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 www.sydneyunitarianchurch.org Sydney Unitarian News Editor: M.R. McPhee

April/May 2010

‘THE PREACHER WHO SAVED CALIFORNIA’

Thomas Starr King was born in New York City on 17 December 1824, to a Universalist minister, Thomas Farrington King and his wife, Susan. He was always known as ‘Starr’, though that was his mother’s family name. He grew up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and in Charlestown, Massachusetts, where he studied to attend college and then divinity school. However, Starr King was 15 when his father died and he worked as a clerk, assistant teacher, grammar school principal, and bookkeeper at the naval yard to support his mother and siblings. That last job particularly suited him, as his working hours enabled him to attend some classes at Harvard College, even though he had never completed high school.

King was assisted by the Unitarian minister, Rev. Hosea Ballou II, a friend of his father, who designed a systematic course of study for the ministry for him. He gave his first public address in 1845, at the age of twenty, and preached his first sermon later that year. He was recommended to the ministry by the legendary Rev. Theodore Parker and, after a short apprenticeship at a small church in Boston, became the minister of the Charlestown Universalist Church. That had been his father’s church and he felt the congregants still thought of him as a boy, so he resigned and, after a brief period at the Second Unitarian Church of New York, took the pulpit of the Hollis Street Unitarian Church in Boston in 1848. Shortly thereafter, he married Julia Wiggin, by whom he would have two children, Edith and Frederick.

King did not feel that he had actually changed denominations, as he said the only reason the Unitarians and Universalists had not already joined together was that they were “too near of kin to be married”. (He also liked to say: “The one [Universalist] thinks God is too good to damn them forever, the other [Unitarian] thinks they are too good to be damned forever.” – however, that adage was probably first expressed by another Universalist minister, Rev. Thomas Gold Appleton.)

The Hollis Street church had been riven by discord over temperance and Abolition, so it was King’s task to rebuild the membership. He was there for eleven years, during which time he increased the church’s numbers to five times what it had been when he arrived. For all that, he had to supplement his meagre salary by giving public lectures around New England and beyond, from Maine to Missouri. On the strength of his academic and religious activities, King was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by Harvard College in 1850.

1 For all that, King became dissatisfied in Boston, where he felt looked down on due to his lack of formal credentials. He wrote to his friend and erstwhile mentor, Rev. Henry Bellows: “I do think we are unfaithful in huddling so closely around the cozy stove of civilization in this blessed Boston, and I, for one, am ready to go out into the cold and see if I am good for anything.” In 1860, he moved with his family to San Francisco – which, in those days, meant taking a boat to Panama, crossing the isthmus by train and sailing north again. The San Francisco Unitarian Society, founded 10 years earlier, was the only Unitarian church on the west coast of the United States. He preached twice each Sunday and, under King’s careful supervision, the Society built a beautiful gothic church which was dedicated in January, 1864.

However, King saw his ministry as threefold: to his congregation, to the Christians in the region and to the people of California. He had a vision of a unified liberal Christian church and his preaching brought people from well inland to hear him. With his orations throughout Northern California, he helped to educate the San Francisco elite, labourers, blacks and miners about Socrates, contemporary poets, materialism and the beauty of nature. He also became involved in politics in the lead-up to the Civil War, campaigning for Abraham Lincoln from his pulpit and travelling by stagecoach throughout California to promote the Union. His skills as an orator and the power of his personality helped to elect a Republican (i.e., pro-Union) governor and state congress in 1861, after which he worked tirelessly to raise massive funds for the US Sanitary Commission (later the Red Cross), which oversaw the health and medical care of the Union Army. The commander-in- chief, General Winfield Scott, later said that King had “saved California to the Union”.

King had always been a short and slight individual whose health failed at times. On 04 March 1864, after only four years in California and barely 39 years old, he died from diphtheria, pneumonia and (in the words of his future son-in-law) “the slow suicide of overwork”. His memorial service was attended by some 20,000 people as flags flew at half-mast from public buildings and even on ships in the harbour.

[This article is based on an address written by Arliss Ungar of the Mt. Diablo UU Church in Walnut Creek, California, and an article in the (on-line) Dictionary of UU Biography by Celeste DeRoche and Peter Hughes. The former is long overdue for our attention, as Arliss intended to deliver that address at our church on 16 September 2001, when she visited Sydney with her husband, Art. Unfortunately, that service was just after the ‘9-11’ event and the minister of the day decided that we should have an open forum on the implications of that. Please see p. 7 for yet another ‘Ungar connection’ and pp. 11/12 for some more infor- mation affecting Starr King.]

