Excess Baggage – 23/01/22

Opening Music: ‘Sonata for 2 Cellos’ by Boccherini – Abby Lorimier and Jenny Sturt (1.25)

Opening Words: ‘Past, Present and Future’ by Katie Romano Griffin (3.00)

Come, let us enter this space of hope and community.

Come, let us enter this space with our sorrows,
our joys, our passion and compassion.

Come, let us enter this space with the stories of our ancestors,
for their strength and wisdom beats in our hearts.

Come into this space, present to each of
the beloved companions who move beside us.

Come into this space, mindful that together
we are building a future for generations yet to come.

Come: come into this space and let us worship.

These opening words by Katie Romano Griffin welcome all those who have gathered on Zoom this morning to take part in our Sunday service. Welcome to regular members of the congregation, to friends and visitors with us today, and also those who might be listening to our podcast, or watching on YouTube, at a later date. For those who don’t know me, my name is Jane Blackall, and I’m Ministry Coordinator with Kensington Unitarians.

If you are here for the first time today – we’re especially glad to you have you with us – welcome! I hope you find something of what you need in our gathering this morning. Please do hang around afterwards for a chat or drop us an email to say hello and introduce yourself if you’d like. Or you might try coming to one of our various small-group gatherings to get to know us better. If you’re a regular here – thank you for all that you do to welcome all who come each Sunday – and an extra helping of gratitude to all those who work so hard behind the scenes to keep the show on the road.

As we always say, feel free to do what you need to do to be comfortable this hour – it’s always lovely to see your faces in the gallery and get a sense of our togetherness as a congregation – but we know for some it will feel more comfortable to keep your camera mostly-off and that’s fine. Similarly there’ll be opportunities to join in as we go along but there’s no compulsion to do so. You can quietly lurk with our blessing – you know how to find us if you want to get in touch later.

This morning’s service is titled ‘Excess Baggage’. In our Friday email I said we’d be reflecting on the ‘baggage’ we might be carrying from our previous experiences of organised religion and the ways in which it might be influencing our ongoing spiritual journey (whether we like it or not!). In fact I’ve now realised this is potentially such a big subject that we’re going to need several services to tackle it… so perhaps you can think of this as the first in a short series – today we’re just setting the scene. And I’ve invited a friend and colleague, Rev. Robin Hanford, to help get the ball rolling this morning.

Chalice Lighting: ‘Remembering Our Unity’ by Katie Romano Griffin (adapted)

Before we go any further though, I’ll light our chalice, as we always do whenever we gather. This simple ritual connects us with Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists the world over, and reminds us of the proudly progressive religious tradition of which this gathering is part.

May the flame of this chalice, the symbol of our faith,
connect us to all who have come before us,
all who are part of our community today,
and all who are yet to come into being.
May it serve as a reminder of our unity
and connection across all time and space.

Candles of Joy and Concern:

Each week when we gather together, whether it’s in person at the church in Kensington or here as an online congregation, we share a simple ritual of candles of joy and concern, an opportunity to light a candle and share something that is in our heart with the community. So we’ve got a good few minutes now, for anyone who would like to do so, to light a candle (real or imaginary) and say a few words about what it represents.

When you’re ready to speak, unmute your microphone so we can all hear you, and then re-mute yourself once you’ve finished. If you are going to speak, please be aware of how long you’re speaking for, so that there’s time for others to say something too. Let’s leave a pause between one candle and the next, so we can honour what’s been shared. And don’t worry too much if two people end up speaking at the same time, or there’s a technical hitch of some sort – these things happen on Zoom – please do persevere! At this point it’d be nice, if you can, to switch to gallery view so we can all see everybody.

(candles – thank each person)

I’ve got one more candle here and – as we often do – I’m going to light that to represent all those joys and concerns that we might be holding silently in our heart today, those stories which we don’t feel able to share out loud this morning.

Let’s take a moment now to think of all those joys and concerns we have heard expressed… all those little windows into our shared human condition and the life of the world we share… and let’s hold them – and each other – in a spirit of loving-kindness for a moment or two. And let’s take those joys and concerns into an extended time of prayer now.

Prayer: loosely based on some words by Krista Taves

You might first want to adjust your position for comfort, close your eyes, or soften your gaze. There might be a posture that helps you feel more prayerful. Whatever works for you. Do whatever you need to do to get into the right state of body and mind for us to pray together – to be fully present here and now, in this sacred time and space – with ourselves, with each other, and with that which is both within us and beyond us. (pause)

Spirit of Life, God of All Love, in whom we live and move and have our being.
As we turn our attention to the depths of this life –
the cosmic mystery and wisdom that abides in All-That-Is –
we tune in to your Holy presence within us and amongst us. (pause)

We come together in prayer even though some of us struggle with what that means.
We come together to stand before that which is greater than us,
although we may struggle to say what that is.

