Prelude Melodia Africana I by Ludovico Einaudi
Opening Words from God and Beauty by Basil Viney
In his 1946 pamphlet, God and Beauty, Basil Viney speaks of a Unitarian Trinity of Truth, Love, and Beauty:
Equate the Creator with the divine Power which reduces chaos to order,
and so implies constancy and Truth;
equate the Father-Mother Spirit with Love;
equate the Word with Beauty, the emanation or expression of Love:
and you have a trinity of qualities which really are interpenetrating but distinct.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point). words by Laura Dobson
We light our chalice in gratitude
For the grace of mystery
For all the times we have stood
In awe and wonder
At the depths of our inner lives and
The beauty of our outer lives
Made One
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
Be with us as we gather for worship,
Each in our own place.
Help us to feel a sense of community,
Even though we are physically apart.
Help us to care for each other,
In this world in which Covid has not yet gone away,
And the clouds of war and climate change overshadow us.
May we keep in touch however we can,
And help each other, however we may.
Help us to be grateful for the freedoms we have
and to respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
Who are grieving, lost, alone,
Suffering in any way,
Amen
Reading Where is the God of Love? by Cliff Reed
In the face of earthquake, wind and fire,
the disasters we call ‘natural’,
we turn to prayers of desperation,
prayers for deliverance.
Is there ever an answer?
It sometimes seems so,
and we call it a miracle.
But such miracles are all too few.
So where is God in the midst of disaster?
Where is the God of love?
Within nature? In the vast and empty void,
insouciant and unfeeling?
It hardly seems so.
But there is a strange and wonderful potential
in the Great Mystery.
We see it revealed in humanity as love
and courage, compassion and wisdom,
mercy and integrity…
It is where we find and recognise
Divine Love, the transcendent
spiritual reality that redeems our
weak humanity and our cold,
indifferent universe.
God is not the Deus Ex Machina ,
emerging from nowhere to stop
the earth from shaking, the towers from falling,
the disasters from happening.
That is not what God is.
God is in the people, not above them.
God is in the rescuers, the relief workers,
the medics, the selfless volunteers, the
men and women digging in the rubble
with their bare hands…
And God is in the generosity and heartfelt
sympathy of people far away, doing, giving
what they can. God is in the true miracle
of human goodwill. This is where prayers
are answered and God is made flesh.
The love of God acts in the loving deeds
of humanity.
The voice of God speaks in the call of
conscience, the call to care.
And it speaks against the weakness that
is human corruption and dishonesty,
meanness and selfishness, ignorance
and folly…: the evils which make a
natural disaster so much worse.
Where is God when disaster strikes?
Within human hearts that love their
neighbours wherever they may be.
May our hearts be among them.
Alternative Lord’s Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,
May we be aware of your presence in our lives.
May our world be blessed.
May our daily needs be met,
And may our shortcomings be forgiven,
As we forgive those of others.
Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,
The inspiration and guidance to do right,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.
May we have compassion for all living beings,
And receive whatever life brings,
With courage and trust. Amen
Reading Nature’s Hidden Beauty by Sheena Gabriel, from With Heart and Mind 2 (adapted)
A week before Christmas, I wake to snow. There has been a light sprinkling for several days, but today the ground is carpeted in white. I resist the urge to launch straight into tasks and reflect on the scene unfolding in my garden. Snow has a stilling effect on me, so at odds with the demands of the season; and from the sanctuary of a warm room, I am drawn to its mesmerising beauty. And what makes the sight more marvellous is the knowledge that, invisible to the naked eye, millions of intricately formed ice-crystals are falling and landing, like so many heaped jewels.
I reach for a book on snowflakes and feast my eyes on the symmetry of nature’s designs – each flake a work of filigree, as though crafted by hand. I ponder. For how many centuries has this miracle remained hidden from human eyes – exquisite beauty unnoticed and unappreciated? Such jewels have fallen from the sky for millennia, but before the invention of the microscope, they lay unrevealed….
Snowflakes remind me of the prodigious bounty of nature, which does not wait for an audience. The fleeting existence of each flake adds to the beauty of the world, even though it leaves no record. And I reflect on how much else in this amazing universe goes unnoticed, because we have insufficient vision to see things as they really are. How much still waits to be discovered about our planet, our cosmos? Who knows what secrets now hidden, will reveal themselves centuries hence, if humankind can develop the necessary technology?
Perhaps if we honed our eyes to look with a mystic’s vision, we would always see, as William Blake did, ‘a World in a grain of sand and a Heaven in a wild flower’.
Prayer by Sheena Gabriel
Spirit of Love that abides in all things,
We give thanks for beauty and grace unnoticed,
which lie like un-opened love letters
strewn throughout our days…
awaiting a response.
May we be mindful of the prodigious gifts
that come our way.
