Going to church?

[Hayley]

That sounds like an interesting but slightly confusing experience, overall! I know different branches of Christianity have differences in the Lord's prayer, but I've never seen one just completely change all the words like that... maybe they thought it would make more sense to people? They didn't want them to think it was literally about just bread? 

 

It sounds like your mum was a lovely person  

[KEV67]

She has her good and her bad side. Well, her good and her difficult side to be more accurate. She once stayed up all night to care for a pair of dying hamsters when me and my brother were children. 

[KEV67]

I attended the Unitarians this afternoon. There was a bit of excitement, because it looked like a relatively young couple (under 40) were going to join us, but they had obviously made a mistake. Then the service was delayed a minute while the government sent us all a practice emergency message on our phones. Once that excitement was over the service started. The theme was on the Zero Sum Game. I thought it was going to be a left wing diatribe, so I was surprised when it turned out to be a defence of classical economics, of the sort espoused by John Locke, Adam Smith and David Ricardo. It was still a little lefty, because the preacher said those who tended towards zero sum thinking tended to be afraid of something, for example, free trade and immigration. All the same I never thought I'd hear a defence of neoliberalism at a religious meeting. 

[Anna Faversham]

I'm surprised too but as I wasn't there, I can't be too critical as perhaps there was a nugget or two of wisdom that's helpful.

[KEV67]

I have not attended any churches recently. This is in part because the URC I have been going to isn't a great place to take a toddler. I don't really want to leave Little Adrian with my mother for too long, because she has things she wants to do, and she gets exasperated with Adrian's naughtiness. However, yesterday was the first Sunday of the month, so I went to the Unitarians in the afternoon. I took Adrian to the park first. He never goes to sleep on the way out, because he is excited about the swings, but he usually goes to sleep on the way back. Worked out this time. He fell asleep in Caffè Nero, then stayed asleep through the Unitarian service, despite the loudness of the organ playing. He woke up briefly about half way through, but then went to sleep again. The theme of the service was how the Unitarians would change if they started off afresh. The pastor said a lot would stay the same. They would still ditch all the theological doctrine, but would stay committed to social justice and equity. This annoyed me a bit. If a church has no theological doctrine, why should it be prescriptive on political doctrines? I am not committed to social justice or equity myself. I do not think it is up to the government to equalise any advantages parents might strive to give to their children. I do not think the government should take the father's place to provide for his children, in theory, anyway. Similarly, I think children have a responsibility to look after their aged parents, although that is often difficult. I didn't say any of that. I stayed behind for tea and biscuits. They cooed over Adrian. I was talking to one of them. I told her how in Reading some pagan from Earth Spirit turned up. I had been surprised by that, because Unitarianism had derived from Protestant Christianity, although it is not really Christian now. She said that when she first attended a Unitarian meeting, someone introduced himself as an Atheist, which she seems to be herself. That made me wonder why she bothered turning up at all, but I have wondered that at other churches, because many do not seem very orthodox. We were told next month's theme will be rivers. One of the old ladies said she thought about the Mersey. She remembered being a young girl and her father urging her to walk along the gang plank to the ferry, which had gaps along each side. She is 80 now. I expect I might say something about the Thames. The Thames along Reading was very pretty, and I used to envy the rowers. I once spent two days swimming from the source of the Thames in an organised activity holiday.

Edited 11 hours ago by KEV67

[lunababymoonchild]

I was under the impression that the Unitarian Church welcomed all, pagans included.