And so on this day we pray for those things we struggle with in our everyday lives.
For the conflicts we feel within ourselves and between us and those we love.
We pray for guidance, compassion, for the opening of a path.

We pray for those things that give us joy and hope each day.
For those things that we trust in, believe in, will sacrifice for.
These are gifts of grace, and perhaps we need not define them
in order to savour them, rejoice in them, be thankful for them.

What we do know is that we gather here this morning with all kinds of needs.
Some are facing health problems and are in need of healing.
Others are worn down by all the challenges of the times we’re living through
and need healing of a different kind – emotional and spiritual.
Some are facing family problems. Some are weary with the struggles
of life and seek assurance that this, too, will someday pass.
Others face the anguish of making difficult decisions
for themselves, their families and friends, and for the common good.

For each of us, we speak the deepest prayers of our hearts in different ways, knowing
that what it means for them to be answered will look and feel different for each of us.
May we, somehow, this morning be met at the point of our differences
and also in the places that we are one, of the same
breath of life that courses through all living things.

May we always hold in our hearts gratitude for those things that bless us
with their presence, forgiveness for the ways we have turned from those blessings,
and the willingness to open ourselves anew to this beautiful and hurting world. (short pause)

And in a good few moments of silence now,
may our hearts speak silently all the prayers of our lives—
our souls’ greatest joys and deepest sorrows, our triumphs and failures,
our regrets and fears, our disappointments and losses, our hopes and dreams. (long pause)

Spirit of Life – God of all Love – as this time of prayer comes to a close,
we offer up our joys and concerns, our hopes and fears,
our beauty and brokenness, and call on you for insight, healing, and renewal.

As we look forward now to the coming week,
help us to live well each day and be our best selves;
using our unique gifts in the service of love, justice and peace. Amen

Hymn: ‘When Our Heart is in a Holy Place’ by the Unitarian Music Society

Time to sing our first hymn and it’s an old favourite: ‘When Our Heart is in a Holy Place’, sung for us by the Unitarian Music Society. The words will appear on screen so you can sing along – or you might prefer just to listen – we’ll do our best to make sure you’re all kept safely muted.

When our heart is in a holy place,
when our heart is in a holy place
we are blessed with love and amazing grace,
when our heart is in a holy place.

When we trust the wisdom in each of us,
every colour every creed and kind,
and we see our faces in each other’s eyes,
then our heart is in a holy place.

When our heart is in a holy place,
when our heart is in a holy place
we are blessed with love and amazing grace,
when our heart is in a holy place.

When we tell our story from deep inside,
and we listen with a loving mind,
and we hear our voices in each other’s words,
then our heart is in a holy place.

When our heart is in a holy place,
when our heart is in a holy place
we are blessed with love and amazing grace,
when our heart is in a holy place.

When we share the silence of sacred space,
and the God of our heart stirs within,
and we feel the power of each other’s faith,
then our heart is in a holy place.

When our heart is in a holy place,
when our heart is in a holy place
we are blessed with love and amazing grace,
when our heart is in a holy place.

Introduction to the Theme of ‘Excess Baggage’:

The impetus for today’s service came from a recent – lively! – discussion that took place on the UK Unitarians Facebook group last month (65 comments and counting). Judy Jerome, a Unitarian who lived in London until she moved overseas about 13 years ago, posted to say she’d noticed – from afar – that increasing numbers of Unitarian ministers in the UK were now choosing to wear dog collars – traditional clerical wear – and she wanted to know why. I think it’s fair to say this was asked with a sense of it being something she didn’t really like… and certainly from the responses dog collars did seem to be something that stirred up strong opinions more generally. My ministry tutor, Ant Howe, reckons that it’s about 50/50 amongst Unitarian ministers in the UK these days, those that do and don’t. And my perception is that it probably is indeed on the rise. But some people really don’t like it. Indeed some reactions against clerical wear are so strong and apparently entrenched that it seems to me they’re coming from a place other than strictly reasoned objection.

I invited my friend and colleague Rev. Robin Hanford – who made an excellent contribution to the discussion of dog collars on Facebook – to say a few words on the subject for us today (both to tell us why he, as a freshly minted Unitarian minister, goes in for clerical wear in a big way, and also to air and address some of the common critiques of it that came up in that Facebook discussion). Actually, Robin said QUITE a few words – once he got going there was no stopping him as it’s one of his favourite subjects – I’m going to play you an abridged version later on in the service. I think it’s well worth a listen for a perspective you perhaps wouldn’t otherwise hear.
You may be surprised by some of the reasons he gives in favour of wearing the collar (and the rest).

