The The Unitarian Church in NSW PO Box 355, Darlinghurst NSW 1300 15 Francis Street, East Sydney (near Museum Station) Tel: (02) 9360 2038 SUN Editor: M.R. McPhee Sydney Unitarian News

February/March 2006

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

“Scotland’s favourite son”

A REVISED PRECIS OF AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE SYDNEY UNITARIAN CHURCH BY IAN ELLIS-JONES ON WEDNESDAY 25 JANUARY 2006

Today (January 25) is Robbie Burns’ birthday. In Scotland, this day is effectively a second national day, celebrated with Burns’ Suppers around the world. It is still more widely observed than the official national day of Scotland (St Andrew’s Day, November 30).

“Scotland’s favourite son” and national poet was born on 25 January 1759 and died on 21 July 1796. People everywhere love his poetry. The American Unitarian minister Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The people who care nothing for literature and poetry care for Burns.”

Even though he never joined a Unitarian church or any particular religious faction Robbie Burns is celebrated by the Unitarians of Scotland as a religious forbear. He had connections with two very famous English Unitarians Joseph Priestley and Theophilus Lindsey. In 1788, when applying for a post as an exciseman, Burns listed his religious affiliation as Church of Scotland, but that seems to have been motivated solely by a desire to get the job.

1 An active Freemason, Burns rejected Calvinist theology, piety, and social attitudes. He was a firm believer in religious freedom. Burns wrote about religion that “it becomes a man of sense to think for himself.” He thought it would be good to believe in a God of “Infinite Wisdom and Goodness,” but was not certain that he did.

Burns had doubts about Jesus as well. Although Jesus was, in Burns’ words, “a great Personage,” Burns still had some doubts as to whether we could trust the Gospel accounts concerning Jesus. He wrote:

Jesus Christ, thou amiablest of characters, I trust thou art no Imposter, and that thy revelation of blissful scenes of existence beyond death and the grave, is not one of the many impositions which time after time have been palmed off on a credulous mankind.

In his celebrated poem “The Kirk's Alarm”, a lampoon on the Church of Scotland, Burns wrote:

A heretic blast has been blawn i' the West, That what is not Sense must be Nonsense.

Burns was quite agnostic on the question of life after death. He was unsure as to whether the afterlife would be merely "to moulder with the clods of the valley" or to some reward for “having acted an honest part among his fellow creatures”. “The close of life,” he wrote, “to a reasoning eye is ‘dark as was chaos’.”

Throughout his life Burns advocated an earthy, this-worldly religion. He denied original sin. “I believe in my conscience that the case is just quite contrary,” he wrote to Frances Dunlop in 1788. “We came into this world with a heart and disposition to do good for it, until by dashing a large mixture of base Alloy called Prudence alias Selfishness, the too precious Metal of the Soul is brought down to the blackguard Sterling of ordinary currency.” He also held Universalist views concerning the doctrine of salvation, writing:

It must be in everyone's power to embrace [God's] offer of 'everlasting life'; otherwise He could not, in justice, condemn those who did not.

Robbie Burns would have been in total agreement with the views of the American Universalist and Unitarian minister Thomas Starr King (1824-1864), who said:

The Universalists think God is too good to damn them forever; the Unitarians think they are too good to be damned forever.

Burns believed that in the end it is the quality of our lives which counts. Well, here is a man who, in the words of the old “Unitarian Covenant”, believed in the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the leadership of Jesus, and salvation by character. That’s a Unitarian, in my book.

Robbie Burns summed up his faith in Jamie Dean’s grace:

Lord, grant that we may lead a gude life; for a gude life makes a gude end; at least it helps weel!

SOCIAL NEWS

The occasion for this speech was SUC’s first ever commemoration of Robbie Burns’ Birthday, for which certain traditional proto-cols apply. It was a festive gathering with a three-course meal laid on: cock-a- leeky soup, a main course of haggis and other Scottish fare, and a sumptuous trifle dessert. Various poems were read by members and guests, followed by a presentation of Scottish songs by musicians of the Irish Community Choir.

The SUC Committee truly appreciates the work done by a handful of volunteers in making the night such a resounding success. More social events are planned in the future, the next being a Bloomsday commemoration in June – so, “watch this space”!

