Unitarian Experience Week
For the last few years, the last week in July for my wife and I has meant a trip to Great Hucklow for Unitarian Experience Week. But this year there were doubts; numbers were down, and just weeks beforehand it seemed possible that not enough people would book to justify going ahead. But eventually enough of us booked for a scaled down UEW, although further dark clouds were on the horizon; the talk was that this would be the last one, unless anyone had any bright ideas for salvaging it! Appropriately, the week’s theme was “A Journey of Exploration”.
The week began with a service in the Chapel, led by Revd. Celia Midgley, on the theme “Holy Days and Holidays”. This was thought-provoking but enjoyable; I particularly enjoyed the story about the fisherman who was berated by a businessman for being lazy - if he worked harder and caught more fish, he would make enough money to be able to be able to devote all his time to leisure! In the afternoon came the first of three walks led by David Copley, the now traditional introductory walk across the fields to the neighbouring village of Foolow. The evening was devoted to a session led by this year’s only newcomer(!), Jennie Musson, on “The Wheel of the Year” and the much misunderstood topic of Paganism. She explained the significance of the numerous festivals throughout the year, and asked us what items we would put on our personal altars (suggestions included rocks, tools, a volume of poetry, a globe, and the ashes of a beloved cat).
There were three Theme Talks during the week. The first was by Andy Allison on “Hernan Cortes in the New World” the story of the Spanish explorer who conquered the Aztecs and captured Mexico. We then had a lively discussion about the consequences of Colonialism and Imperialism. The second talk was by Celia Midgely on the very broad theme, “Women’s Contribution to Society”; her approach was to personalize it with a slide-show of inspirational women past and present, ranging from the familiar (St. Mary, Marie Curie, Martina Navratilova, Virginia Woolf, Margaret Barr), to the not so familiar (Celia’s own mother, and several women Celia knew in Manchester). The third talk was by David Shaw on “International Unitarianism”; this was also a personal account, beginning with his boyhood fascination with “abroad” and listening to East European radio-stations, then his discovery of Unitarianism, which led him to make contact with Transylvanian Unitarians. He then spoke of the formation of the International Council of Unitarians & Universalists (of which he is the Treasurer), and his travels to such places as India and Sri Lanka on ICUU business.
The programme was scaled down this year, but a few of the other highlights included Art and Drama (with John Harley) and Dance (with Dawn Buckle). An unfortunate occurrence was that my wife had an accident on one of the walks which meant three visits to the Tideswell Surgery (where the staff were excellent).
One more thing - this was the last Unitarian Experience Week as we know it. Next year there will be something called “Unitarian Discovery Week”, which will be earlier in the year, and will not be a full week. Let’s hope it’s just as good.
Steven Williams.
written for the Newsletter of the Foy Society: www.ukunitarians.org.uk/foy/
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