This service isn’t solely about fashion choices for the modern minister, you’ll be pleased to hear! But I wanted to raise it as an issue that’s live and current in the wider Unitarian community, and one which might help us start thinking more broadly about an issue, a pattern, a phenomenon, which we Unitarians seem to run into all too frequently: I wonder if this business with the dog collars is an instance and illustration of our tendency to get caught up in our religious ‘baggage’.

This dog-collar discussion made me think about how we Unitarians individually and collectively tend to engage with all those things which we might consider the trappings of more traditional religion (especially those things that we associate with more mainstream Christian churches). I’d say that we Unitarians can sometimes be a bit reactive around them – a bit wary or suspicious – in a way that often seems to stem from negative associations to experiences of institutional religion we’ve had in the past. If we associate religious symbols, religious attire, or certain aspects of religious language, with churches that rejected us, or treated us badly, or promoted views we found unconscionable, it’s understandable that we should have a bit of an aversion to them. They might remind us of precisely what we have come to Unitarianism to get away from! In short – many of us Unitarians are carrying some pretty heavy ‘baggage’ around religious matters – and I should say I’m not taking that lightly (for some of us that may amount to a history of real trauma).

But – I wonder – what is the cost for us, individually and collectively, of lugging all this heavy baggage around? What might we be missing out on, due to all this resistance and reactivity –often unexamined – towards certain expressions of religion? Have we perhaps got some work to do, to process some of our negative associations, and see what gifts we might yet discover? How might our onward spiritual journey be enriched by all that this process opens up to us?

Today I’m just tentatively introducing the subject but we’ll come back to it from various angles over the coming months – looking at how we engage with traditional religious language, say, or symbols and rituals – and how, perhaps, in time, we might be able to gently set aside some of our baggage, in order to reclaim some of these valuable traditions and truly make them our own.

Meditation: Zen Story: ‘You’re Still Carrying Her’

So let’s move now into a time of meditation. To take us into stillness, something slightly different, an old Zen story which might be familiar to some of you. It kept coming to mind when I thought of this theme of ‘Excess Baggage’ and while it’s usually told to make a slightly different point I still wanted to share it with you today. See what it brings up for you, baggage-wise, or other-wise. The story will be followed by a few minutes of shared stillness during which we’ll have our virtual chalice on screen. The silence will end with a familiar hymn tune from Abby Lorimier and Jenny Sturt. So let’s each do what we need to do to get comfortable – maybe have a wiggle – put your feet flat on the floor to ground and steady yourself – perhaps close your eyes. And as I always say, these words, images, and music, they’re just an offering, feel free to meditate in your own way.

Once, two Buddhist monks were on a journey to a distant monastery, when they came to a river. There on the bank sat a young woman. She asked: ‘I beg you, could you carry me across? The current is ever so strong today and I’m afraid I might be swept away’.

The first monk remembered his vows never to touch or even look at a woman, and so, briskly, without so much as a nod of acknowledgement, he crossed through the heavily flowing currents, and soon reached the other side. The other monk, however, showed compassion and bent down so that the woman could climb up on his back to cross the river. Although she was slight, the current was indeed strong, and the rocky river bottom made it difficult to get across. When he reached the other side, he let the woman down, and went on his way.

Some hours later, having journeyed a long way down the dusty road in silence, the first monk could no longer contain his anger at the second for breaking their vows. He suddenly blurted: ‘How could you look at that woman? How could you touch her, let alone carry her across the river? You’ve put our reputation at stake.’

The other monk looked at his companion and smiled as he replied: ‘I put that woman down way back there at the river bank, but I see that you’re still carrying her.’ (pause)

So as we move now into a time of shared stillness and silence I invite you to ponder this story. You might ask yourself: What are you still carrying? What might it be time for you to lay down? Either in relation to religious ‘baggage’ or more generally any burdensome ‘baggage’ in life – are there long-standing habits of thought, reactivity, aversion, which might be holding you back? Limiting your true freedom?… What are you still carrying? What might it be time to lay down?

Silence: 3 minutes silence accompanied by chalice video

Musical Interlude: ‘Dear Lord and Father’ – Abby Lorimer and Jenny Sturt (1.55)

Reflection on Clerical Dress by Rev. Robin Hanford (transcript of recording)

Hello, Kensington Unitarians in Essex Church! I am Robin Hanford – Reverend Robin Hanford, now – and I am joining you virtually for your Sunday service, at least for this part of it, from a very echoey (unfortunately) front room of my new manse in Hinckley, where I’ve just joined the congregation of Hinckley Unitarians (otherwise known as Hinckley Great Meeting) as their minister. Jane has invited me to be part of this service, to talk about something that is quite dear to my heart – which has become increasingly dear to my heart the last few months – clerical dress. When I got the invitation to talk about it, I thought I can actually go one better than that, I can demonstrate it, I can actually wear it and talk about it – good multitasking there!

