From Sex to Death
Unitarians reveal how they put beliefs into practice
How does a liberal and creedless faith inform the way its members live their lives? And what coherence, if any, might there be in their approaches to such diverse dilemmas as how to live sustainably, how to work for justice, and how to die well?
Living With Integrity: Unitarian values and beliefs in practice, published by the Lindsey Press on 4 April 2016, gives fresh insight into the ways in which today’s Unitarians put their own particular spiritual influences and core values into practice in everyday life.
The book – written in 12 specially commissioned chapters by Unitarians from many walks of life, including both ministers and lay people – offers a wide-ranging snapshot of current Unitarian faith in practice. Between them the authors address aspects of personal and home life – such as navigating sex and relationships, bringing up children, and coping with loss and dying; ways of engaging with the wider world – for example, at the workplace, in the political arena and on the campaign trail; and responses to urgent global concerns, such as migration and the environment.
Authors include:
• Minister Stephen Lingwood, who writes from his ‘commitment to the holiness of the intimate and the intimacy of the holy’, offers a frank and honest account of his own experiences of dating as a single bisexual man, and considers what it means to have ethical relationships.
• Journalist Paul Kenyon, former BBC Panorama correspondent, shares his account of a harrowing year spent travelling with migrants across the sub-Saharan desert and reflects on his own attitude towards people who are often perceived by mainstream society as outsiders.
• Journalist and author John Naish, provides practical suggestions to use in the daily challenge of maintaining a life that is sustainable spiritually and ecologically both for ourselves and for our planet.
• Former county councillor Ruth Archer, drawing inspiration from the words of hymn-writer Samuel Anthony Wright – ‘We would be one in living for each other, With love and justice strive to make all free’ – gives a quietly uplifting description of her dilemmas and achievements in local politics.
Despite the diversity of spiritual influences and lifestyles represented in the book, editor Kate Whyman, minister of Plymouth Unitarian Church and Pound Square Unitarian Chapel, Cullompton, concludes that it nevertheless manages to “encapsulate a very Unitarian way of approaching life, in all its complexity and extraordinary mystery [as] a way of profound thoughtfulness, questing intelligence and passionate determination”.
It is to be hoped that Living With Integrity will act as a spur for readers not only to reconsider their own beliefs and values, but also to put them into practice whenever and wherever they can.
Questions and suggestions for further reading are included at the end of each chapter to stimulate reflection and discussion by the individual reader but also for group study.
The book is available from Unitarian Headquarters (020 7240 2384) and costs £8.50 plus £1.50 P&P or from online booksellers.