SERVICE DIARY

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

Date Presenter Topic 4th April Rev. Dr. Ian Ellis-Jones God as Light 11th April Rev. Dr. Ian Ellis-Jones Newton: Scientist and Unitarian 18th April Rev. Dr. Ian Ellis-Jones Fundamentalist Militant Atheists * 25th April Chad Vindin/Walter Mason Music and Meditation Service 2nd May Rev. Dr. Ian Ellis-Jones Rev. Charles Strong and the Australian Church ** 9th May Dr. Edi Bilimoria Sir Isaac Newton: England’s Greatest Occultist and Mystic 16th May Rev. Dr. Ian Ellis-Jones A Unitarian Crucifix 23rd May Walter Mason Teaching Without Utterance: The Philosophy of Taoism 30th May Chad Vindin/Walter Mason Music and Meditation Service

* This will be the date of the re-scheduled Annual General Meeting.

** Dr. Edi Bilimoria is a mechanical engineer and a prominent member of the Theosophical Society.

[Please check the church website (www.sydneyunitarianchurch.org) for updates. The program for June will be available from the beginning of May.] 2 Gbogbo Eda Dapo, Let all nations live together in unison E Jo Yin Oluwa. And praise GOD together. E Pa Ohun nyin po, Speak with one voice Lati Fe Oro Na; To LOVE and accept the Word. K’ ife da orin ope nla, Let LOVE create great songs of praise Ki gbogbo eda k’o si gbe. For all living souls to sing together.

Submitted by the First Unitarian Church of Nigeria; Yoruba and English words written by its General Secretary, Olufemi Matimoju.

Au nom de la Miséricorde et de la Compassion: In the name of compassion and loving-kindness: Suivant les traces d’Ibn Arabi, maître soufi, nous Following the paths of Ibn Arabi, a Sufi master, laissons se dilater nos coeurs, afin de les rendre we let our hearts dilate to enable them to fit all capables d'étreindre toute forme spirituelle ou spiritual or existential kinds. existentielle. For those who seek, our hearts have become Notre cœur, pour celles et ceux qui cherchent, est church, temple, synagogue, mosque, sanctuary; devenu une église, un temple, une synagogue, une stronghold for the poor, for those who are suffering, mosquée, un sanctuaire, une citadelle pour les for minorities wherever they come from. humbles, les souffrants et les minorités d'où qu'elles We believe in the religion of Love, which has no viennent. gender, and to which all personal stories are Nous croyons en la religion de l'Amour, qui n'a pas leading. de genre, vers laquelle se dirigent les histoires Because Love is our religion and our faith. personnelles. Car l'Amour est notre religion et notre foi.

[Submitted by Yohann Amal on behalf of the Council of French Unitarians and Universalists (Conseil des Unitariens et Universalistes Français).]

[These are the Chalice Lightings from the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists for the months of March and April.]

The First Unitarian Church of Nigeria was founded in Lagos in 1994 by Rev. Olatunji Matimoju “to propa- gate a gospel of freedom and service”. Today, it is led by his sons, Rev. Adeyenka and Olufemi Matimoju, the latter of whom is a member of the ICUU Council. Elsewhere in Lagos is the Unitarian Brotherhood Church (Ijo Isokan Gbogbo Eda), founded in 1917 by an ex-Anglican Bishop, Adeniran Adedeji Isola. This congregation offered a religion based on liberal Christianity which also included services in the Yoruba language and traditional music (native drums). The FUCN was formed by members of that church and, as a result of deaths in the latter’s senior leadership, the Matimoju brothers are now in charge of both and working toward a formal union with a single Nigerian membership in the ICUU. Unfortunately, neither body has a website, so little more is known about them. (More from ‘Femi’ on p. 10, however.)

The Council of French Unitarians and Universalists is a new umbrella group which comprises the Fraternal Assembly of Unitarian Christians (see the August/September 2009 issue), its Correspondence Unitarienne newsletter, the Francophone Unitarians forum, the Francophone Unitarian-Universalist Association and the Islamo-Unitarian Friendship group. Its president is Grégoire Maury and Yohann Amal (presumed author of the Chalice Lighting) is the representative of the Francophone Unitarians on the Council. We understand that the CUUF has applied to be the official French representative to the ICUU, replacing the FAUC. For those who can read French, their website (http://unitariens.francais.over-blog.fr) contains many links and facets that will tell you more about the Council and its various members.

These include the on-line Francophone Unitarian Church, which sees its purview as extending to French- speaking communities elsewhere in Europe (e.g., Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco and Andorra), in North America (Québec, Acadia, Louisiana and Philadelpia) and Africa (Burundi, the two Congos and Togo). Why Philadelphia will have to wait for another day but we have more on Africa on p. 5.

