Contents
1. New fellowship launched
2. Executive Committee Key Messages
3. Retirement of John Crosskey
4. Unitarian Psychical Studies Conference
5. Governance Seminar – Sat 6 July 2019
6. Ministry Inquiry Day – Tues 16 July 2019
7. FDA 2019
8. Sugar Mouse Diabetes Appeal - Helping friends and family with diabetes
9. Ministers’ Blogs
10. Upcoming Events
11. Social Media
12. In The News
1. New fellowship launched
A new Unitarian fellowship has been launched in Moray, Scotland. The Forres and Findhorn Fellowship held its first meeting on Sunday 9th June and intends to meet on the second Sunday of each month. For more information please contact Pip Lee Meer on 07525 935 937 or by email, or you can check out the fellowship’s Facebook page.
2. Executive Committee Key Messages
Here are the key messages from the meeting of the Executive Committee (EC) on Friday 17th May 2019.
1. This was the first meeting of the newly convened and fully elected Executive Committee. Marion Baker was appointed as Convenor. Rev Celia Cartwright was welcomed as the new General Assembly President, and Liz Slade was welcomed as the new Chief Officer.
2. Rev Sarah Tinker joined the meeting to facilitate a discussion of covenant for how the group would wish to work together, and to envisage what it looks like for our collaboration to be beneficial for congregations, those who are not yet Unitarians, and for our wider society.
3. Liz Slade shared her reflections on her first weeks in the role of Chief Officer, including what she has learned from the wider community on her District visits and at the Annual Meetings.
4. The EC reviewed the Annual Meetings, sharing what they liked, what they wished for, and imagining ‘what if’ for future years. This feedback will be shared, along with the survey results from all participants, at the Annual Meetings Panel later in June.
5. The EC approved the inclusion of Rev Mark Hutchinson on the General Assembly’s Roll of Ministers, with probationary status, and for presentation at the General Assembly Annual Meetings in 2020.
3. Retirement of John Crosskey
The following message comes from Essex Hall:
Dear Friends, you will already be aware, from the announcement at the 2019 Annual Meetings, that John Crosskey is retiring from his post of Finance Officer of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches on 28th June 2019. John indicated at the beginning of the year of his wish and need to spend more time at home with his parents - Henry and Sheila Crosskey. John has worked at Essex Hall for over thirty-three years! During that time, he has seen many colleagues come and go.
We now invite you to show your appreciation of John’s loyalty and long service to the GA by sending a greeting message for his farewell day (by emailing Audrey Longhurst) and / or by contributing to a ‘Thank You Testimonial Collection’.
Please send cheques by Friday 26th July 2019 made out to “The General Assembly of Unitarian & FCC” with ‘John Crosskey Collection’ written on the back of the cheque, to: Unitarian Finance Department, Essex Hall, 1 Essex Street, LONDON, WC2R 3HY. If you would like a remittance acknowledgement email, please also write your email address on the back of the cheque.
If you prefer to send a contribution by direct bank transfer, please use the following GA Bank details: HSBC Fleet Street, Sort Code: 40-02-07, Account No. 30375284, using the reference ‘JX Testimonial’ with the payment. Please then email Audrey Longhurst with the amount, date it was sent, and the payee so that we can work out who payments are from afterwards.
4. Unitarian Psychical Studies Conference
You are invited to attend ‘Aspects of the Afterlife’, a joint conference of the Unitarian Society for Psychical Studies, Churches Fellowship for Psychical & Spiritual Studies and Quaker Fellowship for Afterlife Studies, at 11.00am on Saturday 13th July 2019 at Golders Green Unitarian Church, 31½ Hoop Lane, London, NW11 8BS.
Speakers will include Dr Santha Bhattacharji on 'Spiritual Work in the Afterlife', Cherry Simpkin on 'Animals and the Afterlife', and Matthew Arnold on 'A Christian response to the paranormal'. Tickets are £10.00 on the door and all profits will go to the Gandhi Schweitzer Appeal of Animal Free Research UK. Please bring your own food and refreshments.
5. Governance Seminar – Sat 6 July 2019
You are invited to this seminar, exploring how the recent status of Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIO) could be a governance model for chapels and congregations in the future. Speakers include community building experts, legal opinion, and those who have already made the move. The seminar will be held on Saturday 6th July 2019, from 10.30am (for 11.00am start) to 3.30pm at Birmingham New Meeting, B16 8BL. Please book your place by 29th June. Advance booking is essential.
For more information and to book, please contact Ministry and Congregational Support Officer, Simon Bland on 0115 888 2955 or by email.
6. Ministry Inquiry Day – Tues 16 July 2019
Would you like to know more about training as a Unitarian & Free Christian Minister and about working with our congregations? The Ministry Strategy Group will be holding an Inquiry Day for people who are at an early stage of considering this possibility as well as for those who are almost ready to make an application for training.
There’ll be a chance to meet our College Tutors, Simon Bland (our Ministry & Congregational Support Officer) and Rev Sarah Tinker, Chair of the Interview Panel. The event will be held from 11.00am (for 11.30am start) to 3.30pm on Tuesday 16th July 2019 at Birmingham New Meeting, B16 8BL. Please book your place by 9th July. Advance booking is essential.
For more information and to book, please contact Ministry and Congregational Support Officer, Simon Bland on 0115 888 2955 or by email.