2 A través de esta tierra y alrededor del mundo Across this land and around the world La gente de buen corazón pugna por la justicia, Good-hearted people strive for justice, struggle lucha por la paz, for peace, Honra el amor, y sueña con un nuevo día Honour love, and dream of a new day En el que todas y todos vivirán dignamente. When all will live in dignity. Nuestra fe, libre y amorosa, tiene una función Our loving, free faith has a part to play, que desempeñar, A vision to uphold, and a call that sounds Una visión que sustentar, y un llamado para From sea to sea to sea. hacerlo resonar If you are here this morning, Desde el mar hasta el mar. You are called to the ministry of all to all Si estás aquí esta mañana, To make heaven here on earth Eres convocado al ministerio de todos para Now, in this place, on this planet todos, For all people. Para hacer el paraíso aquí en la tierra May our time in worship together, Ahora, en este lugar, en este planeta As a congregation and as a faith, Para toda la gente. Renew our call to this shared ministry. Que nuestro tiempo de adoración juntos, Como congregación y como fe, Written by Allison Barrett and submitted by the Renueve nuestro llamado a este ministerio Canadian Unitarian Council compartido.

[This is the monthly Chalice Lighting nominated by the International Conference of Unitarians and Universalists for February. Why a Canadian saw fit to write in Spanish is not explained.]

SERVICE DIARY

Meetings every Sunday from 10.30 –11.30am (followed by coffee, tea and biscuits)

Date Presenter Topic 5th February Ian Ellis-Jones The Golden Key to Solving Your Problems 12th February Michael Spicer What’s Your Spiritual Type? 19th February Bill Passlow Spirituality and Art 26th February Peter Roger Music Service 5th March Ian Ellis-Jones Your Glorious Destiny 12th March Calista Sinclair The Story/Myth of Eve in Eden 19th March Mike McPhee Irish Legends 26th March Peter Roger Music Service

COMMITTEE NEWS

Our president, Peter Crawford, resigned in January because he intends to spend the next six months (or longer) in Hong Kong. He is succeeded by Patrick Bernard, whose position of Secretary has been taken over by Michael Spicer. The resulting vacancy of the Treasurer’s position has been filled by Curt Fraser.

As you have hopefully noticed, Mike McPhee is relieving Michael Collins as Editor of the SUN while the latter is on leave. However, Mike is not responsible for the delay in the production of this issue.

3 SCIENCE AS RELIGION

[Abstract of an address given at the Sydney Unitarian Church by Mike McPhee on 19 October 2003]

Some of you may think from the title that I'm going to proclaim science as my religion - and I could, but only in the colloquial sense of people saying football or golf or jazz is their religion. However, I don't worship science or even the Universe, wonderful as they both are. Suffice it to say that science is central to my life and my thinking, but a true scientist knows the limitations of science better than some lay zealots do. What I’m seeking to present here is a range of views affecting science and its role in both history and present-day society.

While the primacy of reason is a fundamental principle of Unitarianism, and while some prominent scientists like Newton and Darwin were Unitarians, I’m painfully aware that scientific logic is not the only valid form of reasoning. Neither is reason, of and by itself, the best means of approaching the deepest of human quandaries - emotions may be natural, but by definition they are not rational. As someone once said, science can explain how a rainbow is formed but not why it is so beautiful; and, as someone else said, science can only tell us what is - but not what should be.

I accept the first proposition, because aesthetics isn’t a branch of science - but I adamantly reject the second on the grounds that ‘what should be’ can only refer to conditions on this planet, and that is the responsibility of all of us. There are many questions and quandaries that humans wish to (or need to) address, but many of these cannot be phrased as scientific questions and are therefore not amenable to scientific answers. However, science may be able to make some input; for example, by identifying a part of the brain associated with ‘mystical’ experiences, or by finding ways to increase food production while leaving it to the powers-that-be to see that it is equitably distributed.

Further on matters of religion, no-one can fail to be inspired by the beauty and majesty of the physical universe, both in macrocosm and microcosm, and scientific training allows a deeper, though necessarily more abstract, appreciation of how it all works and of the amazing unities that prevail from the smallest to the largest levels of physical structure. But ‘beauty’ and ‘majesty’ are purely human valuations, not scientific ones, and we do well to remind ourselves of this if our thoughts drift to creators or designers of ‘the majestic clockwork’ or framers of the universal laws. As the philosopher, David Hume, wrote in the 1800s, for lack of anything to compare it with, our universe may not be so wonderful at all - it may have been a project assigned to a trainee god, the product of a senile god, or even (god help us!) the compromised work of a committee of gods.

Two contradictory perceptions confront scientists in public life which they didn’t ask for and don’t really want. One is that people often expect them to have expertise in metaphysics and, thus, to be able to answer questions on religious matters that by definition are totally outside their training and praxis. The converse is that many people automatically assume that scientists are anti-religion when, as before, their methodology requires them to simply plead the inability to address non-scientific questions. The two realms, science and metaphysics, just have no point of contact, and scientists have no more business stating other than their personal opinions on religious matters than religionists have making pronouncements about science.

