The BBC Turns into CNN (briefly): Friday was the day that the long-waited renegotiated deal with the EU was supposed to come down, setting the stage for the in-out referendum rumored to take place in June. It was all supposed to be agreed upon at an “English Breakfast” in Brussels, with all the European leaders present. The BBC was there waiting to report the results. But then-Nothing. No agreement. Not even a breakfast (which eventually became brunch and then lunch and then tea and then dinner). Whether this was just stagecraft to convince the populace of the various countries that the negotiations were very tough and that no one was rolling over, we will probably never know. Cameron cleverly appeared somewhat exhausted in the photos. Anyway, there is BBC all ready to go and with no real story and not even many good rumors (and rumors that they had were incredibly dry details of changes to the wording of clauses). So for several hours, BBC turned into CNN. Lots of reporters and talking heads repetitively saying the same thing, with nothing to actually report. It had all the classic CNN elements except Wolf Blitzer. But after about two or three hours, BBC came to its senses, realized that there wasn’t going to be anything happening any time soon and reverted back to being the BBC.

Unitarian Speaking: I mentioned some time ago that I might be leading two Unitarian services. Well, it is happening. On the 28th, I am scheduled to give the message at New Unity, our regular congregation (“sermon” sounds to religious for them). Two weeks later, I will lead the service at the Lewisham Unitarian Church, which is a completely different sort of place and where I am afraid that I will be insufficiently  Christian.

At New Unity, the theme for the first quarter of the year has been Justice and I suggested that it might be good to talk about the intersection of Law and Justice and Andy basically said “Good idea. You do it.” So I’ve been drafting my message this week. It starts “I went to Law School thinking I’d be Atticus Finch”, which turns out to be pretty timely in light of the death of Harper Lee. It has been pretty hard to condense my thought in this area into a talk of only ten minutes or so. One of the things I realized as I started this process is that, while I am very well versed in American Law and process, I really know next to nothing about British law, other than both are based on Common Law. So I had to spend a day or two reading up on British legal history, how the courts are currently set up, how one appeals, how the court can strike a law down where there is no written constitution, etc., etc. I won’t bore you with this and I am certainly not going to put any of it in my message (for fear of putting everyone to sleep). But I felt like I had to have some vague idea of what I was talking about or I’d feel a bit like a fraud. The draft is about done and I’ll give it to Andy on Sunday. Once it is final and after I’ve given the message, I may decide to attach it to a later blog post.

As for Lewisham, I guess I’ll try to figure it out next week. I’m thinking of talking about how Unitarians can differentiate themselves from other Protestant congregations and the role of social action in all of that. I might make a push for Standing on the Side of Love UK. As I noted in a prior note about that congregation, it is both Christian enough that it made me a little uncomfortable and very small (and I don’t think the two things are unrelated). I have to tell a Story for Children of All Ages (even though they have no children attending), so I’m thinking of this:

Long ago, the Pope decreed that all the Jews had to convert to Catholicism or leave Italy. There was a huge outcry from the Jewish community, so the Pope offered a deal: he’d have a religious debate with the leader of the Jewish community. If the Jews won, they could stay in Italy; if the Pope won, they’d have to convert or leave.

The Jewish people met and picked an aged and wise rabbi to represent them in the debate. However, as the rabbi spoke no Italian, and the Pope spoke no Yiddish, they agreed that it would be a ‘silent’ debate.

On the chosen day the Pope and rabbi sat opposite each other. The Pope raised his hand and showed three fingers. The rabbi looked back and raised one finger.
Next, the Pope waved his finger around his head. The rabbi pointed to the ground where he sat. The Pope brought out a communion wafer and a chalice of wine.
The rabbi pulled out an apple. With that, the Pope stood up and declared himself beaten and said that the rabbi was too clever. The Jews could stay in Italy .

Later the Cardinals met with the Pope and asked him what had happened. The Pope said, “First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity. He responded by holding up a single finger to remind me there is still only one God common to both our faiths.
Then, I waved my finger around my head to show him that God was all around us. The rabbi responded by pointing to the ground to show that God was also right here with us. I pulled out the wine and host to show that through the perfect sacrifice Jesus has atoned for our sins, but the rabbi pulled out an apple to remind me of the original sin. He bested me at every move and I could not continue.”

Meanwhile, the Jewish community gathered to ask the rabbi how he’d won. “I haven’t a clue,” said the rabbi. “First, he told me that we had three days to get out of Italy, so I gave him the finger. Then he tells me that the whole country would be cleared of Jews
but I told him emphatically that we were staying right here.” “And then what?” they asked. “Who knows?” said the rabbi. “He took out his lunch, so I took out mine.”

Hopefully the ten or so parishioners at Lewisham will find this amusing, although there is a risk that they will be annoyed. Well, I am an American abroad and will probably never be back there, so I’ll take that risk.