Reflection #85 (14th April 2024 at Essex Church / Kensington Unitarians)
Some years ago I read a paper written by my ministry colleague Stephen Lingwood, on Unitarian theology, and its opening premise has really stuck with me. It’s pertinent to the anniversary we’re celebrating today so I want to share a little excerpt from it with you now. Stephen Lingwood writes:
‘I am a Unitarian. That label, “Unitarian” was also used by Theophilus Lindsey when he started the first explicitly Unitarian church in Britain in 1774. What does it mean to make the claim that both he and I are Unitarians? What relationship do I have to Lindsey and to this thing called “Unitarian”? What is the relationship any Unitarian has with Unitarians of the past?… The language, practices, and beliefs of Lindsey seem to be radically different to mine… The Unitarian tradition has changed, sometimes quite rapidly. And its self-understanding is that it does change, and that it should do. But this does make the question seem even more pressing: in what sense do we claim religious continuity in a non-creedal tradition that allows the freedom of religious evolution? In what sense is the Unitarianism of the past the same thing as the Unitarianism of the present?’
A very interesting question posed there by Stephen Lingwood. What have we got in common with Lindsey, who founded this church, and indeed Unitarianism in Britain, 250 years ago? What have we got in common with the 200-or-so people who gathered there in Essex Street? Let’s imagine what it would have been like to attend one of Theophilus Lindsey’s services. What do you reckon it would have been like? I wasn’t confident that I could provide an accurate picture of these early services myself, so I asked a few colleagues this week, and I’m grateful to Daniel Costley for telling me about the work of historian Professor Grayson Ditchfield, who’s researched the early history of the Essex Street Chapel. In 1774 Lindsey had just left the Church of England so his early services were very similar to what he’d left behind – apparently he more-or-less followed the Book of Common Prayer – he just took all the specifically Trinitarian bits out. Early Unitarianism, as practiced by Lindsey, was like a reformed Church of England. The sermons were, as I understand it, very very long. In the early days, the singing of hymns was unaccompanied and, apparently, terrible (that’s the polite way to put it). It would have been much more formal than we’re used to nowadays. If I suddenly decided I was going ‘back to basics’ and preached a Theophilus Lindsey style service next week… I suspect you wouldn’t like it very much. What Unitarianism looks like on a Sunday morning has changed quite a bit (in some ways, at least).
But still, this early Unitarianism was very radical in spirit – as Sarah said, it was still illegal at that time to preach Unitarian beliefs – even if the shape and feel of the gathering was still pretty traditional. It really mattered to the people who gathered at the old Essex Street Chapel – they were spiritually serious – serious enough to break away from the mainstream to pursue what they thought was right and true.
Sometimes, these days, you hear Unitarians dismissed as people who can ‘believe what they like’. But it’s more accurate to say that we ‘believe what we must’. And Theophilus Lindsey, and those early Unitarians who gathered at the Essex Street Chapel, must have been driven by something deep in order to pursue this new way of doing religion when it was counter-cultural, against the grain, illegal. They weren’t prepared to sign up to the required dogmas of the mainstream church – they were compelled by their conscience to think for themselves – to seek truth was a moral imperative. For each and every person to be free and unconstrained in their search for meaning – that really meant something to them – perhaps to a degree that we slightly take for granted nowadays, 250 years on.
To come back to Stephen Lingwood’s question – what is our relationship with Lindsey, his Essex Street congregation, and those early Unitarians? – in the conclusion to his paper, Lingwood writes:
‘What is my relationship to Theophilus Lindsey? The answer is we are both part of the same tradition… We are both involved in the same process of religious discovery, we are both part of a continuous virtuous tradition seeking justice, and we share a collection of meaning-making stories. In fact his story is one of the stories that gives me meaning. He is part of my tradition.’
This take from Stephen Lingwood seems about right to me. What we have in common is not the shape of our worship, especially, and not even specific beliefs – I suspect that most of us gathered here today are not nearly as worried about the differences between Unitarian and Trinitarian theology in the way that our forebears were (or at least it’s not such a prominent and burning question in our minds) – it’s more about the approach we have to life’s big questions, and our commitment to an ongoing, ever-unfolding, process of religious discovery – an honest search for truth and meaning – and a sincere quest to live good and virtuous lives – to help bring about justice, peace, and a better world for all.