This idea is not new - when Francis Bacon first proposed what we now call the scientific method in his book, Novum Organum (1620), he spoke of ‘natural philosophy’ rather than science. Here, ‘natural’ meant using information that can be obtained from the world around us, rather than from Scripture or the canonised works of Plato and Aristotle. Bacon spoke of theologians studying the Word of God whereas scientists studied the work of God, but he deplored those who looked to the Bible for scientific inspiration. This he denounced as:

...seeking for the dead among the living; which also makes the inhibition and repression of it the more important, because from this unwholesome mixture of things human and divine there arises not only a fantastic philosophy but also a heretical religion. Very meet it is therefore that we be sober-minded, and give to faith that only which is faith’s.

4 Truly, scientists do act on faith, in the sense of essential assumptions that either have not been or cannot be proved. They have to assume that their senses and consciousness provide real and reliable information about what the world is really like. They affirm the Isotropic Principle that the whole of the Universe behaves in exactly the same manner, under the same laws, as our corner of the cosmos does. And they have to posit that human intelligence is capable of understanding the increasingly abstract analyses that relativity and quantum mechanics have provided, and whatever lies beyond those in the future. Not for nothing did the astronomer and science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke, say: “The Universe is stranger than we think - and even stranger than we can think.” A similar statement in a British newspaper greeted Eddington’s confirmation in 1922 that light was affected by gravity: “The poet, Tennyson, wrote of ‘believing what we cannot prove’. Dr. Einstein is coming perilously close to proving what we cannot believe.”

But that is just the point! Even religious laypersons today accept the existence of all manner of things we cannot see, from atoms to genes and from quasars to black holes. Of course, we are assured that these things can be observed through microscopes and telescopes - but how many of us have actually done so? We may have seen pictures produced by such instruments, but what would that prove to a determined skeptic? The truth is that we all believe in what science has to tell us - even those who are most determined to frustrate such concepts as evolution and the ‘Big Bang’ have to meet science on its own terms in their vain endeavours to do so.

Science has other parallels with religion, such as having a rich history of heroes, prophets and even martyrs. To some, it has a teleology, moving forward (and sometimes backward) with the phases of human history in its quest for the Ultimate Truth - known these days as the ‘Grand Unified Theory’. Science has mysteries aplenty, not all of which anyone expects to see explained in the foreseeable future. Like many religions, science has at times been bitterly split along national or disciplinary lines despite official professions of unity and amity. There may be a ‘priesthood’ of scientists who declare that they know what is best, and so we shouldn't question what their research may lead to, but most believe it is their duty to at least let the public know what they are doing. Scientists have ethics in place of morality, which they debate endlessly, and a firm conviction that a better world of peace and prosperity will come about through their efforts

The ‘scientific priesthood’ includes a school of what I consider to be mystics, who cite numerous critical conditions embedded in the make-up of the Universe that are essential to its functioning and to our existence. Interestingly, those who make statements to that effect tend to be physicists - I guess, because their equations are so elegant. Chemists perceive a somewhat sloppier set of empirical rules which only apply some of the time, so we rarely hear such lofty statements from them. Biologists see the messier side of evolution, with all its false starts and mass extinctions, and so tend to take a very jaundiced view of any ‘grand design’.

Science even attracts a breed of fundamentalists, although few adherents of ‘scientism’ are actually scientists. The Skeptics Dictionary says that: “Scientism, in the strong sense, is the self-annihilating view that only scientific claims are meaningful, which is not a scientific claim and hence, if true, not meaningful. ... In the weak sense, scientism is the view that the methods of the natural sciences should be applied to any subject matter.” I don't hold with either view, not least because science (which adherents of scientism tend to exalt with a capital ‘s’) is just an ideal like other capitalised words such as ‘Truth’. But science is clearly a human activity and therefore subject to the same foibles, fads and errors as anything else that humans do.

I won’t deal with the popular anti-science that passes for ‘new age mysticism’, but would like to offer one instance of scientific religion which I respect but couldn't practice, myself. This is the branch of neo-paganism associated with the Gaeia Hypothesis, essentially the belief that the Earth is a living organism - to some, even a sentient one. The basic premise of the hypothesis is that the various species and individuals are interconnected parts of the living Earth in much the same way as individual organisms are collections of cells. While the hypothesis is the product of speculative scientists, merely seeking a new approach to ecological questions, those Unitarians and others who favour ‘Earth-centred spirituality’ might find inspiration here.