3 KING’S CHAPEL, BOSTON – A UNIQUE UNITARIAN CHURCH

By Max Lawson

King's Chapel, Boston, is a short walk from the UUA headquarters on Beacon Street. Its Senior Minister, Dr. Earl K. Hold III, ruefully recalled an out-of-town Unitarian visitor coming to a King’s Chapel service and afterwards remarking to him in effect, “Do the people at the headquarters know what you are getting away with down here?” King’s Chapel, Boston has been “getting away with it” for over three hundred years. Moreover, the church is now up to its ninth edition of the 550-page red hardcover Book of Common Prayer according to Use in King's Chapel.

In an insightful account of a visit to King’s Chapel, Suzanne Strempek Shea mused, “I could have plunked any member of my Roman Catholic family in this church this morning and afterwards heard nary a ‘What was that all about?’”1 King’s Chapel, with its fascinating history, is not only an anomaly in Unitarianism but part of a dwindling Christian counter-culture presence in the denomination at large.

Before the American War of Independence, King’s Chapel had been an Anglican chapel serving the small community that still adhered to the Church of England, much to the hostility of the local Puritans. When the War of Independence began, not only did the British troops leave Boston but the Anglican rector and many of his parishioners decided to go with them. The remnant of the congregation that was left became “the freest church in Boston” – cut off from Anglicanism on the one hand and, on the other, not subject to the Standing Orders of the established Puritan/Calvinist church of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

King’s Chapel, now adrift, had a chance “to create a truly Republican religion for the new republic”.2 What happened was a compromise: Unitarian theology and an Anglican liturgy higher than that of even many American Episcopal churches.3 Although this model (or, as Harvey Cox has noted “what harsher critics might have called a potpourri”4) of Unitarian theology and Anglican liturgy may have become a template to follow, “these religious proportions did not catch on with the rest of the population of the new nation”.5

When the Apostle’s Creed was removed from the King’s Chapel prayer book in 1810, the church became unequivocally Unitarian (although curiously the Creed still remained on the walls of the church). King’s Chapel is the oldest Unitarian Church in the United States, a claim sometimes challenged in Philadelphia as it was the first U.S. Church to include ‘Unitarian’ in its actual title.

There is no denying that King's Chapel remains a flagship for the Christian presence in the Unitarian- Universalist movement. Of the 25 churches within the UUA – admittedly 20 of the 25 churches come from the greater Boston area – old traditions indeed die hard. King’s Chapel has also kept up links since the 1920s with the Unitarian churches in Transylvania (Romania) which are in the liberal Christian tradition.

Although there are connections with such European Unitarianism as well as British Unitarianism, American Unitarianism is largely “an indigenous affair”.6 This is partly because of its reaction to the Puritan/Calvinist doctrines particularly concerning “the innate depravity of mankind” and “double predestination”. It is also partly because what was to become American Unitarianism came under the influence of the French Age of Enlightenment, the American Revolution of 1776 and the American Declaration of Independence itself, signed by a number of ‘Unitarians’ or Unitarian fellow travellers.

Throughout its turbulent history, King's Chapel has maintained a distinctly Christian perspective, even if it is part of the minority of “holdouts within Unitarian Universalism”.7

1 Suzanne Strempek Shea, “King’s Chapel, Boston” in Sundays in America: a Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian faith (Boston: Beacon Press, 2008) p. 225. 2 Harvey Cox, “The Future of Religion”, Chapter 9 in Many Mansions: a Christian's Encounter with Other Faiths (Boston: Beacon Press, 1988), p. 208. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid: p. 209. 6 Paul K. Conkin, American Originals: Homemade Varieties of Christianity (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1997) p. 57. 7 Ibid, p. 107. 4 [This article is based on an interview with the Rev. Dr. Earl K. Holt III, Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston, on 19 June 2009. Dr. Max Lawson was a Senior Lecturer in History of Education at the University of New England in Armidale and then taught World Literature at the International People’s College in Helsingør (Elsinore), Denmark, after he retired. He has travelled the US extensively in his quest for Unitarian history.]

ICUU NEWS

Annual Conferences

Unitarians of Africa

The Annual Meetings of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches will be held at the University of Nottingham over 08–11 April. The plural ‘meetings’ may just refer to different events during the four days, though there are programs for children, youth, ministers and others who are not delegates to the Business Meetings. The ICUU President, Rev. Brian Kiely will deliver the John Relly Beard Lecture, the first person from outside the UK (he is Canadian) to do so. That Lecture is sponsored by the professional body of British Unitarian ministers in memory of Rev. John Relly Beard, a famous forebear whose many accomplishments included the establishment of Unitarian College Manchester. Beard had an early interest in liberal religion abroad and edited a book of essays on international Unitarianism in 1846 entitled: Unitarianism Exhibited in its Actual Condition.

