northampton unitarians events
Spring Congregational Service
This will be held on Sunday 28th March 2010, with the theme Easter / Rebirth / Spring. Please let Mark Beaumont know which hymns you would like to sing, and bring a reading with you.
Northampton Unitarians Annual General Meeting
When: Sunday 28th March 2010
Where: 31, Hazelwood Road, Northampton
Time: after the service on 28th March
It is important that as many members as possible attend this meeting, as it is your opportunity to comment on the year just passed, and to contribute ideas for the year ahead.
northampton unitarians news
Saturday School: Looking at the Big Picture. (3/10/2009)
Four of us gathered for a trial run for this course, run by Fiona Boyle. The objectives of the course were to acquire a broader view of religion and spirituality in England today by looking at the traditional churches (particularly the Church of England); at world religions; at spirituality; and at the mind, body, spirit phenomenon.
In the first session, Fiona took us on a whirlwind tour of the history of Christianity in England, from the earliest times right up to the present day. Current issues were touched on, such as the right of bishops to sit in the House of Lords, the Sunday trading laws and faith schools. After a quick coffee, session 2 looked at what we knew about different religions, which included a deliberately fiendish quiz, which Fiona intends to make easier when the course is offered to a wider audience! We also looked at the different perceptions of religion and spirituality; religion is sometimes perceived as out-of-date, irrelevant, too structured and constricting; whereas spirituality is perceived as more intuitive, freer, less prescriptive and based on personal experience.
After lunch, we filled out a personal experience questionnaire, which covered experience of both traditional religion and what Fiona called the "holistic milieu". We were invited to think about how we identified ourselves, about the significant changes in our religious / spiritual lives so far, about our key values, and about anything in the questionnaire that we felt uncomfortable about, and why. The final (shorter) session dealt with our views of the religious / spiritual future; for ourselves, for the UK and for the world.
It was a fascinating and mind-stretching day. We are hoping to offer it to a wider audience some time in 2010.
Northampton Unitarians visit Banbury Unitarian Fellowship on Fifth Sunday (29/3/2009)
Some of you may know that we usually try to do something together on Fifth Sundays; otherwise we don't meet for three weeks. This time, 29th March, we decided to visit Banbury Unitarian Fellowship. Our own Sue Woolley was taking the service, and four of us joined her in Banbury Town Hall. For Penny Collins and Jon Small, this was a reunion with old friends; Penny used to be a member at Banbury, and Jon used to attend there with Peter Galbraith many years ago. The Banbury Fellowship made us very welcome.
Member accepted for Ministry training
We are pleased to announce that Sue Woolley, our Secretary, and member at Northampton for 20 years, has been accepted for Ministry training at Harris Manchester College Oxford, starting in the autumn.
New Constitution
A new constitution was adopted at a Special General Meeting on 8th June 2008.
New Member
We were delighted to welcome Joanne McGeehan into membership at our Sunday service on 8th June 2008.
New Notice Board
We have taken advantage of the Notice Board grant from the General Assembly to get ourselves a lovely new notice board. It is to the right of the front door, above our other notices, and really makes you notice the building.
A Walk In The Park - 31st August 2008
This planned “gentle stroll in the sunshine” proved to be somewhat different – more like a swift trip through the rain. To be fair, it didn’t rain all the time, but it did put something of a damper on the day.
There were three of us from Northampton, Joanne, Marc and myself; Leicester Unitarian Fellowship was well represented along with two from Market Harborough. We met up at 10:30 and the Umbrella Fair, an annual environmental event started at 12:00. This was a bonus as we didn’t know it was to be on this day until a few weeks ago. The first part of the morning was spent by walking around the park looking at the earthworks of the Deserted Medieval Village. These are so useful as they provide me with a chance to show people how archaeologists recognize significant sites. The park has good examples of features; a “holloway” – a medieval road that can be seen running through the grass and appearing to come from the rear of Archway Cottages. We also saw wide expanses of “ridge and furrow” – the remains of the old three field strip farming system and several clearly defined house platforms. Because the grass was so wet we tended to stick to the paths so I didn’t have the pleasure to leading the group across the ridge and furrow, as walking across it really brings home the nature of this feature. I think our visitors were impressed by our park with its fine collection of trees [including a Chinese Ghost Tree, sometimes called a Handkerchief Tree] and the beautiful lakes.
We retired to the café and fortified ourselves with tea &c. where John joined us. During the conversation it was realized that there is to some extent a lack of communication between us and Leicester because they are not in the Midland Union and it was resolved that this should not continue and I feel a visit to Leicester is on the horizon.
Whilst we were in the café the rain increased, but had more or less stopped when we left to look at the now open Umbrella Fair. Later the rain came back and after a while it was time for our friends from the north to leave, probably for home, warm fires and dry clothes!
other unitarian events
Midland Unitarian Association AGM
When: Saturday 27th March 2010
Where: Unitarian New Meeting Church, Birmingham
Time: 10.30 am - 4.00 pm
Guest Speaker: Rev. Andy Pakula, Director of UK Spirituality Network
GA Meetings 2010
When: 8th - 11th April 2010
Where: Nottingham University, Jubilee Campus
Full details from: www.unitarian.org.uk
other unitarian news
New General Assembly Executive Committee announced (17/12/2008)
The following persons have elected to the Executive Committee.
Joan Cook - St Mark's Unitarian Church, Edinburgh
Jim Corrigall - Golders Green Unitarians
Lis Dyson-Jones - South East Wales Unitarian Society
Dot Hewerdine - Chorley Unitarian Chapel
Andrew Pakula - Newington Green Unitarian Church
Rev. Dr. Ann Peart - Cross Street Chapel, Manchester
Sir Peter Soulsby - Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel, Leicester
Rev. Dr. David Usher - London District & South Eastern Provincial Assembly of Unitarian & Free Christian Churches