January 7, 2018

Love is the spirit of this program. The music spans many genres but has unifying themes of justice, love, learning and hope. The messages come from podcasts, sermons and readings from Unitarian-Universalist and other allied sources in liberal religion.  The title of this program comes from the words of a beloved Unitarian-Universalist hymn, “Spirit of Life,” including, “Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion” and “Move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.”

Braver Wiser

"Stopping To Help"

Rayla Mattson

Unitarian Society of Hartford, Conn.

Sermon

“Your Time Is Now” (12/3/17)

The Rev. Stephen Kendrick

First Church Boston, Unitarian-Universalist

Message

"Torda 450"

Every week this month on “The Heart and the Hand,” we’ll be celebrating an important anniversary for the Unitarian Church and religious freedom.  It’s the 450th anniversary of the Edict of Torda. To give you some background on the Edict of Torda, it took place in Transylvania, now part of Romania, this month in 1568.  At the time, Transylvania was a European backwater that had been going back and forth between Austrian and Turkish rule for centuries.  In this particular year, it was nominally under the Turks, but very independent.  It was culturally diverse, with Hungarians, Germans, Jews, Gypsies and Muslims.  The majority Christians went through the Reformation with blazing speed.  In just 20 years, Lutherans broke off from Catholics and Calvinists broke off from Lutherans.  In this religiously fluid environment, light years from any Pope or Sultan, the Queen in 1557 issued an act of religious toleration, the first in Christian Europe.  The Act was aimed at protecting the Catholics, who had become the minority, but got its real test when there came a new king and there also came, out of the Calvinists, Unitarians.  The new king, John Sigusmund, was extraordinarily young.  His mother had been ruling for him until he was 20-years-old.  He was intellectually curious.  And so when these former Catholic, former Lutheran, former Calvinists said, “Hey, we kind of doubt the Trinity, too,” King Sigusmund said, “We should probably talk about this.”  So, the King held a series of intense debates, all over the country.  And at the end of these debates, the King said, “You know what?  You all, just learn how to get along.  Don’t hurt each other.”  And in 1568, he and his parliament re-affirmed the earlier the Act of Toleration.  This became the Edict of Torda, what we celebrate this month.  The Edict of Torda officially recognized four religions: Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist and Unitarian.  This was the first time Unitarians were officially sanctioned anywhere in world history.  Enlightened as this was, at the same time, the Edict also said, “This much and no further in matters of religion innovations.”  Well, the founder of Transylvania’s Unitarian Church, Francis David, an important figure in early Unitarianism, continued exploring religious thought and found himself guilty of the “no new religious innovations” law when he suggested that Christ should be respected, but not worshipped.  And under a new, Catholic king, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in a fortress.  The Unitarian church in Transylvania, however, is still going.  It is a remarkable story, one of hard luck people, in a hard luck land, in trying times just trying to get along.  The Unitarian-Universalist Association has produced an amazing amount of material for reading and reflection on this history and how it sustains us as leaders and partners in resistance movements today.  We are a church of continuing innovation.  The UUA also has scheduled an entire year of monthly theological dialogues on this subject.  Many of these panels will be available through the UUA’s online video conferencing system, which is very user-friendly, even for the tech-illiterate.  The first online discussion will be on January 17th at 8pm.  You can find out more about that and everything related to the UUA’s “Torda 450” celebration at Torda450.org.  I’ll be featuring readings and sermons on this topic throughout January.

Natural Silence

"Asian Meadow"

Andrew Skeotch

ListeningEarth.com

World Religions

dToday is Christmas in the Russian, Syrian, Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches.  It’s also Christmas in Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, India’s Malankara Orthodox Church and other mainly Eastern churches that use the old Julian calendar, adopted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.  There are four dates for Christmas within Christendom.

Russia is home to about 40% of the world’s Orthodox Christians.  And its Christmas celebrations are less festive and more reverent, overshadowed as they are by the more raucous and celebratory New Year’s, when children receive visits from Grandfather Frost and the Snow Maiden, holdovers from the Communist-era repression of Christmas.

Monday is the anniversary of the death, in 1642 in Tuscany, of Gaileo Galilei.  A central figure in Western Civilization’s exit from the Dark Ages, Galileo was tried and convicted of heresy by the Catholic church for his assertion of heliocentrism, the fact that the Earth revolves around the sun.  Pope John Paul II apologized for Galileo’s persecution in 1992.