Kiely’s subject will be ‘The Center and the Circle: The Challenge of International Ministry’, which he describes thus: “Unitarianism is not really a global faith. Rather it is a collection of indigenous expressions of the liberal religious spirit. That truth combined with economic and varying educational conditions around the globe make international Unitarian ministry challenging indeed.” More information about the Meetings and the GAFUCC can be found on their website: www.unitarian.org.uk.

On the other side of the globe, the UUA will hold its annual General Assembly at the Convention Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, over 23–28 June. The ICUU will be represented by its Executive Secretary, Steve Dick, and Program Coordinator, Jill McAllister. They will be running an ICUU booth at the UU International Organizations Village, as well as hosting a number of special events, and guests from U*U groups in other countries will also make an appearance. Full details about the General Assembly are on the UUA’s website (www.uua.org) and there is also a special new one: www.UUinternational.org.

The oldest Unitarian church in Africa is the Unitarian Church of Cape Town, founded in 1867 by Rev. Dawid Faure of the Dutch Reformed Church. Though native-born, he absorbed sufficient liberal views while training for the ministry in the Netherlands that he was rejected by his own church on his return. His adherents encouraged him to found the Free Protestant Church which, after his retirement in 1897, was brought into the Unitarian movement by his English successor, Rev. Ramsden Balmforth in 1921. Today, the Unitarian Church of South Africa also has Fellowships in Johannesburg, Durban and West Somerset (close to Cape Town). Their website is: www.unitarian.co.za and their retired minister, Rev. Gordon Oliver, was the previous president of the ICUU.

More numerous, though, are the Kenyan Unitarians, whose numbers have expanded to perhaps 500 in four congregations since that body was founded in 2001 by Rev. Patrick Mangara, who was formerly a Seventh Day Adventist minister. Two of those congregations are in Nairobi and the others are in rural areas, but all are actively involved in social projects: women’s groups, working cooperatives, AIDS orphanages and volunteer-run schools. There is also a Unitarian congregation in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, founded more recently by Mark Kiyamba, which has a rural branch that runs a school for 450 AIDS orphans.

Details are sparse on the Assembly of Christian Unitarians of Burundi (founded in 2003 and led by Fulgence Nagijimana), its counterpart in Congo–Brazzaville (2006, Alain Patrice Yengué) and the Christian Unitarian Association of Togo (2008, Téou Alfa). The Unitarian grouping in Congo–Kinshasa, Lisanga ya bandimi na Nzambe, isn’t even listed on the ICUU website but they are known to the French Unitarians and have eight congregations. We will put our French expert to work on these matters and report back in a later issue. 5 ST. PATRICK’S BIRTHDAY

On the eighth day of March it was, some people say, That Saint Patrick at midnight first saw the day. While others declare ’twas the ninth he was born, And ’twas all a mistake between midnight and morn; For mistakes will occur in a hurry and shock, and some blam’d the babby – and some blam’d the clock – with all their cross questions sure no one could know If the child was too fast – or the clock was too slow.

Now the first faction fight in old Ireland, they say, Was all on account of Saint Patrick’s birthday. Some fought for the eighth – for the ninth more would die, And who wouldn’t see right, sure they blacken’d his eye! At last both the factions so positive grew, That each kept a birthday, so Pat then had two. Till Father Mulcahy, who confessed them their sins, Said, “Ye can't have two birthdays, unless ye be twins.”

Says he, “Don’t be fightin’ for eight or for nine, Don’t be always dividin – but sometimes combine; Combine eight with nine, and seventeen is the mark, So let that be his birthday.” “Amen,” says the clerk. “If he wasn’t a twins, sure our hist’ry will show That, at least, he is worth any two saints that we know!” Then they all drowned the shamrock – which completed their bliss, And we keep up the practice from that day to this.

For some strange reason, the February/March issue always contains so much pressing material that we never have space for any acknowledgement of the mighty 17 March. This gem was edited and adapted from Dick’s Irish Dialect Recitations (Wm. B. Dick, Editor; New York; Dick & Fitzgerald; 1879), as found on the impressive and authoritative website: www.irishcultureandcustoms.com.

Having said that, the ditty is not at all historically accurate – no-one has a clue when St. Patrick was born but the official date of his death is 17 March. (The year is uncertain but it was probably 460.) Here are a few items from the website’s Jokes page:

Have you heard about the Irish boomerang? – It doesn’t come back, it just sings sad songs about how much it wants to.

Brendan was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up to heaven he said, “Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up the drink.” Miraculously, a parking place appeared. Brendan looked up again and said, “Never mind, I found one.”