I wear clerical dress every Sunday, in fact I go one better than that, I wear a clerical collar most days. I say a clerical collar – this is the white thing you can see round my neck here – although this is a full-style clerical collar, I don’t wear these that often, I only usually wear these on a Sunday. Usually I wear something called tab collars and I’ve got an example of one here, it’s a collar that is just this piece of white plastic or white cloth, and you just tuck it in one side of the top button of your collar and into the other, and there you have a very quick clerical collar to throw on in the morning. You can’t throw this one on in the morning!

Why do I wear it? I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about why I wear it. It’s not to lord it over people as being superior – I can’t imagine myself being superior to anybody really! It’s, for me, part of a spiritual practice. I am Autistic and I often tend to find myself withdrawing, or at least wanting to withdraw, from social situations, and when I’m wearing a clerical collar I find that people come up to me and chat, whether I’m wanting to withdraw or not. It kind-of breaks down the barriers toward ministry-in-the-world that I put up for myself. It gives people a license, I think, to talk to you. It identifies you in public as someone who is there to minister, and far from giving me a sense of superiority it often gives me a feeling of vulnerability, albeit a feeling of vulnerability that is rather productive. As a result of wearing a collar in public I have held deep and meaningful conversations on trains, in pubs, on the street, and I would not have had those conversations, those opportunities to minister to people’s needs, otherwise.

In terms of this – this full worship garb – why do I wear it? I wear it for services because it gives a feeling of something special about it. Worship should be special. It shouldn’t be something we regard as simply ordinary or run-of-the-mill. I think the opportunity to engage with the divine in community is always special. And it’s very serious. I think for me it’s part of how I get myself into that seriousness: I put on my gown, my stole – which, by the way, is a symbol of being yoked – as one would harness a horse or an ox to a plough – it’s being harnessed to my responsibilities – it’s not a pompous thing to wear at all, quite the opposite in fact, it’s the sign of a burden – we’re carrying the needs of the congregation and of those we minister to on our shoulders. That’s what the stole kind-of represents for me.

It gives something special to worship, it adds to the ritual and aesthetics of worship. I think as Unitarians we sometimes are a bit guilty of engaging with worship purely as a cerebral activity – and worship definitely should be that, it should encourage us to think – but I think it’s more than that. Ritual is a part of that, and aesthetics – how things look, how things feel, how things smell, even – there are so many senses that we don’t really engage properly in worship and which can be engaged. Wearing something special, something that has a unique feel to it, I think does engage people. I think when people see me wearing this they know that they are here to worship, and that it is serious – that it is a serious thing that they have taken time to do – as I have taken time to do, to get all of this stuff on.

Very little of this actually is – I call it clerical dress – but anybody who is a preacher can get a preaching gown. It doesn’t have to be an academic gown. You don’t have to have a degree to get a standard preaching or what we call a Geneva gown. I’ve seen some lay people wear stoles – personally I’m not a fan of that because I think it represents that responsibility that ministers have – but some ministers do allow lay people in their congregation to wear stoles. There are things that people can wear to get themselves into the zone to lead worship and where people are called to do that I would encourage them.

I think sometimes people think that I’m engaging in elitism by engaging with these traditions of clerical dress – I don’t think I am – take my academic dress for example. This is my first of two postgraduate qualifications. I might be saying that in a way that sounds boastful – I’m really saying that in a way that is out of stunned disbelief! – I was told as a child that I would be lucky to get a single GCSE because of my dyslexia and my autism – and here I am being able to wear postgraduate academic dress. It’s something that gives me that extra bit of confidence in the pulpit. Something that I can just touch and feel midway through a sermon and think ‘yes, actually, I have every right to be saying what I think’.

It’s also a sign that is traditional as well for Unitarian clergy. Unitarians have valued the transformative power of education. One of the reasons why we have a professional Ministry that is set apart from the laity – and by ‘set apart’ I don’t mean ‘set above’ – very definitely not – but one of the reasons why we made the decision to have clergy set apart from the laity was actually to give them time to educate themselves in theological matters – because if you want to spend your Sunday listening to a sermon – I want to spend my Sunday listening to a sermon from somebody speaking truth. Somebody who has spent time researching and questioning their convictions. And academia is a good way of doing that. Any difficulties with elitism and accessibility of academia is about government policy – the blame for that perception, sometimes quite accurate, of elitism in academia can’t be put on bits of cloth – this doesn’t have political agency! We do.