5 In conclusion, it occurs to me that science is a bit like Unitarianism, in that it comes in many forms and you can make anything you like (well, almost anything!) out of it. Science seeks the right questions as much as answers and, as Bernard Shaw said, never answers a question without raising several more. This is inevitable due to the inexhaustibility of the Universe and its surprises - in Einstein’s words, the expanding circle of knowledge creates a greater boundary with the unknown that lies outside of it. Like Unitarianism, science must be open-minded and self-critical, or it will fail, and it must ‘endure not to know’ rather than arbitrarily declare ‘answers’ that will work if everyone just believes in them. Lastly, science is fun, as Unitarianism can and should be.

So, thanks for hearing me out, and I hope you see now why the physical Universe has always been enough for me to build my life around. It is sufficiently wonderful and mysterious that I’ll never need to seek anything ‘higher’ or ‘further’, ultimate or transcendent. To each their own, to be sure, but I maintain that a lot of other-wordly thinking is done by those who can’t or won’t delve into physical reality and appreciate it for what it is.

[Please don’t regard the use of this article as an abuse of my new position, as it was scheduled for inclusion by the previous editor. Since the text needed to be shortened from the original five pages – a length I mean to assiduously avoid – it was better to strip down my own work than someone else’s. Anyone wishing to have the full text can contact Sherman Kim at SUC.]

YOU MAY BE DRINKING TOO MUCH COFFEE IF...

You can ski uphill. You get a speeding ticket even when you’re parked. You answer the door before people knock. You sleep with your eyes open. You have to watch videos in fast-forward. The only time you’re standing still is during an earthquake. You lick your coffee pot clean. Cocaine is a downer. You forget to unwrap candy bars before eating them. The nurse needs a scientific calculator to take your pulse. You can type sixty words per minute with your feet. You can jump-start your car without cables. You walk twenty miles on your treadmill before you realize it’s not plugged in. You spend your vacations visiting “Maxwell House”. Starbucks owns the mortgage on your house. Instant coffee takes too long – so you grind your coffee beans with your teeth. You’re so wired that you pick up AM radio. People can test their batteries in your ears. You want to be cremated so you can spend eternity in a coffee can. Your birthday is a national holiday in Brazil. You’d be willing to spend time in a Turkish prison. You get drunk just so you can sober up. You go to AA meetings just for the free coffee. You soak your dentures in coffee overnight. Your first-aid kit contains two pints of coffee with an IV hook-up. You short out motion detectors. Your coffee mug is insured by Lloyds of London.

[A timely warning to all Unitarians, who are notorious for spending more time at the Coffee Hour (only and hour?!) than they do attending services. Indeed, some are accused of attending services just for the excuse to drink coffee and chat endlessly afterward. This item was originally obtained from an American UUA mailing list, but its actual provenance is unknown.]

6 ADDRESS TO THE TOOTHACHE

By Robert Burns (Translation)

My curse upon your venom’d stang, My curse upon your venomed sting, That shoots my tortur’d gooms alang, That shoots along my tortured gums, An’ thro’ my lug gies monie a twang And through my ear gives many a twinge Wi’ gnawing vengeance, With gnawing vengeance, Tearing my nerves wi’ bitter pang, Tearing my nerves with bitter pain, Like racking engines! Like racking engines!

A’ down my beard the slavers trickle, All down my beard the drools trickle, I throw the wee stools o’er the mickle, I throw the little stools over the large one, While round the fire the giglets keckle While round the fire the children cackle To see me loup, To see me leap, An’ raving mad, I wish a heckle And raving mad, I wish a heckling comb Were I’ their doup! Were in their backside!

When fevers burn, or ague freezes, When fevers burn, or ague freezes, Rheumatics gnaw, or colic squeezes, Rheumatics gnaw, or colic squeezes, Our neebors sympathize to ease us Our neighbours sympathize to ease us Wi’ pitying moan; With pitying moan; But thee! - thou hell o’ a’ diseases, But you! - you hell of all diseases, They mock our groan! They mock our groan!

Of a’ the num’rous human dools - Of all the numerous human woes - Ill-hairsts, daft bargains, cutty-stools, Bad harvests, stupid bargains, punishment stools, Or worthy frien’s laid I’ the mools, Or worthy friends laid in the crumbling earth, Sad sight to see! Sad sight to see! The tricks o’ knaves, or fash o’ fools - The tricks of knaves, or annoyance of fools - Thou bear’st the gree! You bear the prize!

Whare’er that place be priests ca' Hell, Wherever that place be priests call Hell, Whare a’ the tones o' misery yell, Where all the tones of misery yell, An’ ranked plagues their numbers tell And ranked plagues their numbers tell In dreadfu’ raw, In dreadful row, Thou, Toothache, surely bear’st the bell You, Toothache, surely bear the bell Amang them a’! Among them all!