A young lad had just gotten his provisional license. He asked his father, who was a minister, if they could discuss his use of the car. His father said to him, "If you bring your marks up, study your Bible, and get your hair cut, we'll talk about it." A month later the boy came back and again asked his father if they could now discuss his use of the car. His father said, “Well, son, I see that your marks have improved, you've studied your Bible diligently, but you didn't get a hair cut!” The young man waited a moment and then replied, “You know dad, I've been thinking about that. Didn't Samson have long hair, Moses have long hair, Noah have long hair, and even Jesus himself have long hair?” His father replied, “They did so, and they walked everywhere they went!”

Irish patient to fellow in the next bed, “Look, the doctor's coming round soon. Try to cheer him up because he's very worried about you.”

6 PASSOVER

Then you shall take some of the blood, and put it on the door posts and the lintels of the houses . . . and when I see the blood, I shall pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. – Exodus 12: 7 & 13

They thought they were safe that spring night; when they daubed the doorways with sacrificial blood. To be sure, the angel of death passed them over, but for what? Forty years in the desert without a home, without a bed, following new laws to an unknown land. Easier to have died in Egypt or stayed there a slave, pretending there was safety in the old familiar.

But the promise, from those first naked days outside the garden, is that there is no safety, only the terrible blessing of the journey. You were born through a doorway marked in blood. We are, all of us, passed over, brushed in the night by terrible wings.

Ask that fierce presence, whose imagination you hold. God did not promise that we shall live, but that we might, at last, glimpse the stars, brilliant in the desert sky.

Lynn Ungar

Rev. Lynn Ungar is the daughter of the aforementioned Arliss and Art Ungar, and an accomplished poet of the current UU generation. She graduated from the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley and, after eight years of parish ministry, became Director of Religious Education at the Starr King UU Church in Hayward, California. Her current position is Minister for Lifespan Learning in the Church of the Larger Fellowship, a special congregation of the UUA which caters to those who, for such reasons as remote location or overseas residency, don’t have a church to attend. That position, which she has held for five years, includes being editor of the CLF’s monthly journal, Quest.

This poem appears in What We Share: Collected Meditations, Volume Two (Skinner House, 2001), which also includes work by Richard S. Gilbert, Bruce T. Marshall, and Elizabeth Tarbox. It was also published in the March/April 2002 issue of UUWorld, the monthly journal of the UUA. Her first publication was a collection of poems entitled Blessing the Bread: Meditations (Skinner House, 1995). Some of Lynn’s work has been put to music and those of you with the relevant software can actually hear her sing this one by accessing: http://abmp3.com/download/5546998-passover.html. (That page also has links to a number of her other vocal productions.)

It’s good to know that we have successors to such Unitarian/Universalist poets as Henry Wadsworth Long- fellow, e. e. cummings and Ted Kooser, a former US Poet Laureate. (Yes! – they have one, nominated by the Librarian of Congress and a panel of expert advisors. Unlike the UK precursor, nominees usually serve for one year, but Kooser was re-appointed and so held the post for 2004–2006.)

7 AŚOKA, SWORD OF THE BUDDHA

By Peter Crawford

Most educated people in Western Europe, North America and Australia have heard of Julius Caesar, of Peter the Great of Russia, of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great. There is, however, a surprising ignorance of the name and life of Aśoka, the Maurya emperor of India in the third century before the Christian era. Yet Aśoka (also spelled ‘Ashoka’) is the greatest emperor in the history of India and one of the greatest persons in all history. For while Alexander and Caesar left trails of conquest and the sufferings of interminable battles won and lost, they in no way revolutionized ideas of humanity and religion. Their conquests were ruthless, and indifferent to the vast sufferings caused by unremitting military adventures. By contrast, Aśoka ruled and extended an empire in India which geographically was as extensive as that of Rome in the Mediterranean; yet is was also a religious empire which became a marvel in the areas of environmental and spiritual awareness. He used his great power, not for more conquests, but for stability and humanity. Alas, his empire did not survive him by more than fifty years.

Alexander the Great had conquered well into India by the time of his death in 322 BCE but, unlike the Roman Empire some centuries later, his Hellenistic vision lacked durability. His ambitious successors soon squabbled over the spoils and within a few years the Mauryas, an Indian people, had reasserted local control over most of what is today India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. There was no civilized attitude to succession among the Mauryas and Aśoka, so legend has it, simply took the throne about 269 BCE by murdering most of his brothers and other rivals. In fact there is a legend, quite unsubstantiated, that he murdered ninety-nine brothers and sisters to take the throne. He thus began his rule as a tyrant. Actually there is no clear written or agreed upon record of how he took the throne and none of the engravings upon his pillars give satisfactory explanation of the truth about his accession.

