Hi all, I haven't posted for a while. I've moved house and there's been a lot going on at church. For now I want to post two videos I found on YouTube of Irish Unitarians. Both quite different, but very interesting and showing, I think, a dynamic to Irish (North and South) Unitarianism that is missing in British Unitarianism.
When I started this blog nearly 4 years and nearly 300 posts ago one of the labels I used for it/me was "radical." Perhaps I used it a little unreflectively. Recently I've been pondering what radical means. A couple of things have made me think of this. Firstly this blog series from my friend Jeremy, which explores a distinction between "radical progressives" and "rational progressives." There is also this definition of radical, liberal and conservative from Terry Eagleton quoted at Young Anabaptist Radicals : “Radicals are those who believe that things are extremely bad with us, but they could feasibly be much improved. Conservatives believe that things are pretty bad, but that’s just the way the human animal is. And liberals believe that there’s a little bit of good and bad in all of us.” What interests me is finding a way to express the tension I feel sometimes between myself and the wider Unitarian movement. One way to express this is to say I tend
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I hope you're settling inot your new place and things are going well, if busy, at church.
Note that the video on Chris Hudson is the second of four parts, which present a film made about him by TelefÃs Éireann in 2007. The presenter, incidentally, is Anna Nolan, runner-up of Big Brother 1!
The videos present two remarkable men, who are both very influential beyond their own Church communities, particularly Hudson's role as a negotiator. Perhaps these two are able to develop their own niches while working on the geographical fringes of the "British" Unitarian movement, but any dynamism in Irish Unitarism seems to have more to do with their personalities, and not from any "Irishness" in the movement. Chris Hudson's style seems very different from what I hear about the Non-Subscribing Church of NI (which is not positive). Having listened to some of Bill Darlison's sermons, they are full of references to UK/US current affairs and culture, but less so to that of Ireland, north or south. A distinctly "Irish" type of Unitarianism, rooted in Irish culture, seems to be sadly lacking.
As for British Unitarians on TV and Radio? Where are they? I know there were a couple of films made about Jeff Gould (then in Liverpool) in the early 90s, as he was about the only openly gay clergyman around at the time. Since then, apart from one or two mentions on the Radio 4 "Sunday" programme, there hasn't been much exposure. I realise that this is not necessarily the case on a local level, however. Unitarians on "Thought for the Day" or "Face to Faith" in the Saturday Guardian, perhaps?
What you say about the two personsalities is right, but I think it's also about the right seed falling in the right type of soil.
As for media exposure in Britain, I suppose it will come when there is a compelling story to tell. I can get stuff in the local paper and last week did thought for the day on the local community radio station. This has come, in all honesty, with very little effort from me. I've had open doors to walk through. As I think I've said before, I don't think national media coverage (like the UUA sponsoring pages in Time Magazine) is the most effective way to promote growth right now.
I don't think sponsoring pages or "advertisement features" would be effective either, but I certainly think there needs to be work on a national level to open those doors to get Unitarian voices heard through outlets like "Thought for the Day" and "Face to Faith". These are heard and read by decision makes and agenda setters, who can really stimulate interest and discussion among the wider public.
National campaigns have certainly done our friends the Quakers no harm. Note National Quaker Week.
The next question is whether Catherine Robinson will be featured again in any national Unitarian media article. The media and the public prefer a single person (or a very small number of people) to turn to in order to obtain a certain group's view of things.