Grant us the insight to see with fresh vision
beneath the surface of things;
awake to the miracle of the lit bush,
and the gentle cadence of healing
which whispers beneath the chatter of our lives.
Help us to remember that despite
the pain and suffering that haunts our world,
amidst the fractured busyness and distractions of our days,
beauty, goodness, and human-kindness
are always unfolding – around and within us;
Scattered like seeds – growing silently
without fanfare, waiting to be discovered
as we still our minds and open our hearts…
Amen
Reading Truth by Laura Dobson
I grew up in the Anglican Church, but the ‘sin and salvation’ side of Christianity never resonated with me. At school I became fascinated by the different approaches of world religions to ‘the big questions’ and decided to study Theology and Religious Studies at university. The more I studied world religions, the more I understood them as human constructs, which left me disillusioned with the idea of finding the ‘truth’.
I now realise that trying to discern the ‘truth’ of one religion from another is a false endeavour, truth is subjective. What is important is thinking about what is true for us and living in accordance with that truth. My truth, ‘appreciation of the interconnected web of being,’ leads me to tread lightly on the earth by trying to live as sustainably as possible and to follow the ‘golden rule’, treating others with respect and compassion.
My understanding of Unitarian spirituality is the search for what gives our lives truth and meaning, in loving relationship with each other, and the fostering of deep connection – to each other and to the divine, which is in everything.
What is your truth?
Time of Stillness and Reflection These are the Times: Meditation on Truth by Margaret Kirk (adapted)
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,- that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
John Keats (1820) from Ode on a Grecian Urn
Truth is unblemished and clean,
like a snowdrop piercing the hard earth,
or a slender branch or leaf,
or a curlew`s call across the dark moor.
Truth arrests rottenness,
announcing what is green and good.
Freshly, – the air tingles with its purity,
The spores of malice are cleansed,
False words reveal their tarnished emptiness,
The disfigured faces of ignorance crumple in shame.
Truth comes in moments of quiet reflection,
bringing shafts of light to our burdened minds.
Truth can bring peace after heavy hurt and harm has drained the spirit.
And somewhere in the midst of grief it shines and sparkles
with a deeper knowing…
[silence]
But these are the times – the times we yearn for,
when its boldness might blast a carapace of lies,
shake the servile crowd,
scour the hollow rhetoric,
and justly and mercifully and humbly,
re – assemble what is beautiful and true:
the ravaged pieces of decency and compassion to a fragmented world.
May it be so, Amen
Musical Interlude Melodia Africana III by Ludovico Einaudi
Address Truth, Love, and Beauty
Since the time of the Medieval Scholastics, special emphasis has been placed on the so called Transcendentals – three metaphysical properties of being, commonly listed as Beauty, Truth and Goodness. Some sources add Unity as a fourth. Their origins go back to the Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. According to that fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia, “The Catholic Church teaches that God is Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, as indicated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Each transcends the limitations of place and time, and is rooted in being. The transcendentals are not contingent upon cultural diversity, religious doctrine, or personal ideologies, but are the objective properties of all that exists.”
Some of you will know that I am undertaking a research project, to trace the evolution of Unitarian theology in Britain since 1900. Which has involved going down to Harris Manchester College Oxford once a fortnight, to go through their extensive and exciting stacks…
One of the pamphlets I came across was God and Beauty by Basil Viney, in which he suggests a “Unitarian Trinity” of Truth, Love and Beauty. Let me share our opening words again: “Equate the Creator with the divine Power which reduces chaos to order,
and so implies constancy and Truth; equate the Father-Mother Spirit with Love; equate the Word with Beauty, the emanation or expression of Love: and you have a trinity of qualities which really are interpenetrating but distinct.”
And I thought, Hmm, that’s interesting. Of course, it pre-supposes the existence of God, which some Unitarians today struggle with. And yet, in the broader interpretation, they “are not contingent upon cultural diversity, religious doctrine, or personal ideologies, but are the objective properties of all that exists.”
Yet they are properties that we don’t tend to talk about, much. I find it interesting that Viney chose to substitute the word “Love” for the more generally-accepted “Goodness” when he defined his “Unitarian Trinity”. I guess it is because Goodness tends to proceed from Love, at least in the case of human beings.
This week’s prayers and readings were carefully chosen to illustrate the three qualities.
And of the three, Truth is the one which seems to be in short supply at the moment, at least in the public sphere. On the news and in the social media, we are bombarded by conflicting claims, and they cannot all be true.
Which is why our powers of discernment, aided by our imaginations, are so important. As UU John Mellor once wrote, imagination is powerful, “giving us the ability to look beyond our own situation, to extend our understanding and help us to discover the new.” But we have to be careful. We have to discern whether the things presented to our imaginations are presented from a place of truth, honesty and kindness, or whether they are shared with malicious intent.