Unlike the reigns of Caesar and Alexander whose achievements, are variously and widely documented, the reign of Asoka is recorded entirely through engravings upon rocks and pillars. These pillars present the edicts, the thoughts and the ideas of one of the great humanitarians of history. The actual practice of engraving public information on pillars was at least partly inspired by the Persian precedent, whereunder the Achaemenids would list the conquests and triumphs of Darius I. But, whereas the Achaemenids engraved records of successful battles and conquests, Aśoka by contrast engraved philosophical precepts and humanitarian laws which were entirely revolutionary. The engravings of Asoka demonstrate personal involvement in their composition. They present policy pronouncements and moral directions to the peoples of a great and far-flung empire.

Aśoka had his share of military triumphs and bloody killings. In fact he reigned for eight tyrannical years between 274 and 366 BCE before his great humanitarian period began. He was apparently converted to Buddhism at some time during this period, though the dates are not clear. In 266 BCE, he won a notable and bloody victory over the Kalyngas, a tribal people outside his rule. It is said that 100,000 people perished in this bloody slaughter and a further 150,000 were taken prisoner. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, this victory led to an epiphany. The great king, fresh from a triumph, felt a lonely remorse and compassion for the victims: “His majesty feels remorse on account of the conquest of the Kalongs, because during the subjection of a previously unconquered country, slaughter, death and the taking of captive people necessarily occur, whereas his majesty feels profound sorrow and regret.” Probably many kings have had the best intentions after bloody conquest, but Asoka was to prove himself a determined and remarkable humanitarian revolutionary. Thirty years of peace, order and good government became the ruling signatures of his reign.

Aśoka saw religion as his way forward. This is not unusual – in 17th century England, James II was ordained into the Jesuit order, and the most heinous of Roman emperors were ascribed to the title of pontiff. Charles V of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor was to abandon the throne room for the monk’s cell. But these latter characters left records of bigotry and often religious persecution. Asoka by contrast left a legacy of unfailing Buddhist modesty and duty. Asoka himself became a monk but this in no way precluded him from remaining active in the affairs of the world. He acted according to his vows and the rules of the order, but also imposed these rules on his own vast empire.

From now on he sought no further imperial expansion. Instead he set about humanitarian endeavour, with the spirit and sentiments of the Buddha as his guiding flame. Buddhism had been practiced in India for a century or more before the reign of Aśoka but in no way rivalled either Brahmanism or Jainism as the main faith of 8 the people. Aśoka seemed attracted to the faith because of its uncompromising emphasis on the sanctity of human life. On becoming a Buddhist, Aśoka adopted the Dharma, the Buddhist text of right living, not only for himself but for the whole of his empire. One rock edict inscribed shortly after his great years began proclaimed: “The law of piety, to wit, obedience to father and mother is good; liberality to friends, acquaintances, relatives and Brahmins and ascetics is good; respect for the sacredness of life is good; avoidance of violence and extravagance of violence of language is good.”

When Aśoka assumed the throne, enormous quantities of animal flesh were regularly consumed at his royal palaces. After the Kalinga war, this was drastically reduced: “Formerly in the kitchens of his majesty King Pryadarsin (Aśoka) each day many thousands of living creatures were slain to make curries. At the present moment when this pious edict is being written, only these three living creatures, namely two peacocks and one deer, are killed daily and the deer not invariably. Even those creatures shall not be slaughtered in future.” Later he banned the slaughter of bats, tortoises, wild geese, parrots, ants, squirrels, porcupines and many others. In fact, there was to be no killing for eating. He banned the slaughter of all quadrupeds, both useful and edible. In addition, no fish were to be caught on 56 special days of the year.

Aśoka had ordered that both Jains and Brahmans were to be respected. This is often considered to be some original version of religious freedom. Actually, though, there was little friction between Buddhists, Jains and Brahmans. The groups were more like orders in a pantheon of beliefs and gods. So it is probably far-fetched to see Asoka as a great bringer of religious tolerance in the manner of Roger Williams, Governor of Rhode Island in the 17th Century or John Sigismund in Transylvania in the late 16th Century. Disagreements between Brahmans and Buddhists in no way paralleled the great struggles between Hindus and Muslims in later centuries.

Aśoka was no indifferent sceptic, however – he really sought to establish Buddhism as the prevailing passion and faith of his empire. He created the ‘Censors of Piety’, who were entrusted with the task that the teachings of the Dharma should be implemented. The officers of this remarkable institution played the role of a welfare state in the ancient world. It was commissioned not merely to oversee religious observance among the people “to be engaged in the promotion of piety among people of all sects, in the prevention of wrongful imprisonment or chastisement, and of considering welfare for cases where a large family has been smitten by calamity”.

