Oldham Unitarians

NEWSLETTER

January – March 2008

She Tells Her Love

She tells her love while half asleep,
In the dark hours,
With half words whispered low:
As Earth stirs in her winters sleep
And puts out grass and flowers
Despite the snow,
Despite the falling snow.

Robert Graves

Dates for your Diary …

Sunday Services 11.00 - 12.00

January
06. Service conducted by Danny Crossby
13. Service conducted by Rev Dr Vernon Marshall
20. Service conducted by Bob Pounder
27. Service conducted by Dawn Buckle

February
03. Service conducted by Rev Dr David Doel
10. Service conducted by Francis Teagle (TBC)
17. Service conducted by Danny Crossby
24. Service conducted by Bob Pounder

March
02. Service conducted by Rev Dr David Doel
09. Service conducted by Chrissie Wilkie
16. Service conducted by Danny Crossby
23. Service conducted by Trevor Clarke
30. Bring and Share Worship

Traidcraft Lunches & Shop, Thursdays 12.00-14.00
Please note, there will be no Traidcraft lunch or shop available on the Thursday of the February school half term or on Thursday 27 March.

Kath Pearson,
Chapel Treasurer

Reflects On Her Spiritual Journey

I was brought up a Methodist, and was baptised at Middleton Road Methodist in Chadderton. There was a strong family connection with independent Methodists - going back to my great grandparents, but I could never take to it like my Mum. She was Methodist to the exclusion of all others, so when I wanted to go to Mills Hill

Baptists she didn't really want me to. I wanted to go because I knew girls there, and she did let me go for a few weeks, but then I told her they were doing a pantomime and they wanted me to be in it - well that was too much! I was getting too involved and I couldn't go any more! Some of my best days as a child were at Middleton Road Methodists - I was in the Life Girls and they used to have a sports day down at Boggart Hole Clough every year. We used to hire a double decker bus and it would take us, all the kids would be upstairs and the parents wouldn't like that at all! Oh they were great times!

I learned the piano from being 7, and then when I got to about 14 the organist that we had was getting a bit elderly, and he wanted someone to play if he didn't feel well enough, so that's when I started. It was a big organ - you didn't have to pump it, it was electric, but it was huge, on a balcony. I played for most Sunday morning services, and on Sunday afternoons. I was a pianist and Sunday school teacher. This would be throughout the 1950s.

I loved the tunes and the hymns - I've got so many favourites like "O Worship the King" and "O Perfect Love". Lots of the old Wesley hymns. But the problem was the dogma - I just couldn't come to terms with what we were being taught and the contradictions in the Bible; I wanted to think and work it out for myself. I thought if we've been given gifts of intelligence and thought from God and why weren't we allowed to use them? I just didn't feel that their God was my God. Later, whilst still at Middleton Road Methodist, I got married there and my eldest daughter, Jacqueline was christened there. I stopped going when she was small, because getting there was too difficult, and then by the time Elaine was born 13 months later the church had closed down - that was around 1961. Some people went to other churches, at Garforth Street or Healds Green, but because I had two young children I didn't go - that was the break I made with Methodism. I took Elaine to be christened at Mills Hill Baptists, although me mum wasn't too happy! The Baptists don't christen children - it's a welcoming service where the congregation says that they'll take the child into the church and teach it, and then when the child is old enough to make their own mind up then they can be baptised. Both the children were brought up as Baptists, and I went to all the events but not so often to the services. My association was through the children.

I had a big gap before I started at the Unitarians, because my husband was and ex-Catholic and I wasn't a Methodist any more so we didn't really go anywhere. But then, in about the middle of the Eighties I worked at Metropolitan House, off the by-pass, and when my husband brought me to work I would see the sign for the Unitarian Chapel. It struck me right away, that word Unitarian, because I though that means they're not Trinitarian, and I thought maybe I can go along with that, because I certainly wasn't a Trinitarian! I believed, like the Jews, that God is one.

In all the years when I was struggling with it, and I really did struggle, I felt like a 18 year old being told to believe in Father Christmas, which you just couldn't do at 18. And when I eventually decided that Jesus wasn't as I'd been taught he was, I felt a sad sort of bereavement, cutting myself off. It wasn't easy - it was like disowning somebody, because I had to disown the part I didn't believe and see him in a different light. It wasn't an easy thing to do.

After Brian died, I started coming - it would be 1998, and I wanted to know more. I'd worked at Met. House for 6 years, and I'd been looking at that sign all the time and I was pulled to do something about it, and I was refusing it. But then I went, and Patrick turned up the same day - we walked in together and everyone thought we were a couple. Anne Latham was the minister preaching that day - she wasn't there every week so we were just fortunate.

