The Western Union INVITES you to visit us in the West Country.
Our special event this summer is the visit of Rev Maria Pap and family in July/August for a month. We would be delighted if you are able to attend any of her events, or otherwise to visit or attend any of our chapels when you next visit the West Country.
 |
Rev Maria Pap (right)
with husband Laszlo and daughter Abigail
|
Schedule for Rev Maria Pap’s Visit
During her visit,
Maria will have a Mobile Phone: 07532 255 505 (a British Pay-as-go mobile on
the Orange network) if you need to contact her.
Please attend and
encourage friends and contacts to attend, as many of her events as
practical. She will make a different
presentation or address (sermon) on each occasion. I have seen several of these. Her information and ideas are very
interesting and well worth hearing.
I hope Rev Maria Pap
and family (husband Laszlo, daughter Abigail (17)) will also visit to see and
photograph most or all the other churches in the Western Union . Details still to be arranged.
|
Thu 17 Jul
|
07.45 arr.
|
M&J Howarth SN8 1UD
01672 515670
|
|
Fri 18 Jul
|
Drive
to Sidmouth
|
R&V Crick
EX10 8BP
01395 519292
|
|
Sat 19 Jul
|
Sidmouth Ch EX10 8EN
1200 to 1600
WU Welcome Event & talk by Rev Pap.
Drive to Cheddar
|
M&MMF Cheddar BS27 3RA
01934 842273
|
|
Sun 20 Jul
|
|
Ditto
|
|
Mon 21 Jul
|
|
Ditto
|
|
Tue 22 Jul
|
|
Ditto
|
|
Wed 23 Jul
|
|
Ditto
|
|
Thu 24 Jul
|
Drive to
|
A Loveys PL13
1LF
01503 269330
|
|
Fri 25 Jul
|
|
Ditto
|
|
Sat 26 Jul
|
|
Ditto
|
|
Sun 27 Jul
|
|
Ditto
|
|
Mon 28 Jul
|
|
Ditto
|
|
Tue 29 Jul
|
Drive to
Cheddar
|
M&MMF Cheddar
BS27 3RA
01934 842273
|
|
Wed 30 Jul
|
|
|
|
Thu 31 Jul
|
|
|
|
Fri 1 Aug
|
|
B&B Trowbridge
|
|
Sat 2 Aug
|
Evening event at
church
|
Ditto
|
|
Sun 3 Aug
|
Trowbridge Ch BA14 8LX
1100 Service
|
Rev L Latham
BS10 6NX
0117 9507906
|
|
Mon 4 Aug
|
(Abigail to Hucklow 0900) Evening event at Frenchay
|
Ditto
|
|
Tue 5 Aug
|
|
M&MMF Winscombe BS25 1BU
01934 842273
|
|
Wed 6 Aug
|
|
Ditto
|
|
Thu 7 Aug
|
|
Ditto
|
|
Fri 8 Aug
|
(Abigail back 1800)
|
Ditto
|
|
Sat 9 Aug
|
|
D&A Kennard DT6 3SZ
01308 485529
|
|
Sun 10 Aug
|
Bridport Ch DT6 3JU
1100 Service
|
|
|
Mon 11 Aug
|
To Avebury and meet some members of Cirencester
Fellowship
|
M&J Howarth SN8
1UD
01672 515670
|
|
Tue 12 Aug
|
Visit
|
M&J Howarth
|
|
Wed 13 Aug
|
To
|
|
Come and sample the delights of the West Country!
If you’re planning a holiday in the West Country this summer, why not drop in on one of the Western Union Unitarian Chapels during your stay?
This summer, in addition to their normal pattern of worship, the Western Union chapels will be playing host to Rev. Maria Pap from the Transylvanian Unitarian Church, who will be leading worship and giving talks across the region.
The West Country boasts miles and miles of rugged coastline: take a walk along any stretch of the coastal path, and you’ll discover hidden coves, cobalt blue lagoons, golden sandy beaches, waterfalls with streams trickling down to the sea, and strange, imposing rock formations, crafted by the unrelenting hand of the Atlantic. Or if walking’s not in your remit, try taking an open-top bus trip around the coast. Stop off at Marazion and hop across the causeway to St Michael’s Mount; visit Penzance, Landsend, the wonderful art galleries of St Ives, or take in a play at the Minack Theatre, the amphitheatre style open-air playhouse, built into the Cornish cliffs, overlooking the sea.
As well as boasting some of the best surf in the country, Cornwall is also home to the Jamaica Inn, the setting for Daphne du Maurier’s spooky novel of the same name, or travel inland to the Eden Project: the largest indoor rainforest in the world.