Districts were ordered to hold assemblies every five or, in some cases, three years where the Dharma was to be explained and discussed. The great emperor was not satisfied that Buddhism should thrive in his kingdom alone. He sent forth missionaries to the far reaches of the earth as he understood it. Missionaries were sent forth to Ceylon in the far south, where the consequences were of great import for the future. Missionaries ventured to Syria and Egypt and possibly Macedonia. There is no doubt that Buddhism became the great religion of Kashmir and Afghanistan, as well as Ceylon, although history tells us that his missionaries met with little long-term success further west.

Where Alexander set out to conquer men’s lands, Aśoka sought to build a spiritual empire. There is no doubt that he set out to rule his earthly kingdom with a prevailing passion of kindness. On his borders were tribes, quite murderous and barbaric. In dealing with them and bringing them under his suzerainty, he issued orders like the following: “Do your duty, and inspire these folk with trust, so that they may be convinced that the king is unto them even as a father, and that even as he cares for himself, so he cares for them who are the king’s children.”

In studying the life and works of Aśoka, there seems no end to positives and superlatives. He sought to develop an honourable class of servants and officers to implement and spread the message of his humanitarian laws and edicts. He set himself great routines of work to ensure the implementation of his plans and dreams. He regularly ventured on pilgrimages and spiritual journeys. He ventured to Lumbini Park, the birthplace of the Buddha, and had it properly restored as a memorial to the great teacher.

His practical works demonstrate his sense of reason and humanity. He created, as did the Romans some centuries later, a fine network of roads. Along these roads, he planted fruit trees for the replenishment of travellers and established drinking troughs for travelling animals. He ordered the planting of banyan trees to shade weary people and animals from India’s blistering heat. Hospitals and roadside lodges he also had built. There seems no end to his good works as much as his good intentions, all of which were comprehensive, systematic and empire-wide. 9 Aśoka was the great and benign ruler of history. In the story of mankind, his role seems almost sublime, something of the imagination rather than the real world. He conceptualized the importance of discipline, both public and private, the idea of an all-embracing humanity and brotherhood of all peoples, of nature conser- vation and respect for nature and animals. He created the first national parks and banned the orgies of feasting upon birds, animals and fish. He saw his work as a day-to-day task. He was industrious and unswerving in his personal commitment and work ethic. He probably created a quality of life for his people that have never been equalled until the modern era.

There seems but one telling criticism of this man; that is, his empire and their many good works lacked durability. He established no system of government that post-dated him as did, say, the fathers of the American constitution or the leaders of Rome. But perhaps he was somebody outside the normal run of the human condition, someone as divine and marvellous in his own way as the Buddha himself. And it cannot really be held against him that he reformed only one part of the human race at one time of history. It is unfair to blame him for the fact that his successors were lesser men than he. For his role-model for humanitarianism and his influence in the spread of Buddhism make him a timeless and unsurpassed figure in human history.

[Peter gave an address on this topic on Sunday, 24 January, although this is not a direct transcript. The Mauryan Empire was founded by Aśoka’s grandfather, Chandragupta, and lasted from 322 to 185 BCE.]

I TOLD GOD

I told GOD during our fellowship today: Let all my friends be healthy and happy forever!

GOD said: But for four days only.

I said: Yes, let them be a Spring Day, a Summer Day, an Autumn Day and a Winter Day.

GOD said: Three days.

I said: Yes – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

GOD said: No, two days!

I said: Yes, a Bright Day (daytime) and a Dark Day (night-time).

GOD said: No, just one day!

I said: Yes!

GOD asked: Which day?

I said: Every day in the living years of all my friends!

GOD laughed, and said: All your friends will be healthy and happy every day!

Send this to your friends and bless them with good health and happiness. Pass on the warmth despite the ever-changing weather. GOD said good friends must keep in contact!

[Written by Olufemi Matimoju of the First Unitarian Church of Nigeria. As you may have noticed from his Chalice Lighting, Yoruba writing capitalises more words than we would – for emphasis, we are informed.] 10 ROLL ON, BIODIVERSITY!

Not a great deal seems to be happening at the official level just now in the International Year of Biodiversity, so we’ll have to resort to other sources. No sooner did President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines adopt 2010 as a National Year of Biodiversity than a major find has given the world some encouragement – a hitherto unknown species of monitor lizard was discovered in the mountains of northern Luzon. Just how a two-metre reptile could have escaped detection – to say nothing of human hunters and habitat destruction in that highly deforested region – is unclear but it must be critically endangered at this stage and may never have been found at all. Stranger still, this brightly-coloured relative of the fierce komodo dragon lizard of Indonesia is entirely peaceable and fructivorous; and, strangest of all, the male specimen found has a double penis – which is rare but not unheard of amongst snakes and lizards.

