Louise Reeve discussed her experiences of her Experience Week at the Findhorn Community, a spiritual community near Inverness in Scotland. Organised by the Findhorn Unitarian Network, this week saw 17 Unitarians from across the UK visit this community to learn how people there live and put their spiritual beliefs into practice. Members of the church tried out aspects of these beliefs within our service, including the Findhorn practice of ‘attuning’ at the start and end of all group activities, and playing the Angel Game.

Diana Bebby and Ben MacLeod took the inspiration for their service from Dr. Peter Gray’s essay, “Play is Foundation for Religion”, which states

“I have two main points to make in this essay. The first is that all of religion has its roots in play. The cognitive skills that make religion possible are the skills of play, the most central of which is make-believe. The second point is that religion functions best when it does not stray too far from its playful origins.” (Full text here: “Play Makes Us Human part III“.)

Building on this and from Rev. Tony McNeile’s recent writings in “Stirrings 2018”, they shared their own views on what play means and how we should include it in our religious and spiritual practices. We practised what we preached, playing several rounds of ‘Play Your Cards Right’, complete with the obligatory Sir Bruce Forsyth impressions!

Louise van der Hoeven discussed how trees are vital to human health and wellbeing. With readings from ‘Between Earth and Sky’ by Nalini Nadkarni, and from William Merivale & Herman Hesse, we talked about what trees mean to us – and the benefits of hugging trees!

Maurice Large led our Spring Miscellany service, in which members of the congregation celebrated the season. We enjoyed poems and music, readings, and singing some old favourites including “Earth Awakes Again”.

Barry Thomas led our Easter service, with readings from A.C. Grayling on courage, and Roger Courtney on truth and faith. We thought about the meaning of the biblical Easter story, and the rebirth and death that is part of the cycle of life.