Summertime grows into autumn . . . it is a time for harvesting the fruits of your experiences.”
John O’Donohue, Anam Cara
Reflection
Summer is supposed to be the “Silly Season” when nothing much happens and editors search in vain for anything to fill the column inches. But this year we have been swamped with news of tragic events: wild fires blazing in Europe and North America, an earthquake in Haiti, and of course the human tragedy of Afghanistan. In the face of all that it is hard to believe in the ultimate triumph of good, or even the Buddhist axiom “this too shall pass.” And Covid-19 is still with us. We might be forgiven for fearing that we are on course for Armageddon, and that there is very little we can do to prevent it.
Yet there are things we can do to help. There are refugees from Afghanistan who need all kinds of things, and there are agencies working in Haiti to rebuild both people and buildings, which need resources. The wild fires are a result of global warming, and we have to be willing to change our lifestyles and live more compatibly with our planet. With long experience of witnessing disasters of all kinds, we cannot turn our backs on those hardest hit and therefore most in need of care.
We too are in need of care. Many of us are suffering from “disaster fatigue,” and turn off the news because we simply can’t take any more scenes of human desperation. To retreat for a while is not to cease caring. Whether we take a holiday, or have an away-day, or just remain at home doing other things, we need to refresh our minds and spirits. We cannot help if we burn out ourselves. Recreation – or re-creation – is essential if we are to go on caring. Experience tells us so.
Kay Millard
We are all very busy with events held over from the Lockdown earlier in the year, and it is proving difficult to gather in person. So this month we will not have a meeting for Worship, but instead a Zoom Meeting on the future of the Fellowship. What do we want from it? When and how should we meet? How should we deliver Unitarianism in Bath?
Judy will send out the meeting access details, it will take place on
Tuesday 28 September at 5.30 pm
I hope you will all join in, we need to hear your views – but members and attenders only, please.
Walking Away
by C Day-Lewis
It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day –
A sunny day with leaves just turning,
The touch-lines new-ruled – since I watched you play
Your first game of football, then, like a satellite
Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away
Behind a scatter of boys. I can see
You walking away from me towards the school
With the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free
Into a wilderness, the gait of one
Who finds no path where the path should be.
That hesitant figure, eddying away
Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem,
Has something I never quite grasp to convey
About nature’s give-and-take – the small, the scorching
Ordeals which fire one’s irresolute clay.
I have had worse partings, but none that so
Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly
Saying what God alone could perfectly show –
How selfhood begins with a walking away,
And love is proved in the letting go.
(For all parents who have choked back the tears at the school gates . . .)
Words to Ponder
God does not expect you to save the world. Your mandate is limited to one single human being, which may be just yourself – or your neighbour. God never expects more from us than we are capable of doing. Each word of comfort, each act of compassion, is a small bonfire in the thundering nights. But these tiny flickering flames, the simple gestures of loving hearts, will add up and will eventually save the world. Salvation is not something that we have to wait for, but we must do something about. Because we can. Because we can, therefore we must.
Imre Gellérd (1920-1980)
Transylvanian Minister
Summer School
All five Summer School Theme Talks are now available on YouTube, and very well worth watching. Just search for Hucklow Summer School.
Prayer of an Ageing Woman
BUF NEWS ©2021
is published by the Bath Unitarian Fellowship, c/o 26 Fountain Court, Westbury BA13 3JY. Contributions to [email protected] by the 1st Sunday of the month, please.
John O’Donohue, Anam Cara
Reflection
Summer is supposed to be the “Silly Season” when nothing much happens and editors search in vain for anything to fill the column inches. But this year we have been swamped with news of tragic events: wild fires blazing in Europe and North America, an earthquake in Haiti, and of course the human tragedy of Afghanistan. In the face of all that it is hard to believe in the ultimate triumph of good, or even the Buddhist axiom “this too shall pass.” And Covid-19 is still with us. We might be forgiven for fearing that we are on course for Armageddon, and that there is very little we can do to prevent it.
Yet there are things we can do to help. There are refugees from Afghanistan who need all kinds of things, and there are agencies working in Haiti to rebuild both people and buildings, which need resources. The wild fires are a result of global warming, and we have to be willing to change our lifestyles and live more compatibly with our planet. With long experience of witnessing disasters of all kinds, we cannot turn our backs on those hardest hit and therefore most in need of care.
We too are in need of care. Many of us are suffering from “disaster fatigue,” and turn off the news because we simply can’t take any more scenes of human desperation. To retreat for a while is not to cease caring. Whether we take a holiday, or have an away-day, or just remain at home doing other things, we need to refresh our minds and spirits. We cannot help if we burn out ourselves. Recreation – or re-creation – is essential if we are to go on caring. Experience tells us so.
Kay Millard
We are all very busy with events held over from the Lockdown earlier in the year, and it is proving difficult to gather in person. So this month we will not have a meeting for Worship, but instead a Zoom Meeting on the future of the Fellowship. What do we want from it? When and how should we meet? How should we deliver Unitarianism in Bath?
Judy will send out the meeting access details, it will take place on
Tuesday 28 September at 5.30 pm
I hope you will all join in, we need to hear your views – but members and attenders only, please.
Walking Away
by C Day-Lewis
It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day –
A sunny day with leaves just turning,
The touch-lines new-ruled – since I watched you play
Your first game of football, then, like a satellite
Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away
Behind a scatter of boys. I can see
You walking away from me towards the school
With the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free
Into a wilderness, the gait of one
Who finds no path where the path should be.
That hesitant figure, eddying away
Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem,
Has something I never quite grasp to convey
About nature’s give-and-take – the small, the scorching
Ordeals which fire one’s irresolute clay.
I have had worse partings, but none that so
Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly
Saying what God alone could perfectly show –
How selfhood begins with a walking away,
And love is proved in the letting go.
(For all parents who have choked back the tears at the school gates . . .)
Words to Ponder
God does not expect you to save the world. Your mandate is limited to one single human being, which may be just yourself – or your neighbour. God never expects more from us than we are capable of doing. Each word of comfort, each act of compassion, is a small bonfire in the thundering nights. But these tiny flickering flames, the simple gestures of loving hearts, will add up and will eventually save the world. Salvation is not something that we have to wait for, but we must do something about. Because we can. Because we can, therefore we must.
Imre Gellérd (1920-1980)
Transylvanian Minister
Summer School
All five Summer School Theme Talks are now available on YouTube, and very well worth watching. Just search for Hucklow Summer School.
Prayer of an Ageing Woman
- Lord, you know better than I know myself that I am growing older and will some day be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.
- Release me from craving to straighten out everybody’s affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all, but you know, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end. Keep my mind from the recital of endless details – give me wings to come to the point.
- I ask for enough grace to listen to the tales of others’ pain. But seal my lips on my own aches and pains – they are increasing, and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. Help me to endure them with patience.
- I dare not ask for improved memory but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally it is possible that I may be mistaken.
- Keep me reasonably sweet. I do not want to be a saint – some of them are so hard to live with – but a sour old woman is one of the crowning works of the devil!
- Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places, and talents in unexpected people. And give me, Lord, the grace to tell them so.
BUF NEWS ©2021
is published by the Bath Unitarian Fellowship, c/o 26 Fountain Court, Westbury BA13 3JY. Contributions to [email protected] by the 1st Sunday of the month, please.
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