All those years when I wasn't going anywhere, I've always known that I was never alone - it's a tremendous gift to feel that way. That sense of a divine presence inside me somewhere - I can be on my own, but know that I am not alone. To actually know that is a privilege. A lot of people are not inward looking enough to realise it, although they could if they weren't so taken up with life. I knew it even as a very small child - I remember thinking "I don't understand where I am! Where I come from it's nothing like this, people don't behave like they do here!" It shocked me.

I was drawn to the Unitarian Psychical Society - it gets people of a like mind together, we have a conference once a year and there's a chance to discuss different feelings and experiences - it makes you not feel quite as alone in the outside world. I'm convinced there's a heck of a lot more than just the material world we know - science will find it eventually and when it does, it'll find God.

I don't believe we are here by accident, there's an intelligence behind it - we've come through evolution with a plan of what we are to be as humans. It's a bit like Plato's idea of Forms - a kind of plan of what every single thing should be. I think there's a plan for human beings, it's out there, like Jung said, everything is out there in the collective unconscious and we pick things up - like when musicians say a wonderful tune just appears in their heads - they are receiving it form somewhere.

I've been at Oldham for 10 years now, and I think the Unitarians have helped me with the rational side of things, and funnily enough that has helped me make that leap of faith. You do have to move on from materialism and rationalism to faith - for me now it's only a tiny step, where before it was a chasm I couldn't possibly get over. I can believe without being forced to - in Unitarianism there's no pressure to accept things you can't, so I've been able to talk to people without worrying about what they'll say.

Because our congregation is so small, there's a danger that at times we can get caught up in practicalities and maybe not pay enough attention to spiritual matters. I think now the chapel is giving us more of the spiritual things - and that's a good thing, that's what religion is about. We have to be both human and spiritual, involved in work with the destitute, life share and all that, but also feed the spirit that underlies what we do.

Kath Pearson.

Let me begin by wishing you all a very happy and peaceful New Year. As we look back on 2007 Oldham chapel has, with little exception, experienced a rich and interesting twelve months. A year in which we said "Goodbye" to our then student minister, Lynne Readett - now the Rev. Lynne Readett, a year in which we continued to work with Oldham Town Centre Churches Together. We participated in the Oldham Whit Walks and held the Advent Service which over 60 people attended. Our average attendance for the year has increased and we held a series of special services throughout the year. By Christmas, the Chapel was beginning to look the part, with smart new chairs, fitted carpet and a Christmas tree. The Christmas service was followed by a party and a visit from Santa for the children. We look forward to further improvements to the Chapel this year, with further re-painting and the arrival of partition boards for the worship area.

The discussions with Oldham Council about the site and relocation of the new chapel continue, and there is nothing conclusive to report but the Chapel Committee is clear that we must remain a town-centre chapel.

On the downside, I have to report that the chapel was broken into on Sunday 16th December and thieves got away with our safe (see newspaper article). Also taken from the Chapel premises were boxes of Traidcraft coffee, amounting to the value of £85. We have recently met to discuss measures for improved security in response.

On the whole, I certainly get the impression that things are going well at Oldham, it is a pleasure to attend worship on Sundays with a congregation who are so friendly and where there is such a deep sense of fellowship. We look forward to 2008 with confidence and enthusiasm.

Bob Pounder.

The Reverend Gillian Peel officiated at a memorial service on the 8 0ctober 2007, for Oldham Chapel member Mrs Audrey Kershaw at Alexandra Park Oldham, where her ashes were scattered.

Family, neighbours, a representative from Oldham Council and members of Oldham Chapel attended the ceremony.

Audrey, a life long Unitarian, was also a member of Oldham Law Centre management committee and a member of Friends of Alexandra Park. She had for most of her life resided very close to the park.

CONNECTEDNESS...

We live in a world, that is part of the great web of creation and we are all connected to each other in some way. The following poem by Sue Bradley: 'Who's Been In Your Knickers?' humorously expresses this important point and finishes with some good advice.

WHO'S BEEN IN YOUR KNICKERS?

Who's been in your knickers?
Have you ever thought to ask?
To try to think how many folk
Is quite an arduous task
Who's been in your knickers
before they get to you?
I think that you will be surprised
'Cos there's been quite a few.

The first ones are the people
who plant the cotton seeds
Then those who check it while it
grows, removing all the weeds
Then there are pickers, with
baskets on their backs,
Then the weighers and the sorters
and the putters into sacks.

There's the combers and the carders
and the washers and the dryers,
There's the spinners and the weavers
and the bleachers and the dyers.
Next come the designers and
machinists of the samples,
Then the buyers from the large
stores, who check all the examples.

Production then begins with
the layering and the cutting,
The bundlers and the tiers and into
trucks the putting.
Then down to the machine floor the
real work now starts -
first machinist sews the gusset,
joining several parts.