O thou grim, mischief-making chiel, Oh, you grim, mischief-making chap, That gars the notes o’ discord squeal, That makes the notes of discord squeal, Till humankind aft dance a reel Till humankind often dance a reel In gore a shoe-thick, In gore a shoe-thick, Gie a’ the faes o’ Scotland’s weal Give all the foes of Scotland’s well-being A towmond’s toothache. A twelve months toothache.

[Read at the Robbie Burns’ Birthday party by Peter Hetman; text taken from the excellent website of The World Burns Club (www.worldburnsclub.com). It would have been preferable to have a poem dealing with Burns’ religious views, but they were all too long and difficult to understand. Those interested in that should see the website for such poems as Address to the Deil (Devil), Epistle to a Young Friend, Holy Willie’s Prayer, The Holy Fair and The Kirk’s Alarm. Other poems read or sung on that night include Address to a Haggis, To a Mouse, I Murder Hate, The Banks o’ Doone, A Red Red Rose, Comin’ Thro’ the Rye and Scots Wha Hae (also knowns as ‘Bannockburn’) – all of these and much more are on that website.]

7 HAWAIIAN SPIRITUALITY AND MEDITATION

[Abstract of an address given at the Sydney Unitarian Church by Ian Ellis-Jones on 15 January 2005]

One of the many good things about Hawaiian spirituality is that, even though it’s extremely profound, it’s also very practical and workable. There’s a minimum of ‘hocus pocus’, and you don’t need a guru or have to believe in supernaturalism to practise it. Another good thing … the Hawaiians remind us that the power is within us, and the power is in the doing. You see, Hawai’i isn't just a set of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it's a state of consciousness within you. Here are the various layers of meaning that are said to be embedded in the word Hawai'i: ha: breath, or the breath of life, wai: water, but also a code word for mana or ‘life force’, and

'i: supreme.

The native Hawaiians saw themselves as living in the stream of life’s supreme life force riding on life’s breath. What about us? Yes, we, too, are part of life’s self-livingness. Although for the most part we aren’t consciously aware of it, we all live in the stream of life’s supreme ‘life force’ that rides on life's breath which we ‘carry’ with us, and with which we can ‘connect’ at any time and anywhere. We carry ‘Hawai’i’ with us. It’s a state of spiritual consciousness, a state of Being, and a way of life. Most, if not all, of you would be familiar with the traditional Hawaiian word of friendly welcome, aloha (love, mercy, compassion). As a greeting, the word means hello, welcome, goodbye and farewell. However, there are several layers of meaning embedded (some say encoded) in the word.

The composite multilayered expression ‘aloha’ means this: “Eye to eye, face to face, consciously, I greet you and joyfully give to you my peace and my breath of life” (or “My conscious self joyfully gives you the gift of my life's breath [or my breath/my life]”). The word ‘aloha’ implies, and conveys, a wonderful reverence for that which has life - all Life - and for what Hawaiians call the mana, the Power, the Spirit, which life implies and which is the very Livingness of Life. As we share this energy (ha), we become attuned to the Divine Power, mana.

Here's something interesting from the State of Hawai’i. It's called ‘The Aloha Spirit Law’ (Hawai'i Revised Statutes, L 1986, c 202, §1, s 5-7.5), and it’s all about kindness and other lovely qualities. Indeed, Hawaiian decision makers, including the executive and the judiciary, may give consideration to this ancient law when making decisions. The Hawaiian statute acknowledges that what is known as the Aloha Spirit ‘was the working philosophy of native Hawaiians and was presented as a gift to the people of Hawai’i’.

Hawaiian shaman (kahuna) and author Dr Serge Kahili King, in The Aloha Spirit, says that blessing is the ‘most powerful technique in the world and the way to tune into [the] Power’. The 'secret' is to bless everyone and everything. Blessing may be done with imagery or touch, but the most usual way to do it is with words. There are various forms of verbal blessing, namely admiration (the giving of compliments or praise), affirmation (a specific statement of blessing for increase or endurance), appreciation (expression of gratitude) and anticipation (a blessing for the future). We are to bless people, animals, circumstances, and all potential for happiness that we notice around us - in other words, everything. In the words of the New Testament, we are to ‘bless them which persecute [us]: bless, and curse not’ (Rom 12:14). In fact, the Old Testament injunction to bless the Lord your God for ever and ever (see Neh 9:5) means, in effect, that we are to recognise and affirm the life of the Lord in all things and in all people. ‘Death and life are in the power of the tongue’ (Prov 18:21). ‘By our words we will be justified, and by our words we will be condemned’ (Mt 12:37). So never underestimate the power of blessing.