Because words have power. Words have so much power, especially in conjunction with the human voice. They can be used to encourage, sustain, energise and uplift; or they can be used to arouse hatred, bitterness, despair and all other kinds of bad feelings. On the one side, look at someone like Martin Luther King, and his “I have a dream” speech. On the other, turn on any documentary about World War Two, and listen to Hitler mesmerising his German subjects into going along with policies of vengeful genocide. Or Donald Trump, fomenting ill-will and division with his every Tweet.
Words have so much power. With one word of praise or blame, one human being can build another one up, or fling them into the pit of despair. The human memory has an uncanny knack of remembering words spoken in anger or despite, which can cause people with fragile self-esteem (that is to say, all of us, deep down) to think badly of themselves, whereas words of praise may be shrugged off. As Laura Dobson reminded us in our third reading, “truth is subjective. What is important is thinking about what is true for us and living in accordance with that truth.” She continues, “My understanding of Unitarian spirituality is the search for what gives our lives truth and meaning, in loving relationship with each other, and the fostering of deep connection – to each other and to the divine, which is in everything.”
Beauty is often found in the natural world, for example in the snowflakes Sheena Gabriel wrote about so lyrically in our second reading. A while ago, somebody asked me this question: “What makes you come alive?” and I have been thinking about the answers ever since. My first response was that it is interaction with the beauty of the natural world – walking by water or in the mountains, making a garden, walking a regular route and noticing the day-to-day changes in the nature around me, being awed by natural beauty – all these play an important part in re-connecting me with the numinous presence of the Divine, with making me “come alive”. To which I would add, interacting with family, friends and fellow Unitarians and f/Friendly Quakers – being in spiritual community.
An appreciation of our world in its beauty and diversity is so important to me. When I go for my daily walk, it is wonderful to be out in the changing seasons – to see and savour and appreciate the blossom in Spring, the mass of wildflowers in Summer, the first conkers and the myriad colours of the changing leaves in Autumn, and the elegant spare beauty of the trees in Winter. This connectedness with the natural world is something I have learned to nurture and treasure. Which is why Sheena’s reflection really spoke to me. Her words reminded me that we should try to “hone our eyes to look with a mystic’s vision, [so that] we would always see, as William Blake did, “a World in a grain of sand and a Heaven in a wild flower.”
But this feeling of connection with the natural world so often gets lost in Western society – we are so busy doing the job in hand, rushing to the next appointment, that we don’t take time out (as Sheena did) to appreciate the world around us.
Of course, our appreciation of beauty need not be limited to the beauties of nature. I thoroughly agree with American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, who wrote, “A good building is not something that hurts the landscape, but something that makes it more beautiful than it was before it was built.” When my husband and I go on holiday, we love to explore a new-to-us city on foot, and a big part of the pleasure is admiring the wonderful buildings, as they enhance the urban landscape we are walking through. I can think of several examples of buildings that, for me, have that wow factor. The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg is one, any cathedral you care to name, gorgeous castles… they all enrich the landscape they are in.
And finally, Love. Cliff Reed, in our first reading, suggests that Love, “the transcendent spiritual reality” may be found in the hearts of people, and that “the love of God acts in the loving deeds of humanity.” Whenever we choose to help another person, putting their needs before our own, there is Love. There is Goodness too.
I spoke about Love a few weeks ago, for my service on the Sunday after Valentine’s Day. And what I said then is as true today: Love is an amazing phenomenon. It is fundamental to human well-being. I would go so far as to say that we can only become fully rounded people if we love and are loved in return. It is the most powerful emotion in the world. When we truly love someone, we will put their welfare before our own, we will grieve when they are sad or unwell, and share in their joy when things are going well. Loving affects every particle of our being.
And if we see God as Love at the centre of everything (which I do), it is not surprising that the process of growing in love can be a challenging one. When we choose to try to live in a spirit of love, we are choosing to make ourselves vulnerable, and vulnerability can hurt. Love can only be offered. We can never guarantee that the other person will love us back, or love us next week, next year… or that they will remain healthy and with us. Choosing to love another person is undoubtedly a vulnerable thing to do. Love comes with no guarantees – it is without strings. It involves trusting that the universe is a benevolent place and that the best thing we can do is to love one another as God loves us. Which I suppose is another way of saying that we need to have faith in Goodness too.
Truth, Love and Beauty – they all matter. Whether they may be a Unitarian Trinity is a moot point, but the transcendent nature of these qualities cannot be denied. May we keep an eye out for them, and appreciate them, in our daily lives. Amen
Closing Words by Andrew Usher (adapted)
Now,
Through the rain and the sun,
Go your ways with Gladness:
With Love in your hearts,
Truth and Peace in your minds,
And Beauty touching your soul.
Postlude Stella del Mattino by Ludovico Einaudi