On Sunday, I took at trip to Lewisham to visit another Unitarian Church. Lewisham is a pretty big area of greater London, south of the Thames. It is where some rail lines meet and the DLR ends, so it has become a big shopping area. It is, naturally, very old, having been founded by a Jute invader at the intersection of the Quaggy (really!) and Ravensbourne rivers in the sixth century. I’m sure that for much of its existence it was a town on the outskirts of London and was gradually absorbed. It seems to be a bustling and diverse community, at least judging by my view from the bus. I decided to take the 47 bus to the Unitarian Church (rather than two trains) because I could catch it a few blocks from our flat and be dropped off a few blocks from the Church. It was 55 minute trip getting there, but it was mildly interesting going through parts of London I’d never seen (Bermondsey, Canada Water, Deptford, etc.) But on the way back, I found out that the roads between Lewisham and Canada Water were a parking lot, jammed with drivers, presumably shoppers, and the trip back was agonizing, taking nearly two-hours door-to-door. Next time I take the train.

I usually refer to Unitarian churches as congregations, but this one really was a church. It was housed in a row house, where it apparently has been for decades, and had a distinctly Christian tone. Lots of God and Jesus. I had heard that the Unitarians in Britain were generally more Christian-leaning than the UU version in most of America (with Andy at New New Unity being a notable exception). The sermon was good, I guess, but it was all about Julian of Norwich, a 14th century woman who had a vision and wrote a book. I suppose for the time, she had a relatively liberal take on Catholicism. But it was pretty straight modern Christian theology. It seemed to me to be a sermon of relentlessly standard Christian thought and without any real moderating influence that I would ahve expected. It would have been extremely hard to give that sermon in Montclair and almost impossible to give at Newington Green. I spoke to the minister after the service and she said that her church did have a more Christian and traditional religious approach and that Unitarian churches get more Christian as you move north, with Bible readings common in the northern versions. I was there to check out the congregation in anticipation of leading a service in March and I told the minister that I wasn’t sure that I could really do a Christian service. But she seemed to think it would be fine if I just talked about social justice.

It seems to me that both this Church and the English Unitarian movement are on the wrong track. They are in a country which is distinctly non-religious and skeptical about the value of organized religion. (Much of the U.S. is headed in this direction too, but it has reached the point in England where religion is simply not something that most people (especially young people) even think about.) Offering a sort of Church of England Lite (as opposed to a big tent, make your own theology, non-judgmental organization) seems like an utterly losing proposition. And, in fact the Lewisham Church had ten congregants and no obvious sign of a future. In contrast, New Unity, which stresses community and feminism and being radically welcoming (and has an acknowledged atheist as it minister) is growing so explosively that it will have to consider adding another service. It will be interesting to see how I go over in March……

A Progression Leads to a New Painting: I published a blog with a new painting about a week or two ago. It was the painting of the desert scene. I was never quite happy with it. I think it was partly that I decided to make it more geometric than representative, but didn’t end up really following through on the idea and it ended up half way in between. Then I had an idea (in bed or in the shower or one of those other places where you have ideas) that I should really reduce the scene to its simplest form and paint that. I was busy struggling with the winter painting that was in my last post, but, when that was done, I whipped off my idea very quickly. It is sort of an interesting progression. It started with this photo:

This led to the painting that I discussed in a prior posting:

And finally, I ended up with this:

I’m not sure that the color is reproduced correctly (the balls should be greener and the hills grayer), but you get the idea. I’m glad that I did it, if for no other reason than that it means that I can stop thinking about it. I could probably do a further reduction and end up with something like a Miro. But it is hard to do and I think I’d rather do something else.