Hawaiian spirituality is extremely rich and diverse. It includes sacred chanting, accompanied by drums, as well as many forms and techniques of meditation. Chanting is said to release mana in the ha, that is, in the actual breath forming the various sounds. According to Dr King there are seven basic spiritual principles embedded in Hawaiian spirituality and meditation which purport to explain the way

8 the world works. These principles (each represented by a distinctive Hawaiian word) are said to be universal and all-encompassing. The seven principles are as follows:

1. IKE - The world is what you think it is.

2. KALA - There are no limits … We are all one.

3. MAKIA - Energy flows where attention goes.

4. MANAWA - Now is the moment of power.

5. ALOHA - To love is to be happy (or to be happy with).

6. MANA - All power comes from within.

7. PONO - Effectiveness is the measure of truth.

As I’ve already mentioned, mana refers to vital force, divine power, creative power. Where there is no mana there is no life, and no thought. The kahunas used the word mana-o for ‘to think’. It means literally something done with mana. All of us have vital force, the Spirit of Life, Truth and Love within us. In the words of the New Testament, the Kingdom of God is within you (Lk 17:21). Within us is the one and only Presence and Power active in the universe, the Power that makes all things new.

According to the Hawaiian kahunas all sacred rituals and spiritual practices require the pumping of copious amounts of mana in conjunction with piko piko breathing in order to boost and properly radiate outwards the ‘life force’. There is a form of breathing that is an integral part of Hawaiian meditation called piko piko, which, it is said, greatly expands one’s energy field. As you breathe in fully, and deeply, through the nose, completely filling your lungs, focus all of your attention on the crown of your head. As you exhale fully, through the mouth, with the sound ha, focus all of your attention on your navel. As previously mentioned, the out breath is whispered loudly, and should be twice as long as the in-breath. Continue for about five minutes. At all times, remain poised and relaxed. (If, at any time, you feel light-headed or start to hyperventilate, stop and wait for it to pass.)

Here’s a simple Hawaiian meditation. Sit comfortably, with a straight back. Gently relax.Lay your hands in your lap, palms cupped upward, left palm resting gently on top of the right palm. Lightly being together and touch your thumbs. Now close your eyes. Commence piko piko breathing, focusing your attention on the crown of your head as you breathe in deeply, and on your navel as you exhale fully. Observe your breath. As you breathe in and out ever so deeply and fully, think of something really beautiful (for example, a beautiful lake, beach or mountain, or perhaps a rainbow or sunset). See it clearly in your mind’s eye and hold it there. Visualise its beauty. As you hold this image of great beauty in your mind begin to bless it with your breathing. Continue blessing all that you are visualising. Continue to observe your breath. Should memories, thoughts or feelings arise, just notice them, but don't cling to them. Don’t resist them or try to make them go away. What you resist, persists. Just observe the thoughts gently and dispassionately, without judgment, and let them go. Continue to follow your breath. Stay awake and aware … and perfectly relaxed. Now, envision yourself being in a cocoon of white light. Visualising the white light radiating out from your heart as you send forth mana (‘life force’) to your loved ones, in fact, to all persons, especially those with whom you are currently experiencing difficulties. Bless them all. Relax … and let go. Feel the brilliance of the white light. Feel it intensify into every part, indeed every cell, of your body. Continue to follow your breath. Stay quietly in this meditation until you feel that you are ready to come back, then gently slip back into the now. Just before you open your eyes, take a quick deep breath. … Now, gently open your eyes. Now say ‘mahalo’, which means … thank you. Mahalo, Spirit of Life within us.

Aloooooooo-ha!

[My special thanks to Ian for doing his own ‘hatchet work’ and on very short notice. Anyone wishing to have the full text can contact Sherman Kim at SUC.]

9 LUNAR NEW YEAR

The Year of the Dog (4073) commenced on 29 January this year. The date of New Year’s Day in our calendar changes yearly because it is usually the second New Moon after the Winter Solstice. While not a religious festival, the Lunar New Year is the most important day in Chinese culture - and very colourful, as people in any city privileged to have a Chinatown are well aware. (However, this festival is also celebrated in Mongolia, Tibet, Vietnam, Nepal and Bhutan.)