Next there is the leg girl, elastic's
not that simple!
If she doesn't get her job right
it's sure to show your dimple.
Third person does the first side
seam, not TOO tricky a job
But machinists must work very
hard just to make a few bob.

Fourth task is the waist girl,
accuracy is a must,
Make them too big and your
drawers will hit the dust.
Fifth is the second side seam,
and the sewer in of labels,
The last girl sews the bows on
then its to the passers table.

Each garment is inspected by a
hawk eyed old witch;
they check the knickers inch by
inch, and stitch by stitch.
Onto coathangers knickers are then hung
Then packed in boxes and into cages slung.

So far by my reckoning that's thirty eight folk
who've been inside your knickers
but as yet we haven't spoke
of the people that'll check them
when they get into the shops and
unpack and display them with
the vests and the crop tops.

Or the shoppers who handle before they will buy
Or the girl on the till who packs with a sigh
Individual people have now reached forty one
But as for other shoppers - counting can't be done

So, who's been in your knickers?
Now you really know the truth
Lots of total strangers, Tom, or Dick or Ruth
One last point to remember as you ponder on this ilk -
Don't forget the little worm if your drawers are made of silk!

MORAL

Put your knickers in the wash
before you wear them new
'Cos the knickers you are wearing
have been handled by a few!

Reprinted with kind permission of 'Glossop Life'

Priceless items and records dating back more than a century were taken when a church safe was stolen.

The break-in took place at Oldham Unitarian Chapel, on King Street, and images of the crime were captured on CCTV from nearby Oldham Sixth Form College.

The thieves entered the main premises using a key before breaking into the room where the safe was kept.

Bob Pounder, president of the church said: The theft happened at about 2pm on Sunday, December 16, and they used a trolley to try and take the safe out but that must have buckled under the weight."

"They came back later and possibly used a van to take it away. It must have taken four men to lift the safe."

He added: "It is is particularly upsetting as it contained items including a silver communion cup and plate, records of marriages births and deaths, and old photographs. All these items date back to the late 19th or early 20th Century."

"They are probably not worth much to the thieves but are priceless to us and the wider community."

"The births, marriages and deaths records are a useful resource for members of the public researching their family tree. I just hope the thieves can find some seasonal spirit in their hearts and give the records back to us."

It was church stalwart Marian Nuttall, 75, who made the upsetting discovery.

She said: "I have no idea how they got hold of a key. We have a lot of keyholders so maybe one was left lying around and someone got hold of it."

"I can't believe what has happened what was in the safe isn't valuable to anyone, but it is very precious to us. The records are very important as they go back 150 years and represent our history and the history of thousands of Oldham residents."

"The police have got some CCTV images but they are very grainy. It must have taken place about half an hour after we left on Sunday and I didn't discover it until Wednesday. It was horrendous, I am absolutely dismayed. Hopefully, the records have been dumped and they will be discovered."

Roger Ives, from Oldham Local Studies and Archives said: "The loss of any historical material is atragedy for the community. We can only hope that whoever took these documents will realise that there is no financial gain to be made from them and will return them as soon as possible. They don't have any significant financial value but it's what's inside that is irreplaceable."

A Climate for Peace?
By Sue Pounder

The Nobel Peace Prize this year was awarded to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), set up by the United Nations to look at international research on climate change. The IPCC analyses and collates the scientific evidence, and provides robust, evidencebased information for governments around the world.

Professor Geoffrey Levermore, a member of the Styal Unitarian congregation, is the senior UK scientist on the panel, and attended the award ceremony in Copenhagen. Readers of The Inquirer will recall that John Midgley interviewed Professor Levermore for the 3rd November issue (7685), and asked him about the link between climate change and peace. Professor Levermore explained:

"With the changes in the climate, there will be drought in certain areas, floods in certain areas, crops will be ruined, areas will be changed, there will be mass migration, this will lead to world war. It's as simple as that."

The IPCC's most recent major report (available at www.ipcc.ch) is a wake-up call, clarifying issues and placing sharper emphasis on both the positive and negative impacts of climate change. We know that sea and land ice is melting, Southern Europe and central Asia have suffered deadly heat waves and droughts, while Northern Europe has seen increasing rainfall and floods. North America may see increased grain yields in the short term, but some African countries may see crop production halved by 2020. It is also increasingly evident that human activities are to blame, and that the current trend of accelerating CO2 emissions must be reversed. Our government made a commitment to 60% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050, and following the IPCC report Gordon Brown announced his intention of increasing this to an 80% reduction. But the government can't be effective unless we as individuals support the move for CO2 reduction, and this means accepting that some of our current levels of comfort, convenience and choice are simply not sustainable.

We are going to have to consume less, and the value of a simpler, more socially and spiritually centred life is hardly news to faith communities. This truly is a peace issue – can we embrace the challenge of living simply, that others might simply live?

"A simple lifestyle freely chosen is a source of strength."