The continuity of this congregation over the last 250 years rests on this shared process and purpose – our mission – the outward forms have changed quite a bit but this is the constant heart of our faith.
And I’ve witnessed this unfolding in front of my own eyes: As well as celebrating our big anniversary this week – the actual 250th anniversary of the first service is on the 17th, next Wednesday, if you want to raise a toast, or have a celebratory slice of cake, in honour of this anniversary on the day itself – but I’m also going to be celebrating a small anniversary the day after, on the 18th, which is 25 years since I first set foot in Essex Church (I was quite pleased that the numbers lined up like that).
Even over 25 years I’ve seen quite a bit of change, in this congregation, and the wider denomination. But our change and evolution should always be in service of our shared purpose – our mission – and in line with the process that’s so characteristic of our tradition – this non-dogmatic pursuit of truth. That’s why I chose this morning’s opening words on ‘The Purpose of Religion’ by Cliff Reed – as a reminder of what it is we’re here for – and the nature of the Unitarian tradition we are upholding. It seems important that we should keep coming back to this, reminding ourselves of this guiding vision (and we’ll be thinking about our congregational vision again in two weeks’ time – on AGM day – always a very good moment to reflect on what we’re doing in the light of our religious purpose).
Lingwood’s reflection on what connects contemporary Unitarians with Lindsey and his congregation of 250 years ago suggests another question to me: How will future generations of Unitarians look back on us in 250 years from now? 250 years is quite a long time, isn’t it? Will we make it that far? Will humanity make it that far? Let’s scale it back: What about in another 25 years, in 2049? I hope there are enough people of ‘spiritual seriousness’ – people to whom this way of doing religion really means something – who will step up to keep the doors of Essex Church open, and take the tradition onwards, so our chalice flame will keep on burning for the next generation, and centuries to come.
But in 25 or 250 years: It probably won’t look like exactly like church-as-we-know-it. We know how many changes we’ve made here at Essex Church even over the last four years – our way of doing church has evolved – and for very good reason. In order to fulfil our purpose, and uphold our values, we’ve made the move to hybrid services and taken a lot of activities online – It has not been an entirely easy ride – change is often challenging – and it was hard work to make it happen. It isn’t a change that was remotely on our radar five years ago but – I hope you’ll agree – it’s congruent with our Unitarian principles, we did it for the sake of justice and inclusion, and it’s something we can be proud of doing.
I hope future leaders of Essex Church – our spiritual descendants – will also ask themselves the same sort of questions when they’re making plans and discerning the way forward, for this congregation and for the Unitarian movement as a whole, in the years to come. I hope they ask: ‘Is this in line with our Unitarian values?’ ‘Does this serve our religious purpose?’ ‘How does this fit the mission of this church?’ and perhaps even ‘What is God calling us to do now, in this time, and in this place?’ I hope they won’t be too attached to church looking a particular way, or to doing things the way they’ve always been done, and that they’ll continue to evolve in order to better serve the mission. But, even as the world changes, and our church changes, there will be this thread of continuity – as each new generations steps up to be stewards of this tradition – our shared process and purpose will go on.
And in that spirit I invite you now to join in the responsive reading that is in your order of service – the words will be up on screen shortly – these piece adapted from words by Scott Alexander is titled ‘We Need a Religion’ and it affirms something of our shared purpose, process, and values as Unitarians.
So I invite you to join in, if you wish, with the responses printed in italics.
In a world with so much hatred and violence,
We need a religion that proclaims
the inherent worth and dignity of every person.
In a world with so much brutality and fear,
We need a religion that seeks justice,
equity, and compassion in human relations.
In a world with so many persons abused and neglected,
We need a religion that calls us to accept one another
and encourage one another to spiritual growth.
In a world with so much tyranny and oppression,
We need a religion that affirms the right to freedom
of thought and conscience, and the proper use of the democratic process.
In a world with so much inequity and strife,
We need a religion that strives toward the goal
of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.
In a world with so much environmental degradation,
We need a religion that advocates awareness and respect
for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
In a world with so much uncertainty and despair,
We need a religion that teaches our hearts to hope, and our hands to care.
In a world where so many people yearn for connection, yearn for love,
We need religious communities like ours to welcome all people of goodwill,
offering a place to call home, to belong, where each can be who we truly are. Amen.
Reflection by Jane Blackall
An audio recording of this sermon is available: