THINKING ABOUT OUR PAST AND OUR FUTURE
This year is the Diamond Anniversary of the National Unitarian Fellowship and in celebrating this occasion members have been thinking about the past sixty years and at the same time thinking about what the future might hold for the Fellowship. It is a year of taking stock, making sure we recognise those things of value for which the organisation was created, at the same time trying to ensure that we bring our own creativity to bear as we move forward in a world that is radically different to that of sixty years ago.
At an Invitation Day held at Westgate Chapel, Wakefield to celebrate the Jubilee, I was delighted to be invited to speak alongside Revd. Kenneth Ridgway, the NUF Minister from May 1984 to May 1994, and past President and Secretary Ralph Denby. Mel Prideaux led the service using material taken from NUF publications spanning the history of the Fellowship. I appreciated having the opportunity to benefit from the experience of Kenneth and Ralph and also encouraged to discover we shared an enthusiasm for a Fellowship that continues to be as relevant as ever. In September members will be ‘telling our story’ as we meet at Great Hucklow to celebrate this anniversary.
However, treasure as we do our short history, the world is now very different. Following World War II few people had a telephone and modern communication technology wasn’t even dreamt of. The world is now a much more colourful place. These changes were brought home to me when a panel of young Unitarians took part in a ‘Question Time’ addressing the theme, ‘Our Future’, as part of the NUF AGM at Chester in April. It was refreshing to see and hear the four panellists displaying a lack of uniformity in both dress and responses. All were confident and articulate demonstrating their ability to think for themselves. There was a respect for tradition whilst an acknowledgment of the creative potential of the Unitarian movement in this country today. For some congregational life was fulfilling, for others this was not the case. It was clear that the NUF can continue to play an important role, especially in its ability to build on the networking facilities provided by the Internet. Any hang-ups that older Unitarian members might have had in regarding these young people as somehow separated and defined by age was dispelled as one of the panellists told of his reluctance to be on a panel that labelled him as a ‘young adult’.
The above ‘Question Time’ taught me that older Unitarians are not ‘the past’ and younger Unitarians ‘the future’, but rather both together can be creative in an ever moving transitional present which treasures our history, assimilating and transforming it as we move together into the future. Whatever our age might be, we can all benefit from ‘thinking about our past and our future’, as we share together in celebrating the present.
The Unitarian - July 2005 - "Thought for the Month" by Joan Wilkinson