The Unitarian Society for Psychical Studies Annual Conference is on 24th September at Warwick. Cost £17.

Oldham Unitarian Chapel

Saturday 9th July, 10.30 a.m. till 3.15 p.m.

Speaker and author: Rev. Bill Darlison, will talk about his book, The Gospel and the Zodiac.

In The Gospel and the Zodiac, Unitarian minister Bill Darlison demonstrates that the Gospel of Mark - considered the primary document of Christianity - is deliberately structured around the signs of the zodiac. Darlison argues that the Gospel was originally an esoteric rather than a historical text, and that its stories were never intended to be interpreted in a literal sense. Rather, they are dramatic representations of stages in spiritual development, and repositories of arcane wisdom.

Light lunch and refreshments available.

All are welcome!

Ring to reserve your place: 0161 339 6740 (preferred) or just turn up.

Location: King Street / Connaught Street, Oldham, OL8 1EB

Details:

10 am arrive for coffee / tea

10.30 am presentation The Gospel and the Zodiac

12.30 pm lunch

Afternoon Session

1.30 pm The Gospel and the Zodiac

2.45 pm questions and discussion

3.15 pm coffee / tea

Close.

If you could bring a copy of the Bible for reference to Mark's gospel it would be helpful to you.

Register for this event

1.00 – 3:30 pm, 2 July 2011

Golders Green Unitarian Church
31 ½ Hoop Lane, London NW11 8BS

The World Congress of Faiths looks forward to having Karen Armstrong as our speaker at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, 28 St. Johns Wood Road, London, on the evening of 7 December, 2011.

As a preparatory event, we are co-hosting an afternoon on Karen Armstrong and the Charter for Compassion, 1.00 -3:30 pm, Saturday, 2 July. A representative of the Charter for Compassion is invited to a panel discussing the  charter.

The programme will open with a worship service at 1 pm led by the Rev. Feargus O’Connor.

Rev. Richard Boeke, Chair of the British Chapter of the International Association for Religious Freedom will give a sermon entitled The freedom to be compassionate, drawing on words of Martin Luther King, Jr, “I cannot afford the luxury of hate.” The panel will follow about 2 pm.

How would you apply Karen Armstrong’s book, Twelve Steps to Compassion, in your life? Should there be any additions to the Charter such as recommended in this 12 May 2011 resolution of the British Chapter of the IARF:

The Chapter Endorses the Charter for Compassion and Karen Armstrong's book, Twelve Steps to Compassion with the recommendation that there be an additional paragraph on "Compassion for Nature."
The story is told that after God gave Moses Ten Commandments, God realized the need for the 11th Commandment. “Listen.” In like manner, the Charter for Compassion is not complete without compassion for the interdependent web of which we are a part. The Charter for Compassion is largely drawn from the Abrahamic Traditions. The “Reverence for Nature” of the great Eastern Traditions is the great background to all human compassion. In those mystical moments when we are one with the All, we find again the “basic trust” which is the heart of compassion.

Symon Hill, co-director of Ekklesia (the Christian think-tank) is doing a walk of repentance from Birmingham to London as a pilgrimage of repentance for his former homophobic attitudes and beliefs.

You can help by turning up to one of his talks and events, or inviting him to stay on his route, or inviting him to speak at your church. If it's not on the route, he can still speak on the issues involved at some time after the walk.

Unitarians have been welcoming LGBT people since 1970, and welcoming LGBT ministers since 1977, but it's wonderful to see other churches doing the same. (Recently the Church of Scotland announced that it will allow LGBT ministers.)

Hopefully Symon's walk will raise awareness in all churches of the need to be inclusive and welcoming of LGBT people. LGBT people have many spiritual gifts and creative talents, so it's downright wrong to exclude us. As Desmond Tutu pointed out, this is an issue akin to apartheid.

On Sunday 22nd May, after morning service at 11 am in the chapel of Harris Manchester College (Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TD), there will be a talk at 1 pm by Lyndall Gordon, the author of Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft, concerning the life and times and Unitarian connections of the 18th-century feminist (wife of William Godwin, mother of Mary Shelley, and “the foremother of much modern thinking about education and human rights, as well as about women's rights, female sexuality and the institution of marriage"). Please bring your own sandwich lunch; for directions to the college, consult the Chapel Society website.