Preparations begin several days before the actual New Moon, when the house is given a good clean (to get rid of the misfortunes of the past year). The ‘kitchen god’ (god of the household) receives special respect at this time, before he makes an annual report on the family’s behaviour to the Jade Emperor (the chief god). People re-paint their doors and windows, usually red (an auspicious colour), and attach short poems in welcome of the new year to their doorways and gates. All brooms and dust pans are put away on New Year’s Eve so that good luck cannot be swept away.

On New Year’s Eve, the extended family gathers for a sumptuous meal, which must include fish. The popular plants for New Year are peach blossoms and kumquats. (There are Chinese puns between the words for ‘fish’ and ‘abundance’, a seaweed dish and ‘prosperity’, and ‘kumquat’, ‘gold’ and ‘good luck’.) Children are expected to stay up as late as they can on New Year’s Eve in order to accumulate longevity for their parents. On the next day, children have new clothes to wear, and their parents and elders give them laisee (lucky money) in red and gold envelopes.

Then there are the fireworks, Lion Dances, dragon boat races and other entertainment. During the Lion Dance, the area is filled with noise from firecrackers, drums and cymbals to frighten off Nian, a surreptitious predatory monster. The whole festival has an elaborate protocol of days for visiting, staying home and eating special foods. The ninth day is the Jade Emperor’s birthday, so special offerings are made to him. The fifteenth day is the Festival of Lanterns, where these delicate candle- bearing devices made of bamboo and paper are carried on poles through the streets at night to guide wandering ghosts home. This is also the Chinese equivalent of St. Valentine’s Day, which brings us to the next article.

ST. VALENTINE WAS A WOLF?

St. Valentine’s Day actually corresponds to the Roman festival of Lupercalia. This was dedicated to the god, Pan, who protected herds from wolves, and possibly connected with the she-wolf who nursed the infant twins, Romulus and Remus. Admittedly, this festival was actually held on 15 February, but it was a fertility rite and its celebrants were an order of priests known as Luperci, who were devotees of Pan. The festival began with the priests sacrificing goats and a dog. A sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut the skins of the animals into thongs and ran virtually naked in two bands around the Palatine Hill, striking any woman they saw with the thongs. This was supposed to render the woman fertile, which service they apparently welcomed.

Lupercalia was appropriated by Pope Gelasius I as the Feast of Purification in 494 CE. Now celebrated at the beginning of the month, it refers to Jesus’ presentation at the Temple forty days after his birth. (Under Jewish law, pregnant women were absolved from religious observations such as fasting, but then had to be ritually ‘purified’ before resuming them.) It was Gelasius who named the feast-day after St. Valentinus, a Christian martyr of the 3rd Century. Unfortunately, there were three such men and no-one has ever known which one Gelasius had in mind, for which reason Valentine was finally removed from the Calendar of Saints in 1969 along with others of dubious historicity.

In 1836, some relics exhumed from the catacombs of Saint Hippolytus near Rome, were identified with St Valentine and donated in a golden casket to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin by Pope Gregory XVI. Tourists still visit the saintly remains on St. Valentine’s Day, when the casket is carried in solemn procession to the high altar for a special Mass dedicated to young people and all those in love. Alleged bodily relics of St Valentine also lie at the reliquary of Roquemaure in France and in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.

10 RACOVIA

The year 2005 marks the 400th anniversary of the Racovian Catechism, perhaps the most widely influential Unitarian document in history, causing consternation in conventional religious circles for many decades after it first appeared. It was produced in the little town of Raków (Racovia), today an unremarkable place in the depths of the Polish countryside, but at that time famous as the Unitarian capital of Europe. Its printing press issued hundreds of titles, most of them in Latin, which meant that they could and did find a place in the libraries of leading thinkers all across the continent. It also boasted an academy whose high standards drew students and faculty from many countries and gave the town the additional title of ‘the Sarmatian Athens’.*

Poland, known during that period as the ‘asylum of heretics’, provided a remarkably tolerant environ- ment for radicals who in many other countries would have been burned at the stake or suffered in the widespread wars of religion. Consequently, it drew many refugees, a large number of whom were well-educated Italians. The most prominent of these was Faustus Socinus, after whom the whole Unitarian movement was for more than two centuries popularly called ‘Socinian’. The Racovian Cate- chism embodied his thinking, though he died a year before its publication.

Though Socinus was hospitably received in Raków, the town had been founded by Poles a decade before he arrived. The original intention was that it would be a Utopian community democratically organized, with material possessions owned in common. This proved a failure among the individual- istic Poles, but it gave place to a centre not only for the theological debates that made it famous, but also for progressive thinking on such subjects as capital punishment and participation in war. Its broad humane spirit has been widely recognized as one of the sources of the eighteenth-century Enlighten- ment, although by the time of that flowering of the human spirit Raków itself had succumbed to the forces of religious repression. None the less, in a present-day world which offers many parallels to the concerns for which practical answers were sought four centuries ago, the story of this early community can be an inspiring one.