We can find meanings in tradition, in what we wear, as I do, and I find a deep sense of motivation in this, and a connection to God that enables me to lead worship more fully, but also be present in my community – whether I am just going down the shops or opening up the church – I can be present and vulnerably visible as somebody who is able to provide ministry for those who want it. I literally wear an invitation to talk around my neck and doing so is a huge privilege – and really scary! – but it keeps me on my toes, it leads to interesting conversations for me, it keeps things fresh.

So that is a little bit about why I wear what I wear – and some of the misconceptions about it – also just an introduction to what it is. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and I’ll pass back to Jane to continue with your service. Thank you.

Hymn: ‘Leave Behind Your Bags and Baggage’ by the Unitarian Music Society

Thanks to Robin for sharing his love of clerical wear with us, and also for explaining his own very particular take on how it how it enables him to connect more deeply with his purpose, and with people out and about on the streets of Hinckley, thus helping him to do ministry out in the world. As I said this is just one example of something which we Unitarians might have a reaction to – and that we might have a bit of ‘baggage’ about – but perhaps we should think again about what we’re missing if we reject it entirely. There’s a phrase I’ve picked up from a wise teacher who says with any choice we make in life we can perhaps ask ourselves ‘what does this open up and what does it close down?’ Robin has done a great job of telling us what clerical dress opens up for him. And we’ll explore a few more baggage-laden topics in the coming months and see what else we can open up.

Let’s sing again. This is not a terribly well-known one but knowing that there was a hymn with the word ‘baggage’ in the title how could I not-choose it? This is ‘Leave Behind Your Bags and Baggage’ performed by the Unitarian Music Society. Though I want to put it on record that the second line – ‘throw all caution to the air’ – is not one I entirely want to endorse while the pandemic is ongoing! As usual we’ll make sure you all stay muted so please do have a go at singing along at home.

Leave behind your bags and baggage.
Throw all caution to the air.
Let the wind blow through the cobwebs.
Cast aside all anxious care.
Let the God of all our mercies
breathe around you everywhere.

Journey onwards never doubting
God will speak a kindly word,
looking forward, always trusting
what your heart feels will be heard.
Love your sister and your brother:
kindness will not be deterred.

In the face of war and hatred
peace and justice we extol.
Share the warmth of fellow-feeling
urging us onto our goal.
With your confidence enthuse us,
God, the life in every soul.

Announcements:

Just a few brief announcements this morning: Thanks to Robin for his reflection, Abby and Jenny for our lovely music, and Jeannene for co-hosting. We’ll have virtual coffee-time after the service as usual so you can stay and chat if you’d like. If that’s not your thing, as I said at the start of the service, do get in touch via email if you’d like to say hello, or come along to some of our other events. And if you can bear to hang around we like to take a group photo after the closing music.

Our online programme continues: we have coffee morning as usual at 10.30am this Tuesday and there are still a few spaces left for our Heart and Soul spiritual gathering on the theme ‘Learning’ – even if you’ve not been before it’s never too late to start – there’s one tonight and one on Friday. The congregation very much has a life beyond Sunday mornings; we encourage you to keep in touch during the week, drop each other a line, and look out for each other as best we can. Next Sunday morning we’ll be back on Zoom, at 10.30am as usual, when our very own David Carter will be co-leading the service on ‘Feminine Images of God’, something to look forward to. And there’ll be an online gathering of the West London GreenSpirit group for Imbolc on 1st February.

And if you fancy an in-person gathering there’s a new addition to our programme, next Sunday afternoon at 1pm, Heidi Ferid and John Hands are offering ‘Music and Meditation’ at Essex Church. We’re planning another Sunday morning hybrid service on Sunday 13th February so save the date for that (and cross your fingers that the installation of the sound system goes well this week!)

We’ve just got our closing words and music now. So I invite you to select gallery view at this point, if you can, so we can all see each other and get a sense of our gathered community as we close.

Benediction: based on words by Cliff Reed

Our time of worship draws to a close.

May what we have found here
of truth and beauty, insight and challenge,
love and comfort, remain with us as we go our separate ways.

And may the blessing of this time together
light our way through the week ahead,
calling from us the strength and courage
we need, to meet the days to come. Amen.

Closing Music: ‘Humoresque’ by Dvořák – Abby Lorimier and Jenny Sturt (2.56)

Rev. Dr. Jane Blackall and Rev. Robin Hanford

23rd January 2022