A comparable discovery, in the form of the Kipunji monkey, was made in similarly degraded forest in Tanzania seven years ago. They, too, are critically endangered in that they number only 1100 in two small areas that total 17.7 square kilometers. Initially thought to be another species of mangabey, the Kipunji have been found to be more closely related to baboons (despite being arboreal) and have been redesignated to a genus of their own. The last new species of African monkey was discovered in 1984.

Rarer still are the Saola (or Vu Quang oxen) on the border of Vietnam and Laos, of whom only 11 have been confirmed to exist. The first specimen was discovered in 1992, though scientist had previously seen skulls with spindle-shaped horns that no known Asian animals had. The Saola also turned out to be a new genus, related to both cattle and some African antelopes. The last such discoveries were those of three species of muntjac deer between 1994 and 1997, also in Indochina.

Actually, 2008 was a ‘bumper’ year for new discoveries, starting with the smallest seahorse – only about one centimeter tall – in waters off Indonesia and a snake on Barbados that could wrap itself around a 20c coin. At the opposite end of the spectrum, a stick insect almost 70 cm in overall length was identified in Borneo. Then there was a white slug found in a garden in Wales and a bacterium discovered by Japanese scientists living in cans of hair spray! A coffee plant without a trace of caffeine was found in Cameroun and, in a remote corner of Madagascar, a palm plant unrelated to any other that destroys itself in a proliferation of flowers and fruit.

However, this may have to do or your editor will, himself, become an endangered species – alternately, some enterprising soul may find or develop a coffee plant with tenfold the normal caffeine content!

THE STARR KING SCHOOL OF THE MINISTRY

The Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California, is the western UU seminary and part of the Graduate Theological Union in that city. It opened in 1904 as the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry at a time when there was no such facility west of Pennsylvania. (The Meadville Theological School moved from that state to Chicago in 1926.) Although it was not renamed after Thomas Starr King until 1941, the PUS followed his example in emphasising the practical skills of religious leadership and individualised study from the beginning.

The School’s first president was Rev. Earl Morse Wilbur, who held the position for 30 years and also wrote the first comprehensive histories of European Unitarianism. In 1962, local seminaries officially formed the Graduation Theological Union, a diverse consortium that now numbers nine theological seminaries, two academic centers, and six affiliates and institutes; the Starr King School joined in 1964.

Today, the Starr King School has grown from seven students and one faculty member in 1904 to 87 full-time and 60 on-line students, supported by a faculty of 30 senior staff. Its offerings are not just for future ministers studying for the Master of Divinity but also for those pursuing the MA in Religious Leadership for Social Change. The School is a leader in on-line theological study, which only three GTU members offer.

The prolific Arliss Ungar has written a history of Starr King School for the Ministry entitled: With Vision and Courage: The History of its First Hundred Years, 1904–2004. It is available from major on-line book- sellers in both paperback and e-book forms.

MORE ON THOMAS STARR KING 11 Before he left New England, King liked to have his vacations in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, about which he wrote the only book published in his lifetime: The White Hills, Their Landscape, Legends and Poetry. Today, there is a mountain in that region named after him and another in the Sierra Nevada ranges of Caifornia. There were also two statues erected in his memory, one of which still stands in the vast (70 blocks long) Golden Gate Park in San Francisco; the other was in the Hall of Statuary of the Capitol building in Washington, DC, until its recent replacement by a statue of Ronald Reagan!

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The AGM will be held after the service and luncheon on 25 April 2010 – it had to be re-scheduled because the Auditor’s Report was not ready for the intended date in March. Nomination forms for Committee membership can be obtained at the church and should be lodged not later than Sunday, 18 April. All who nominate and/or vote at the AGM must be financial members at that time.

COMMITTEE NEWS

The next Committee meeting will be held on 18 April 2010. If members have any matters which they would like to be placed on the agenda for discussion, they should contact the Secretary on 0423 393 364 or email: [email protected].

CONTACT US

Deadline for copy for the June/July issue of The SUN is Sunday, 23 May 2010. The preferred method for sending 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 the church.

Membership renewals for 2010 are now due – please see the form below for that purpose or simply pay at the church. Those wishing to join can use this form by way of application but should not send payment until their membership is accepted.

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MEMBERSHIP/RENEWAL FORM

I, (name) ______of (address) ______

______Postcode ______

Phone(s): (home) ______(other) ______

Email: ______apply to join/renew membership in (delete one) the Sydney Unitarian Church and agree to abide by the rules as set down by the Constitution and management of the church.

Signature: ______Fee enclosed: $_____*

Cheques should be made payable to: Treasurer, Sydney Unitarian Church. Current memberships are valid for the calendar year 2010 and should be renewed by 01 January 2011.

* Annual membership is $20 and includes the SUN journal; subscription to the SUN only is $15.

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