* Sarmatia was the Roman name for an eastern region which included eastern Poland and Slovakia.

[The above is a promotion for a book by Rev. Phillip Hewett, entitled Racovia: An Early Liberal Religious Community. First published last year, it can be ordered from Blackstone Editions (www.blacksoneeditions.com) for a mere $US 12.00, citing ISBN 0-9725017-5-4. Rev. Hewett is Minister Emeritus of the Vancouver (Canada) Unitarian Church, where he served as minister from its foundation in 1956 until 1991. (Your editor’s family was there from the beginning.) He was also interim minister at the Adelaide Unitarian Church in 1981 and the Auckland Unitarian Church in 1989 during brief sabbaticals. Born and educated in England, his other books are: An Unfettered Faith (1956), The Uncarven Image (1962), On Being a Unitarian (1969), Unitarians in Canada (1978; 2nd Edn. 1995), and Understanding Unitarians (1992).]

UNITARIAN CYBERSPACE

Just to get this thing finished and off to the printer, those of you with Internet access may like to ‘surf’ the following websites in your spare time. You never know what you might find!

Australia and New Zealand Unitarian Association: www.anzua.org/anzua_alt

International Conference of Unitarians and Universalists: www.icuu.net

General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (UK): www.unitarian.org.uk

Unitarian-Universalist Association (USA): www.uua.org

11 UU RELIEF CAMP NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENTIAL AWARD

In earthquake devastated Pakistan, the UU Relief Camp under the leadership of Rev. Inderias Bhatti has been nominated to receive the Presidential Certificate of Appreciation for its humanitarian work among the neediest victims. The nomination was cited in [three] daily Islamabad newspapers (Pakistan capital).

In one interview Rev. Bhatti is quoted as saying, “We are a limited resourced group so we do not have much relief stuff to share but even with this limited relief we always share it to build a spirit of compassion, sharing and not as a mercy show to victims in their helplessness. The other intention is to bring the victims to normal life through opportunities of showing and sharing love and laughter.”

The Relief Manager of Balakot said that the UU Camp has been cited for this honor because of “the compassion and sympathy beyond tents, clothes, blankets, relief foodstuff, etc. Their jokes, stories and participatory singing are bringing smiles to the faces and joy in the hearts of the victims in their acute losses.”

Inderias says that the UU Camp reaches out to the people who are without physical or political power or access to relief stuff. “Though we do not have much to give, we do present whatever we have and help those ‘left out’ people to be heard. Besides that, we do share stories, songs and jokes to build compassion among the victims.” He goes on to say, “stories like Stone Soup build an attitude of sharing because there are many cases in which people have gathered together a lot of relief stuff and have hidden it.”

Whether or not the Unitarian Universalists of Pakistan actually receive the Presidential Certificate of Appreciation next August, it is a great honor to have been nominated. Their work may have become a threat to local Moslem Clerics who find it a converting mission to people in need.

The need is very great and will continue. Inderias has made an appeal for money. They could also use pain medicine, cold and cough medicine, vitamins and food supplements as well as warm winter clothes, shoes, and blankets. Money can be easily transferred to him by Western Union. Clothes and such can be sent by mail. It takes a while. I usually sew it up in an old pillowcase.

[Written by Rev. Polly Guild, Program Director, on the ICUU website, where you can also see some pictures of the camp. Polly and her husband, Rev. Ted Guild, attended the 1994 ANZUA Conference in Adelaide as part of a UUA-sponsored initiative and conducted workshops on how to expand our denomination in Australia. The Unitarian Universalist Christians of Pakistan was founded by Rev. Bhatti in the early 1990s and has a single congregation of 100 members in Lahore.]

CONTACT US

This journal is not meant to the ‘The Mike and Ian Show’, so I will welcome any and all contributions others may have. If you have any items you believe would be of interest to the congregation, please submit them for publication. As you can see from the contents of this issue, such items can be serious articles, informative ‘fillers’, poems or even jokes. We also welcome your comments and suggestions, either as ‘Letters to the Editor’ or just to let us know your views.

Deadline for copy for the April issue of the Sun is Sunday 19 March 2006.

The preferred method for sending actual documents is as an attached WORD file to: [email protected] – otherwise, simple email is suitable for short items or messages. Alternately, copy can be posted or brought to SUC (see mailing address in the masthead).

Anyone wishing to contact the President or other Executive members should ring the SUC number in the masthead and the minister will put you in touch with them.

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