bright Lights] to Oxfam for the Haiti appeal to help families as they recover from the earthquake. This sum can supply eight families with basic water kits. Both chapels have also had collections. Thank you for your gifts, including prayers, love and concerns for all those suffering from natural and man-made disasters.
~ Lindy
How to donate to Haiti
Western Union workshops
Worship Workshop at UMB, 13th February:
This workshop will give us an opportunity to explore different styles of worship with two professional ministers (Joy Croft and Linda Hart) to lead us.
If you would like to attend, please contact the secretary of the Western Union, Anne Ashley (01752 895395) as soon as possible. Coffee/tea and biscuits will be provided, but please bring a packed lunch.
Leading Services - a short course for beginners
Richard Lovis of the Plymouth congregation is proposing a course, of perhaps 3 or 4 one day sessions, for people who would be interested in some training in leading services. It would be based on the book ʻTaking the Serviceʼ, which he wrote a few years ago with Rev. Peter Sampson. The course would probably take place in the spring at the Cullompton chapel. However, Richard urgently needs to know of people who might be interested in attending this course. Please contact him on (01752 225285, rlovis@talktalk.net) as soon as you can to learn more.
Richard emphasises that this will be a course for beginners - more people willing to take services throughout the Western Union are badly needed. Later in the year the Western Union will organise a course for more experienced service takers. This will tie in with the Unitarian national ʻWorship Studiesʻ course.
This workshop will give us an opportunity to explore different styles of worship with two professional ministers (Joy Croft and Linda Hart) to lead us.
If you would like to attend, please contact the secretary of the Western Union, Anne Ashley (01752 895395) as soon as possible. Coffee/tea and biscuits will be provided, but please bring a packed lunch.
Leading Services - a short course for beginners
Richard Lovis of the Plymouth congregation is proposing a course, of perhaps 3 or 4 one day sessions, for people who would be interested in some training in leading services. It would be based on the book ʻTaking the Serviceʼ, which he wrote a few years ago with Rev. Peter Sampson. The course would probably take place in the spring at the Cullompton chapel. However, Richard urgently needs to know of people who might be interested in attending this course. Please contact him on (01752 225285, rlovis@talktalk.net) as soon as you can to learn more.
Richard emphasises that this will be a course for beginners - more people willing to take services throughout the Western Union are badly needed. Later in the year the Western Union will organise a course for more experienced service takers. This will tie in with the Unitarian national ʻWorship Studiesʻ course.
From the minister
“Divinity is round us – never goneDear Friends,
From earth or star,
From life or death, from good or even wrong –
In all we are.”
[Hymns for Living: 52: Divinity is round us..]
I sometimes think that being a Unitarian, or becoming a Unitarian is a bit like falling in love and getting married!
That is for us new ones, and I include myself here.
We are so excited to find an open and free thinking church where we are not given creeds and rules to adhere to, where we are welcomed with open arms and encouraged to follow our own conscience in matters of belief, that it is easy to forget we are a diverse group and our differences can at times create challenges in our relationships with each other.
But, like a healthy marriage, that is the point when the real work begins…
It is also when we are able to explore with another person or group of people just where we differ, that our thoughts and understanding of what and who we are can be clarified.
It is when we take the risk of exploring with each other in love that we can discover that the person or people who seemed to be our opponents are in reality, our partners. We can learn from each other..
I was going to ask you how you are getting on with your New Year resolutions! According to a recent survey, 90% do not last for more than 5 days! Hopefully that 10% can still include us being open and learning from each other however different we are.
“Wait not at last in truth and love made whole your god to see,
In every timid, false or angered soul
Thereʼs love to free.”
[Hymns for Living: 52: Divinity is round us..]
Happy New Year
The Christmas Charity Bake Sale
It all started with a phone conversation - me and Kate (my sister) were discussing charities and finally we settled on two charities: Caring at Christmas and Operation Smile. We both wanted to do something for these charities, so we put both our talents together: Baking and creativity; and thatʼs what led us to doing our bake sale.
