The results of the Hibbert Trust funded project can be found here. Interestingly for a publication which extols us to use new media there is as far as I can see no on-line forum to engage us all in the debate. For a document that is supposed to shape our future it looks suspiciously like something that is mired in our past. The last paragraph says this
However, the group has been able to offer pointers. These primarily concern communication; involvement in contemporary issues of concern, whether social, political, or global; and a spirituality that is based on active acceptance of the individual and his or her needs. Thus principles have been identified on which action can be based.
The project cost thousands of pounds and involved people giving up a lot of their time and energy and this is the result. So social action and individual spiritual need - sounds very 19th century to me. If anyone is interested in a debate I have posted this link onto the UK Unitarian Facebook group.
Time to think more creatively than this, to do real collaborative enquiry (if that's what we want to do) and to produce documents which look and feel modern and appealing to the eye.
Oh dear!
There are so many overhaning identities and forms, and what to do with them, coupled by notions of branding and the like. It is a bit of a mixture.
ReplyDeleteThanks Adrian, once we start talking about branding I start getting anxious. When I buy a can of coke, wherever I buy it, it looks the same and tastes the same - this is not true of Unitarianism.
ReplyDeleteAlso my intereaction with the can of coke won't change how it tastes. But our very presence should change the 'product'. We desperately need to start new conversations. xx