Quaker Faith and Practice

God is One

A short history of the Unitarian movement in Oldham written by Jane Greaves in 1966, informs us that when Methodism arrived in the town there was much religious controversy and dissensions arose at Greenacre Chapel; and that in 1812 the Reverend Richard Wright, a Unitarian missionary, preached in Oldham. In the same year, a group of members was expelled from the Greenacres Chapel. The expelled members later joined Richard Wright and became the nucleus of the Unitarian community in Oldham.

The controversy that Greaves writes about is reflected in an old Unitarian pamphlet I recently discovered in the Tameside Local Studies and Archives Centre. It is titled: Reasons For Praying To The Father Alone! and was printed by G. Orme of Stamford Street, Ashton-under-Lyne in 1836.

Reproduced below, the language and style may seem difficult and even turgid to us nowadays, but there is no mistaking the energy and the passion of Unitarianism of that time.

Reasons For Praying To The Father Alone:
The Unitarian Christian's Reason &c.

"Learn of me" CHRIST. Mat chap 11th, ver. 29th

This is the language of the saviour; and can anything be more natural, can anything be more becoming a person professing to be a disciple or learner of Christ, than to come to him as the only authority, the only pure source of Christian Truth? To this source the consistent Unitarian Christian comes in the first place for instruction, as regards the object of divine worship. In proportion as Christians follow their Lord's instructions-adopt the form he has left- act consistently with it in their religious addresses to God and imitate his example, are they orthodox on this subject and no farther. It is well known that the four Gospels contain the instructions of Christ; in exact proportion therefore, as Christian Ministers preach the doctrines or consistently with the doctrines of these Gospels are they entitled to the character of Gospel Ministers and no farther.

Let us then see what instruction the Saviour gave the woman of Samaria, on this subject. In John 4 v.23 we have these words:

"The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him."

Is it not very extraordinary that here is not a syllable about worshipping the Son, or the Holy Ghost; if the worship of these was essential to orthodoxy, or acceptable worship? Was it not the Son himself who thus declared that the true worshippers are they who worship the Father, and the Father only. Who then are the Orthodox on this subject: those who bow to the authority of the Saviour and worship the Father only, or those who disregard the instruction of the Saviour, and instead of worshipping the Father only, worship the Father, the Son who gave the instruction, and the Holy Ghost?

Plain, honest, simple-hearted professors of the Gospel, pause before you suffer yourselves to be led aside from plain and evident instructions of the Lord Jesus, by those who profess to instruct you; read this portion of the Saviour's instructions to them, and tell them you wish to learn of Christ, and not of any human being, however well disposed. Tell them you bow to his authority alone in a case in which his instruction is so plain, so clear, so satisfactorily supported by his example.

Again, the Unitarian Christian is influenced on this important subject by the Form of Prayer which the Saviour delivered to his immediate disciples, in the 6^th of Matthew and 9^th and following verses, his words are "After this manner therefore pray ye, "Our Father, &c." Thus agreeably to his instruction to the woman of Samaria, he directs his disciples to pray to the Father, and not to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.

The Unitarian Christian then looks to the example of the Saviour, and he finds that he prays to his Father. Luke Chap 22^nd and Ver 42, "Father if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." Again, chap 23 and 46 verse, "And when Jesus, had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit; and having said this he gave up the Ghost."

Again in that memorable prayer of the Saviour's, which you will find in the 17^th chapter of John, in the three first verses you have these words, "These words spake Jesus, and lift up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son that thy Son also may glorify Thee, as thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him, and this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."

Such then, impartial reader is the reason which the Unitarian Christian adduces for worshipping the Father alone. Whether he reverences the Saviour by following his instructions and imitating his example, on a subject so important, more than those who are not satisfied with his instructions and example on this particular, let the impartial, the unbiased, the honest mind decide.

I will close with the following extraordinary declaration of the Rev. John Wesley, at the close of his commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Matthew chap. 6^th, verse 13^th, "It is observable, that though the doxology as well as the petitions of this prayer is threefold and is directed to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost distinctly, yet is the whole fully applicable both to every person, and to the ever blessed and undivided Trinity." I ask is such a commentator a safe guide to be implicitly relied on?

[Originally published 1836]

Oldham Unitarian Chapel founded in 1813

is open to all who wish to worship with an open mind,
in a spirit of freedom, reason and tolerance.

We do not all hold the same beliefs, rather each person is encouraged
'to develop his or her faith in a continuing search for truth.'

President: Mr R. Pounder
Treasurer: Mrs K.M. Pearson
Secretary: Mrs C. Hall

Unitarian Chapel
Connaught Street / King Street
Oldham
OL8 1 EB
Tel: 0161 620 1810

Lettings Officer: Mrs M. Nuttall – Tel: 0161 287 3371

Registered Charity No. 1111295