Tuesday is the anniversary of the ordination, in 1977 in Augusta, Georgia, of the first Episcopal nun to be ordained to the priesthood.  The Rev. Canon Mary Michael Simpson the next year became the first woman to preach at Westminster Abbey.  Her sermon was about second-class status of women in the church.  She’s buried at a convent in Augusta.

Friday is the anniversary of the adoption, in 1951 by the United Nations, of the Genocide Convention.  The treaty was ratified by 143 nations to criminalize actions like those of the Holocaust by the Nazis during World War Two.  Its provisions have been enforced only twice, in response to the genocides in Rwanda in 1994 and Srebrenica in 1995.

Friday is the birthday, in 1863 in Calcutta, of Swami Vivekananda.  A Hindu monk and a key figure in the growth of Hinduism, including yoga, in the West, he promoted interfaith awareness with his visits to America and England.  He believed that all living beings embodied the divine such that service to God could be rendered by service to mankind.

Saturday is the anniversary of the death, in 1691 in London, of George Fox.  One of the founders of the Religious Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, Fox rebelled against British society at the time.  He believed that anyone could be a minister and that church could be anywhere.  He was jailed for blasphemy and promoting social disorder.

Sermon

"The Holy Work of Showing Up" (9/24/17)

The Rev. Elea Kemler

First Parish Church, Groton, Mass., Unitarian-Universalist

Message

"Torda 450"

Four and a half centuries is a long time for Unitarian Universalists.  Its not uncommon to view the 1980s as ‘the distant past' in our tradition, and anything that happened before the Unitarian and Universalist consolidation in 1961 as ‘ancient history.’  Our 19th century American forbears are often considered interesting or quaint. We reference their best qualities when the authority of an ancestor is helpful, or we take inspiration from courage they displayed.  But almost always it feels very far from current experience. And yet, this year we invite you to reach back further in history and across an ocean to 1568 in Eastern Europe.  The 16th Century was a laboratory for religious reform in Europe.  It centered Lutheran, Anglican and Reformed variations of Christianity in many countries and cities.  But our Unitarian & Universalist traditions find closer affinity to Radical Reformers who were unsatisfied with these reforms and pressed for further adaptation.  In Transylvania, they found traction. The reigning monarch, John Sigismund took interest in religious reform, and supported a series of theological debates during the 1560s.   Close at hand was his court physician, George Biandrata who was also a supporter of radical religious reform and familiar with the anti-trinitarian writings of Servetus and Italian theologians earlier in the century.  With Biandrata's influence, the King welcomed another radical reformer, Francis David, to be his court preacher. After a decade of theological debate and the Unitarian influence of Dávid and Biandrata, King John Sigismund’s Diet of Torda concluded its theological explorations in January 1568, issuing a Statement of Religious Tolerance which ends with this now famous paragraph: “In every place the preachers shall preach and explain the Gospel each according to his (sic) understanding of it, and if the congregation like it, well. If not, no one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied, but they shall be permitted to keep a preacher whose teaching they approve…no one shall be reviled for his (sic) religion by anyone… and it is not permitted that anyone should threaten anyone else by imprisonment... For faith is the gift of God..." There is so much that the Edict points to which our religious tradition continues to rely upon: the grounding commitment that faith is not endowed with purpose or accountable to a government or an empire, but to the Sacred, the Holy;  that a free pulpit and a free pew are necessities for free religious communities; even the stirrings of our commitment to resist authoritarianism as a religious practice is signaled in the Edict. An anniversary is a special opportunity to look back and remember foundations and commitments which can be touchstones for the struggle ahead.  The Edict of Torda is one of those reliable sources of power and inspiration.  But, there is no need to romanticize history - its clear to 21st century UUs that the Edict of Torda did not go far enough.  It was a step, an important step, on a pathway of reform and towards greater freedom that continues today.  But, it was radical in its time - David was martyred for his steadfast commitment to the work of never-ending reformation -  and an inspiration rather than a destination in our own time. Beyond these matters of faith and practice, the upcoming anniversary calls American UUs to know ourselves better by celebrating the history of the world’s first Unitarian churches.  Our international partners in Transylvania, Hungary, and around the world understand the Edict as their moment of establishment, and a basic part of their spiritual DNA.  Let us take this anniversary as a chance to understand our history more completely, to celebrate the radical reform spirit that is at the basis of the Edict, and may we translate it into lives and ministries of purpose today.

Message

"World Day of Peace"

Pope Francis

Conclusion

Seven Principles and Six Sources of Unitarian-Universalism