The Doone Valley on the Somerset / Devon border was the dramatic setting for R.D Blackmore’s romantic tale of Lorna Doone and the wilds of Exmoor still have the power to captivate the imagination. Or visit Glastonbury Tor in Somerset; an ancient site of religious pilgrimage. Further up into the West Country, as Britain’s fifth biggest city, Bristol boasts an array of historical and cultural intrigues. And just along the A4 from Bristol we have Bath, with its regal Georgian architecture, the setting for many a scene from Jane Austen’s novels, as well as the fascinating history of Bath’s Roman Spa. Or there’s the Jurassic coast of Dorset and East Devon, spectacular scenery – England’s first designated World Heritage Site.
And what trip to the West Country would be complete without indulging in a cream-tea?! With real Devonshire clotted cream! Enjoy it at one of the many idyllic fishing villages dotted around the West Country’s miles of coastline, or even upon taking a boat trip to Lundy Island – the dramatic rock-outcropping where the Bristol Channel meets the Atlantic off the North Devon Coast. And if you’re coming during the first week in August you might want to check out the Sidmouth Folk Festival!
For further information on visiting the West Country go to www.visitsouthwest.co.uk and for further information on Western Union events, including information on all our chapels, see www.westunitarians.org.uk, or contact our Western Union President, Dr. Martin Fieldhouse, on 01934 842273, Email: pyrenmount@btopenworld.com
Highlights of Maria’s Visit
Sat 19th July noon-4pm in Sidmouth:
Western Union Welcome Event
Sun 20th July 11am Service at Taunton
Sun 27th July 11am Service at Plymouth
Sun 3rd Aug 10.30am Service at Trowbridge & 6pm Service at Unitarian Meeting Bristol
Sun 10th Aug 11am Service at Bridport
Further information on Maria’s Visit
Maria will be accompanied on the visit by her husband Laszlo and her 17-year old daughter Abigail, who will be attending the youth event ‘5 Days Away’ at Hucklow, during their stay. Maria will be speaking on a different topic at every service she leads in the Western Union, as well as at the various speaking events which are currently being lined up. Themes for her addresses will include the role of women in the Church; the structure of the Unitarian Church in Transylvania; the history and future of the relationship between British and Transylvanian Unitarians; forms of worship in the Transylvanian Unitarian Church; and the theology of Transylvanian Unitarianism. There are plans to publish Maria’s addresses in a booklet to commemorate her visit.
Transylvanian / British Unitarianism
As those of you who have studied the history of Unitarianism will know, our movement in Britain owes much to the origins of Unitarianism in the middle-Europe of the sixteenth century. It was the theologian David Ferencz, who influenced the Transylvanian King John Sigismund II to issue the Edict of Torda in 1568, which proclaimed religious toleration throughout the land: an event which we Western Unitarians are hoping to commemorate annually by celebrating the second Sunday in January as Religious Freedom Sunday, adopting an idea recently put forward by Bill Darlison. Also from the hotbed of theological dissent which brought forth the Edict of Torda, came the Racovian Catechism in 1605, a distinctly Unitarian philosophy of Christianity, inspired by the writings of Faustus Socinus in Poland. It was John Biddle in the seventeenth century who took up this line of Unitarian thinking, and translated the Racovian Catechism into English. Thus Unitarian theology spread to England from Europe, and inspired the likes of Theophilus Lindsey and Joseph Priestly, who went on to establish the first avowedly Unitarian churches in Britain and America. Maria’s visit will allow us a unique opportunity to compare how the Unitarian movements in Transylvania and Britain have developed in the intervening time, allowing us to explore such issues at the ordination of women, doctrinal orthodoxy, religious freedom, and how the movement managed to survive behind the Iron Curtain – religion in a time of political oppression, so recent in our history.
Looking ahead
A new Unitarian Fellowship has recently been founded in Glastonbury, and there are plans to form one in Cornwall. If anyone in Cornwall is interested please email anthony_loveys@yahoo.co.uk. The Western Union Annual Meeting is on 6th June in Plymouth, to which any holiday-makers would be most welcome.
- Bridgwater Unitarians, Christ Church Unitarian Chapel, Dampiet Street, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 3LZ
- Bridport Unitarians, The Chapel in the Garden, 49 East Street, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3JX
- Bristol Unitarians, Frenchay Chapel, Beckspool Road, Frenchay, Bristol, BS16 1ND
- Unitarian Meeting Bristol, Brunswick Square , Bristol BS2 8PE
- Cirencester Unitarian Fellowship, Meeting at Friends' Meeting House, 53 Thomas Street, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 2BA
- Crewkerne Unitarian Church, Hermitage Street, Crewkerne, Somerset TA18 8ES
- Cullompton Unitarian Chapel, Pound Square, Cullompton, Devon EX15 1DN
- Plymouth Unitarian Church, Notte Street , Plymouth, Devon PL1 2AG
- Sidmouth Old Meeting All Saints Road, Sidmouth, Devon EX10 8ESL
- Taunton Unitarians, Mary Street , Taunton, Somerset TA1 3PE
- Torquay Unitarians, Montpellier Street, Torquay, Devon TQ1 1DL
- Trowbridge Unitarians, 45 Seymour Road, Trowbridge, Wiltshire BA14 8LX