7. FDA 2019
FDA (Five Days Away) is the Youth Programme's flagship youth event and is for 12-17 year olds. Enjoy five days at The Nightingale Centre right in the heart of the Peak District.
This year’s theme is ‘What I believe and why I believe it’ and we'll be exploring the beliefs we hold and the reasons behind them. Join us for creativity, discussion, workshops, free time, meditation, a day of outdoor pursuits, cartooning and time to learn more about ourselves, each other and the universe. Everyone welcome – non-Unitarians, Unitarians and people of all faiths.
The cost of the holiday is £125. Please book by 15th July. Full information can be found on the website or by emailing Youth Officer Gavin Howell.
8. Sugar Mouse Diabetes Appeal - Helping friends and family with diabetes
In 2015, our General Assembly passed a resolution on Testing On Animals (Resolution 4, 2015) to “advance non-animal medical research and in so doing help save human and animal lives.” The following appeal comes from Rev Feargus O’Connor. Our current President, Rev. Celia Cartwright, Vice-president, Anne Mills, and eleven former Presidents are among the 39 signatories.
“Animal Free Research UK has launched a major appeal to fund breakthrough research that has the potential to change millions of people’s lives and help save our National Health Service billions of pounds every year. Animal Free Research UK researchers have recently made a hugely significant discovery which has the potential to transform the way we treat type 2 diabetes, a chronic condition currently present (either diagnosed or undiagnosed) in an estimated 5% of the UK population. As well as its effect on those with the condition type 2 diabetes – and the associated health issues like blindness, circulation problems and kidney failure – it has been estimated to cost the NHS £10 billion every year. The charity’s ‘Sugar Mouse Diabetes Appeal’ is aimed at everyone who wants to see this lifelong and life changing condition beaten with world-class research – and delivered without any experiments on animals.
Professor Lorna Harries and Nicola Jeffery at the University of Exeter Medical School have been looking at the mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes. After discovering evidence that a proportion of the beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin aren’t dying but are changing into other types of cells Lorna and Nicola wanted to find out the reasons why the cells alter their identity in this way. But they’ve gone above and beyond this – and have discovered that this transformational process can be reversed, which could soon lead the way to treatments that will cure the condition. Lorna and Nicola have developed a new scientific methodology using human pancreatic beta cell lines, which have been grown in the laboratory without the use of any animals. This is cutting-edge research at its best – their exciting discoveries would never have been made if they had carried out conventional cruel experiments on mice as they are so different from humans. Not a single mouse has been killed during their research.
The charity urgently needs to raise £60,000 to provide funding for the first of a further three years of this ground-breaking research project, so Lorna and Nicola can take their discovery forward – and closer to a cure. We do hope you can help by sending a donation to: Sugar Mouse Diabetes Appeal, Animal Free Research UK, Portmill House, Portmill Lane, Hitchin, Hertfordshire SG5 IDJ. Please make all cheques payable to Animal Free Research UK. Thank you. Since its foundation in 2016 the Unitarian Dahar Keable Humane Research Fund of Animal Free Research UK has raised £24,832 for cancer, diabetes and other humane research appeals.”
9. Ministers’ Blogs
‘To Life: I could do with a bit more Zeal’, ‘How Do We Ask The Beautiful Questions’ and ‘Memory is a Mystery to Me’ by Rev Danny Crosby
‘Building Bridges’, ‘Daydreams and Visions’, ‘A Travelling Companion’ and ‘Living In The Moment’ by Rev Sue Woolley
‘Not The Beginning Of A New Religion (Re-Ligio) But Its End (De-Ligio)?—A New-Materialist Reading Of Pentecost’, ‘Not “Ascension” But A Mingling In The Weather-World?—An Ascension Sunday Address’ and ‘What Can We Learn From Tying A Rope Around The World?’ by Rev Andrew Brown
‘The Five Points of Unitarian Christianity’ and ‘Emerson opened the door - we didn't go through’ by Rev Stephen Lingwood
‘Pneumanosophy’, ‘The Green Snake And The Beautiful Lily’, ‘Philip And The Eunuch’ and ‘American Pie’ by Rev Lewis Connolly
10. Upcoming Events
Ministry Inquiry Day (16 July)
Hucklow Summer School (17-24 Aug)
11. Social Media
Don’t forget you can now keep up to date by following Unitarians UK on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!
12. In The News
Mill Hill Chapel in Leeds and its minister Rev Jo James were featured in The Daily Mirror in an inspiring piece about the murdered MP Jo Cox and efforts to bring communities together, focussing on Mill Hill’s sharing of its space with Muslims in need of somewhere to hold Friday prayers.
Congratulations to Bury Unitarian Church, which held its first same-sex wedding this May, as reported in the Bury Times. Also at Bury, Rev Kate McKenna gave a dedication at the unveiling of a statue of the late comedian Victoria Wood in her hometown, as reported the Manchester Evening News and Bury Times.
Bridport Unitarians took part in the Extinction Rebellion, as reported in the Dorset Echo.
In the United States, there was widespread press coverage of the trial of Scott Walker, a Unitarian Universalist volunteer with No More Deaths, an official ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, Arizona. Scott was arrested for providing migrants crossing the desert with food, water and shelter. You can read about his trial in The Washington Post and at UU World.
Also, the Independent and others report that the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno, California, is suing after being dropped as a polling station for displaying signs stating ‘Black Lives Matter’.