After spending one day looking at recipes and baking to our hearts' content we had a selection of spectacular cookies and were proud to know that we had raised £36 to be split between the two charities.
Sara Sherman
After spending one day looking at recipes and baking to our hearts' content we had a selection of spectacular cookies and were proud to know that we had raised £36 to be split between the two charities.
Sara Sherman
What is religion?
“To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious.”
In this sense I too am religious with the reservation that ʻcannot graspʼ does not have to mean ʻforever ungraspable.ʼ... But I prefer not to call myself religious because it is misleading. It is destructively misleading because, for the vast majority of people, ʻreligionʼ implies ʻsupernaturalʼ.
Services
February
Monday 1st Frenchay 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation group
Sunday 7th
Frenchay 10.30 am The Minister
UMB 3.30 pm The Minister
Flowers - Mr A Brown IM
Teas - Mrs A Sherman
UMB 3.30 pm The Minister
Flowers - Mr A Brown IM
Teas - Mrs A Sherman
Saturday 13th
UMB 11 am - 3.30 pm - Western Union ‘Worship Workshop’.
Sunday 14th
FRENCHAY 10.30 am Mr Frank Butler
No Service at UMB
No Service at UMB
Monday 15th
Frenchay 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation group
Sunday 21st
Frenchay 10.30 am The Minister
UMB 3.30 pm The Minister
Flowers - Mrs O Jennings IM
Teas - Mrs S Wildman
UMB 3.30 pm The Minister
Flowers - Mrs O Jennings IM
Teas - Mrs S Wildman
Sunday 28th
Frenchay 10.30 am Mr David Wright
UMB 3.00 - 5.00 pm ‘Bright Lights’
(A local artist will be with us - bring old clothing/covering!)
(A local artist will be with us - bring old clothing/covering!)
March
Please note - UMB services revert to 6 pm starting on 7th March
Monday 1st
Frenchay 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation group
Sunday 7th
Frenchay 10.30 am The Minister
UMB 6.00 pm The Minister
Flowers - Mrs R Raitt
Teas - Ms S Pugh
UMB 6.00 pm The Minister
Flowers - Mrs R Raitt
Teas - Ms S Pugh
Sunday 14th
Mothering Sunday
Frenchay 10.30 am The Minister
Monday 15th
Frenchay 10.30 am The Minister
No Service at UMB
Frenchay 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation group
Thursday 18th
Thursday 18th
Lord Mayor’s Civic Inter Faith Celebration - Council House, 7.30 pm.
Sunday 21st
Frenchay 10.30 am The Minister
UMB 6.00 pm The Minister
UMB 6.00 pm The Minister
Worship is...
Frenchay
- being with other Unitarians, each with their personal views and feelings about helping others and aiming for peace in our troubled world
- getting an uplift spiritually
- a time of quiet in the company of friends in a peaceful place
- gathering together in a common prayer
- tapping into a positive energy source, purer and better than found in everyday life;
- connecting with people who also seek a meaningful experience
- being part of a spiritual community
- opening my mind to what is real and part of God, not what is invented by man to control and manipulate!
- a feeling of inner peacefulness
- investigation of a personal dilemma in a wider context than that of oneʼs own spiritual resources
- finding God in music and poetry
- refocusing priorities with other people;
- asking for guidance and saying thank you
UMB
- the sense of awe and wonder I feel about each and every marvellous aspect of life and the Universe I encounter, that leaves me with the intention to find out and understand it if I can.
- a break from the ironing!
- community.
- contemplating the meaning of life, and understanding that there are things that we will never understand.
- being together with like-minded people; preparing for the week ahead.
- to relax.
- spending time with like-minded, caring people; a time for ME, to reflect and re-energise myself.
- sitting in my garden in awe of the wonder of creation.
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